Microsoft Hyper-V release candidate now available

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Microsoft has made available a complete release candidate version of Hyper-V, its hypervisor-based virtualisation software.

The beta software has previously been available in versions of Windows Server 2008, but this updated "near-final" code is now downloadable for all at the Microsoft site.

The release candidate has an expanded list of tested guest operating systems, including Windows Server 2003 service pack two (SP2), Novell SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 10, Windows Vista SP1 and Windows XP SP3. It also supports more languages and is more stable than the beta, Microsoft has said.

The final version will be available in August of this year.

"As customers begin deploying Windows Server 2008, we want to ensure they have the tools to optimize their IT infrastructure. Hyper-V will help customers consolidate IT systems and allow their businesses to respond more rapidly to ever-changing market conditions," said Bill Hilf, general manager of the Windows Server Division at Microsoft in a statement.

"Virtualisation has been too complicated and expensive for most organizations, which is why less than 10 per cent of servers are virtualised today. Our goal is to make Hyper-V broadly available, easy to adopt and cost-effective while delivering powerful systems management capabilities for customers' traditional and virtualised IT environments," Hilf added.

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