Best of Q&A from the IT Manager Webcast: IT Manager Community Chat with Kevin – Virtualization
A BIG THANK YOU to my guest, Shanen Boettcher, for such a wonderful conversation around Virtualization and the value that businesses can gain through it.
And THANK YOU to all of the people who attended the session LIVE! You asked some fantastic questions. That’s what these chats are all about!
Also - Here the RESOURCES I pulled together for this webcast.
I hope you find these useful!
Kevin
Questions and Answers
“When you look at a small business environment of 5 - 10 users running SBS2008 and Office 2007 can you technically run Office 2007 as a virtual application and does it cost more money than just running it on the 5 - 10 desktops?”
Short answer: Yes, but not by much.
Longer answer: Shanen did a good job answering this one during the chat; talking about how of course you’re not saving money on the license of Office. Whether running installed on the native OS or running as an App-V hosted application, you’ve still purchased a copy of Office. However, App-V requires SA and the MDOP, which add a small amount per-desktop. You’ll find that it’s far less-per-desktop than other similar stand-alone solutions out there.
“When will Microsoft support USB ports in VM's? (The main reason why some of our developers do not use Microsoft Virtualization for development and testing)”
Short answer: Not soon enough. (chuckle)
Longer answer: There is finally some limited USB device support (things such as USB connected storage) in the new version of Virtual PC that is coming along with Windows 7; particularly for the sake of XP-Mode hosted applications running on Windows 7.
There is also limited USB support in Remote Desktop (whether using the old “Terminal Services” kind of session, or a true VDI desktop connection). Those sessions can work with some plug-and-play devices that are on your client.
But as for true USB support of, say, a virtual machine running under Hyper-V; no, it’s not there. Not yet.
Believe me.. The day we do provide that will be the day that I start running my production workstation purely as a virtual machine from within a Windows Server.
(Of course.. we do have the ability to boot and run a .VHD (boot from VHD) on physical hardware.. so maybe I’ll just start doing that. THERE you get TRUE full-physical-machine access to your hardware, because the OS is just running on the hardware. It just happens to be running from within a .VHD file.)
“Windows 7 is the same code base as Windows Server 2008 R2 why not offer APP-V virtualization on the desktop as an option an phase out Virtual PC?”
Short answer: Because App-V isn’t related to Virtual PC. They solve two different problems.
Longer answer: This question required a very long answer, actually. Both Shanen and I talked about the difference between XP Mode and MED-V, and how the two both depend on Virtual PC as their foundation.
“For development and testing purposes, simulation of networks and testing distributed applications, would you recommend using Hyper-V within a Server, or a standalone Microsoft Hyper-V server? Is there a big difference whether we choose one or the other?”
As far as virtualization, no. It’s the same Hyper-V from the perspective of the machines you’re running virtually.
Running Hyper-V as the role installed into (actually under) Windows Server 2008 R2 is nice from the perspective of local administration. You can administer the machine directly, in addition to remotely.
Hyper-V Server pretty much requires you to manage it remotely. It’s not something you would manage from the console.
Another option you have (that you didn’t ask about) would be kind of a middle-ground – where you install Windows Server 2008 as a Server Core installation, and add the Hyper-V role to that. That’s a nice, lean, high performing platform as well, and it has the benefit of being able to host some additional roles as well (not just Hyper-V), if you want to. (So.. Hyper-V server is JUST Hyper-V. It’s not also able to be an Active Directory Services Domain Controller or DHCP server or DNS server.)
“How are we doing in the exchange server 2010 w.r.t virtualization? Would we be able to use the UC facility which is not the case with Exchange 2007?”
Short Answer: Nope.
Longer answer: Sorry we didn’t have the answer for you during the chat. Further investigation shows that, similar to Exchange 2007, most of Exchange 2010 will be supported under certain kinds of virtualization, running on certain platforms – but not the Unified Messaging role. That one still needs to be installed on a physical box. I have to assume it’s because there is a connection to hardware that needs to be there.
For the full details, see this web page: https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa996719(EXCHG.140).aspx