Microsoft this week started beta testing its Virtual Server, a program that enables a single server to run multiple operating systems. Microsoft has also released build 1159 of Windows Server 2003 SP1 to their beta testers this evening.
Microsoft Enters Beta Phases for Win2k3-SP1 & Virtual Server
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Eugenia Loli
Ex-programmer, ex-editor in chief at OSNews.com, now a visual artist/filmmaker.
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The Virtual Server was completly different than what I would have thought. The direction the MS is taking in more clear with this offering since the purchased VPC. I feel sure that this is what they wanted to get to. I haven’t gotten it to run BeOS just yet. My opinion is that the web interface will give admins easier ways to maintain virtual servers. The ability to promote up time can also be a justification to go virtual.
Woner if this has anything to do with the XEN project????
The customer preview site is now the beta site…
To Join the Virtual Server Customer Preview
1. Go to the BetaPlace Web site (http://www.betaplace.com).
2. Click Sign In.
3. Type your Microsoft .NET Passport sign-in information. If you do not have a .NET Passport, click the Get One Now link in the .NET Passport Sign-in dialog box.
After you have signed in, the Welcome to BetaPlace screen appears.
4. Select I have been issued a Guest ID by Microsoft.
5. In the Guest ID box, type vspreview and then click OK.
6. Follow the instructions on-screen to register for the Virtual Server Customer Preview.
Have they finally fixed the issue with Windows 2003 and A-Open CDR 4850 drives and failing to log in?
The error occurs at loggin time, if one places a CD into the drive during loggin time, the error doesn’t occur. Yes, this is a well known issue that has been raised in the A-Open discussion forum (around 5times it has been raised).
Runs BeOS just fine.
Wouldn’t running BeOS on VPC make more sense?
I tried it, its really cool product but its not as much fun for Desktop. Though i love its programmable interface. You can do everything in Virtual Server using DCOM that you could do from its UI. So you can write programms in C/C#/VB SCript/JSCript to control your virtual server remotely. This really helps in automation scenarios and makes it far more convenient to use for remote administration etc.
I would say it rocks as a server product.
I agree that the supected offical use for virtual server is not to run BeOS. But I can say that the virtual server ran Max better than VPC2004 in my opinion. The interface was designed to remote control many virtual servers and not so much for a user interface. The ability to nearly instantly restore a machine or number of machines to running is one of the real uses along with the many business and technical applications that run on older OS’s. I was still impressed with it’s setup and speed. I didn’t have any actual test measurements.