Virtual Server 2005 R2 Evaluation is now available online for immediate download

Interested in evaluating Virtual Server 2005 R2?

Here are some of the new key features:

  • Virtual Server host clustering. Support for host-to-host connectivity lets you cluster all virtual machines running on a host.
  • x64 support. Virtual Server runs natively within a 64-bit Windows host operating system, providing increased performance and memory headroom.
  • Enhanced PXE booting. PXE boot support has been added to the virtual machine network adapter. This means that when the appropriate network infrastructure is in place, you can perform a network installation of a guest operating system in the same way as physical servers.
  • Other improvements. Virtual Server now includes improved hyperthreading, support for F6 Disk (SCSI driver), and virtual disk pre-compactor functionality.
  • Performance improvements.

Please note that there are two downloads, one to run on x64 (64-bit) editions of Windows and one to run on x86 (32-bit) editions of Windows.

Virtual Server 2005 R2 (x64) Enterprise Edition 180 Day Evaluation
https://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=44E55F58-993C-4D59-8143-87F9C656A1A1&displaylang=en

Virtual Server 2005 R2 (x86) Enterprise Edition 180 Day Evaluation
https://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=803FF21D-0C62-453D-8696-7894BB549CBD&displaylang=en

UPDATE the links above don't work any longer, use this instead which will ask you to register for the eval download

A few key whitepapers:

Virtual Server 2005 R2 Host Clustering Whitepaper
https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=55644

Improving IT Efficiency at Microsoft with Virtual Server
https://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=25DCB14A-03F5-434D-83F7-4D46C1675B87&displaylang=en