Microsoft Announcing Virtualization Solution Accelerators for Upcoming Windows Server 2008 Launch
What are Virtualization Solution Accelerators?
Today, Microsoft is announcing the upcoming release of several Virtualization Solution Accelerators aimed at helping IT professionals and consultants accelerate adoption and deployment of Microsoft virtualization technologies including Windows Server 2008 Hyper-V, Virtual Server 2005 R2, Terminal Services, Microsoft Application Virtualization (formerly SoftGrid), System Center Virtual Machine Manager and more.
Target to be released next month as part of the Windows Server 2008 Launch, the Virtualization Solution Accelerators – a collection of automated tools and technical guidance - will offer automated assessment and deployment as well as planning and design guidance to securely deploy various virtualization technologies. The Microsoft Solution Accelerators team has been developing similar free resources for previous product launches including:
· Business Desktop Deployment, Windows Vista Hardware Assessment, Windows Vista Security Guide, Windows Vista Service Lifecycle Management
Accelerate Every Stage of Your Virtualization IT Project
From the ASSESS phase, to the subsequent phases (PLAN, SECURE, DEPLOY, and OPERATE), our team has been developing several accelerators to assist our customers in every stage of their Virtualization IT lifecycle including:
· Microsoft Assessment and Planning (MAP)
o Microsoft Assessment and Planning (MAP) Solution Accelerator is an integrated tool that makes it easier for IT professionals and consultants to conduct network-wide readiness assessments for migration to Microsoft technologies from servers, to desktops and applications. With the help of its agent-less inventory, performance data gathering, and auto-generated proposal and report generation capabilities, Microsoft customers and partners can now more quickly and efficiently determine the right candidates for Windows Server 2008, Windows Server 2008 Hyper-V, Windows Vista and more. This tool is the expanded version of the Windows Vista Hardware Assessment tool.
o Download the MAP tool here: https://www.microsoft.com/MAP
· Infrastructure Planning and Design (IPD)
o The Infrastructure Planning and Design guides describe the architectural considerations and streamline the design processes for planning and implementing Microsoft infrastructure technologies. Each guide addresses a unique infrastructure technology or scenario including server virtualization, application virtualization, terminal services implementation and more.
o Get IPD guides such as Selecting the Right Virtualization Technology, SoftGrid Application Virtualization Guide, Windows Server Virtualization Guide here: https://www.microsoft.com/IPD
· Windows Server 2008 Security Guide
o The Windows Server 2008 Security Guide provides IT professionals with best practices and automated tools to help strengthen the security of servers running Windows Server 2008. The guide also provides prescriptive guidance for hardening Terminal Services on servers running Windows Server 2008. Based on extensive experience from customers, government agencies, and Microsoft Corp. security experts, this guide describes how customers can choose from two pre-configured security baselines. Customers can easily tailor the configuration they choose, modifying any security setting to accommodate the unique needs of their organization.
o Download Windows Server 2008 Security Guide here: https://www.microsoft.com/WSSG
· Microsoft Deployment
o Microsoft Deployment decreases the time and cost of client and server deployments through unifying the tools and processes into a common console and collection of guidance. Microsoft Deployment supports the deployment of Windows Vista, Windows XP, Windows Server 2003, Windows Server 2008, the 2007 Microsoft Office system and other applications. It also facilitates the deployment of the virtualization role on Windows Server 2008. For fully automated Zero Touch deployments, System Center Configuration Manager is used as the common console for Microsoft Deployment. For organizations without a management infrastructure, Microsoft Deployment provides a Microsoft Management Console snap-in as the common console to manage manually initiated Lite Touch deployments.
o Download Microsoft Deployment here: https://www.microsoft.com/deployment
An Example: How to Identify Server Virtualization Candidates using Microsoft Assessment and Planning
· To use the MAP tool to determine if your physical servers can be consolidated using Windows Server Virtualization technologies, you need to follow the procedures below:
o STEP 1: Capture performance metrics of your selected target of physical servers across your network (if you do not have a list of servers, you may use the Windows Server 2008 hardware assessment of this tool to create a server network inventory first)
o STEP 2: Prepare a server consolidation recommendation report using MAP’s virtualization placement routine
o STEP 3: View the reports and proposals
o STEP 4: Go back to STEP 2 and reiterate if you want to change the physical host model in which the workloads will be virtualized.
For more blog posts about today's Virtualization Summit, you may visit these blog posts:
· https://blogs.technet.com/stbnewsbytes/
· https://blogs.technet.com/virtualization/
Please check back often for more feature deep-dives.
Thank you,
Baldwin Ng - Virtualization Solution Accelerators
Comments
Anonymous
January 01, 2003
Hello all, In case you haven't heard, the Windows Server 2008 and Windows Vista SP1 have been releasedAnonymous
January 01, 2003
The guys over at the Microsoft Assessment and Planning Team (MAP) Blog have a great post today regardingAnonymous
January 01, 2003
I will keep harping on about this tool as the more I use it in projects and work activities the moreAnonymous
January 01, 2003
Microsoft Corp. today articulated an expanded role for virtualization as a key enabler of its DynamicAnonymous
January 01, 2003
Introducing Microsoft Assessment and Planning 3.0 For those of you who are considering the migrationAnonymous
January 01, 2003
http://www.microsoft.com/MAP Microsoft has announced a Solution Accelerator for Virtualization in advance