Windows 8 Server More Virtual Processors and Unlimited VM Replication

Detail on the upcoming Windows 8 client and Windows Server 8 operating systems are scarce at best, especially considering only the official information coming directly from Microsoft.

Jeff Woolsey, the Principal Program Manager Lead for Windows Server Virtualization shared some additional info this week around the hypervisor technology (Hyper-V) in Windows Server 8, and also recalled the first demo of Windows Server 2008 R2’s successor. 

Essentially, along with the commitment that Windows Server 8 will support more RAM than ever before, Woolsey is also stressing that Hyper-V will play nice with an increased number of virtual processors and will allow for unlimited virtual machine replication. 

“We are keenly aware that our customers want more virtual processors within a virtual machine to support large scale up workloads and the new version goes above and beyond in addressing that need. I demoed a 16-virtual-processor virtual machine under heavy load,” he stated. 

“I pointed out that 16 virtual processors is not the maximum number of virtual processors. It was simply the largest server I was able to ship for the demo. As for support for more virtual processors, I’ll just say, “Stay Tuned” for some good news.”

Hyper-V Replica is a new feature which Microsoft included into Windows Server 8. According to Woolsey, Hyper-V Replica comes to do nothing else but to democratize virtual machine replication. 

“Hyper-V Replica is asynchronous, application consistent, virtual machine replication. Hyper-V Replica lets you replicate a virtual machine from one location to another, using Hyper-V and a network connection. Hyper-V Replica works with virtually any vendor’s server hardware, networking and storage products. In addition, we will provide unlimited VM replication in the box,” he added. 

And it appears that the software giant is not kidding in the least, especially when I comes down to the “unlimited” part of unlimited VM replication. 

Customers running Windows Server 8 Hyper-V will be able to replicate virtual machines as much as they want with no limit imposed on the amount they can copy. 

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