Which version of HYPER-V should I use?

Normally when you have top many options in the same products it makes too much confusing. Sometime this is given for you to make your life easier but still there are chances it can burden you when you don’t have proper instructions and guidance. Same story goes in HYPER-V as well. Microsoft offer HYPER-V in several editions and knowing which version to purchase or get free depend on what are you going to do with it. Apart from that I wanted to highlight the new command available in HYPER-V configuration in server core edition. “sconfig.cmd” is a graphical command available in the server core to configure server. This is updated with new sets of commands which make HYPER-V managing administrator’s life easier.
Now without further due let me introduce one of the charts available in the Microsoft web site which explains which edition to choose.



Apart from server consolidation some of the other areas where you can use HYPER-V are,

* Test and Development
* Server Consolidation
* Branch Office Consolidation
* Hosted Desktop Virtualization (VDI)

Microsoft free HYPER Visor is good option for testing and R&D. If you are planning to consolidate more than 4 servers in one physical server then moving to Data center version will do huge cost saving to you. More information of these licensing and how to maximize your investment on this HYPER-V can be get on Tech.Ed 2010. Look forward to see ya in there.

Windows 2008 Components Posters

Ever wonder it would be easy if you can know all the Windows 2008 features in one sheet so at a glance you can look at it and get the big picture. Well that wait is over for me since I found out Microsoft has a solution for this, giant poster!

Previously published in the TechNet Magazine, these are two PDFs of Windows 2008: Operating System components and Active Directory components. The posters explain how they work and detail capabilities. They are great resources to have up on your office wall.

The Feature Components poster highlights the following components of the Windows Server 2008 operating system:

Terminal Services
Network Access Protection
IIS 7.0
Server Manager
Server Backup
Server Core
BitLocker
Windows Server Virtualization

The Active Directory Poster highlights the following components of Active Directory in Win2008

AD Lightweight Directory Services
AD Federation Services
AD Rights Management Services
Group Policy
AD Management
AD Read-Only Domain Controllers

Many thanks go to MS team who has been taking considerable time to prepare these posters. You can get them by visiting over here.