Virtualization with Virtual Server 2005 R2: Webcast (08-14-2007)

Thank you for attending the webcast! I hope you enjoyed and getting a look at Microsoft virtualization technologies. We had some great questions and without any more delay here they are and some additional resources:

Replay of the webcast:
Virtualization with Virtual Server 2005 R2

Virtualization tips (a bit dated, but still some good advice):

Question: Will Viridian be implemented within Virtual Server 2008 at some point?
Answer: I do not know if Virtual Server will get the viridian components.

Question: Any plans for network management (load balancing)?
Answer: Yes, in fact you can even do that today. Remember just treat the virtual server like any other server on the network, and we can have the same functionality (in most cases) that our applications allow us to do. As for really good monitoring take a look here for more information: https://www.microsoft.com/technet/prodtechnol/virtualserver/2005/proddocs/vs_operate_using_perfTune_perfmon.mspx?mfr=true

Question: Which virtual platform should I use?
Answer: I recommend going with Virtual Server 2005 R2 SP1, that is the most current and it is a supported platform for placing virtual servers into production. However, if you are looking to just test and play with servers, than Virtual PC 2007 is a good choice as well. You can download Virtual Server 2005 R2 SP1 here: https://www.microsoft.com/technet/prodtechnol/eval/virtualserver/default.mspx

Question: Is it possible to increase a large website's availability by running multiple IIS VM servers on the same physical server?
Answer: Yes it is very much possible but bear in mind there are several other factors, bandwidth, usage, workload…etc that go into improving the availability of a website.

Question: Will VPC or Virtual server use multi processors?
Answer: Not as of right now for the virtual machines, and I do not know if those products will ever get that support. Just keep in mind that you can run Virtual Server on servers with multiple processors. Virtual Server 2005, Standard Edition can run on servers with a maximum of four processors. Virtual Server 2005, Enterprise Edition can run on servers with more than four processors. The maximum number of processors for Virtual Server 2005, Enterprise Edition is determined by the host operating system. However, each virtual machine runs as a single processor computer regardless of how many processors are on the physical computer. You can configure more virtual machines than there are host processors.

Question: If you installed VS 2005 R2, then want to go to VS 2005 R2 SP1, do I have to uninstall the VS 2005 R2 first?
Answer: You should be able to upgrade without having to reinstall without any issue.