Hyper-V How To: Download Windows Server 2008 R2 RC

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The RC of the next version of Hyper-V is available to download today:

https://www.microsoft.com/windowsserver2008/en/us/R2-Download.aspx

Mind you read the caveats, er, I mean Important Release Candidate Documents

For example:

NOTE: “If you export a virtual machine that is in a saved state and then import it, the original virtual machine will lose network connectivity.

To avoid this, ensure that any virtual machine is in the Off state before you export it. After importing the virtual machine, set it to use static MAC addresses, and then reset it to use dynamic MAC addresses before you start the virtual machine. If you have snapshots in the imported virtual machine, turn off the virtual machine after you apply the snapshot, and then repeat the above steps.

If this has already occurred, turn off the newly imported virtual machine and repeat the steps above.”

And, from marketing:

“Windows Server 2008 R2 also holds the much-anticipated update to Microsoft’s virtualization technology, Hyper-V™. The new Hyper-V™ was designed to augment both existing virtual machine management as well as to address specific IT challenges, especially around server migration.

Hyper-V™ is an enabling technology for one of Windows Server 2008 R2’s marquee features, Live Migration. With Hyper-V version 1.0, Windows Server 2008 was capable of Quick Migration, which could move VMs between physical hosts with only a few seconds of down-time. Still, those few seconds were enough to cause difficulties in certain scenarios, especially those including client connections to VM-hosted servers. With Live Migration, moves between physical targets happen in milliseconds, which means migration operations become invisible to connected users.

Customers employing System Center Virtual Machine Manager for Hyper-V will also enjoy additional management and orchestration scenarios, including a new VM-oriented Performance and Resource Optimization feature and updated support for managing failover clusters.

The new Hyper-V™ also has core performance enhancements, including the previously mentioned ability to take advantage of 32 logical processors on the host and to beef up that CPU performance with host support for Second Level Translation (SLAT). Finally, VMs can also add and remove VHD disks without requiring a reboot and also boot from VHD as well.”

Aaaand:

“PowerShell 2.0 also has a deeper reach than its predecessor, with enhanced support available on both Windows 7 and the Server Core role (which previously could not run PowerShell).”