Hyper-V BETA (not CTP) is now available.

In the UK we take the Mickey Bliss out of the Americans for saying they are super-excited. For once I'm super-excited myself , in another Window I'm watching the build of Server 2008 WITH BETA HYPER V download from an internal server. The news is out. The following is straight from the press release

REDMOND, Wash. — Dec. 13, 2007 — Microsoft Corp. this morning delivered a holiday surprise for customers and partners, unveiling a public beta for its hypervisor-based server virtualization technology called Hyper-V, a feature with some versions of Windows Server 2008. Customers and partners today can download Windows Server 2008 RC1 Enterprise with the beta version of Hyper-V to evaluate the new technology, test applications and plan future consolidation, business continuity and high-availability projects. The beta was previously expected to be ready in the first quarter of 2008 with the release to manufacturing (RTM) of Windows Server 2008. The beta is available for download at https://www.microsoft.com/ws08eval .  

However at the time of writing, the original RC-1 build is the only one linked to at the WS08Eval URL. 6001.17051 is the original RC-1 with the CTP.  The build with the Beta will be 6001.171xx.  There is a separate link from that page to the new build, which is 6001.17119

 

Mike Neil, the GM for virtualization has posted a lot more detail to the Windows Server Team blog in the last few minutes.  He's also announced a web cast next week which should be well worth attending, and has been clear about which OSes have integration components today, and that there are more to come (exact OS revisions still to be decided) . When it comes to what is happening with System Center Virtual Machine Manager, Mike plays a very straight bat, and leaves it to that team to announce what their plans are. When they have news I guess it will appear on on their blog.

 

Technorati tags: Microsoft, Windows, Server 2008, Virtualization, Viridian, Hyper-V, Beta