HYPER-V NOW SUPPORTS RHEL 6.x/CENTOS 6.x

We are pleased to announce the release of the new Linux 3.1 Integration Services and support for the following Linux distributions as supported guests within Hyper-V:

  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6.x (x86 & x64)
    • Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6.0 (x86 & x64)
    • Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6.1 (x86 & x64)
  • CentOS Linux 6.x (x86 & x64)
    • FYI, CentOS has only released 6.0 presently

The new Linux ISs are available here:

https://www.microsoft.com/download/en/details.aspx?id=26837

The following features are included in the Linux 3.1 Integration Services release:

  • Driver support for synthetic devices: Linux Integration Services supports the network controller and the IDE and SCSI storage controller developed for Hyper-V.
  • Fastpath Boot Support for Hyper-V: Boot devices take advantage of the block Virtualization Service Client (VSC) to provide enhanced performance.
  • Timesync: The clock inside the virtual machine will remain synchronized with the clock on the virtualization server and utilize the pluggable time source device.
  • Integrated Shutdown: Virtual machines running Linux can be shut down from either Hyper-V Manager or System Center Virtual Machine Manager using the Shut Down command.
  • Symmetric Multi-Processing (SMP) Support: Supported Linux distributions can use up to 4 virtual processors (VP) per virtual machine.
  • Heartbeat: Allows the virtualization server to detect whether the guest is running and responsive.
  • Key Value Pair Exchange (KVP): Information about the running Linux virtual machine can be obtained by using the Key Value Pair exchange functionality on the virtualization server.