» VIEW ALL POSTS Oct 26 2010   7:33PM GMT

Hyper-V R2 Service Pack 1 Release Candidate is out

Posted by: Colin Steele
Colin Steele, Microsoft Hyper-V

Hyper-V’s long-awaited Dynamic Memory feature is one step closer to general availability.

Microsoft made the Hyper-V R2 Service Pack 1 Release Candidate available today as part of the Windows Server 2008 R2 Service Pack 1 Release Candidate. The big deal with this release is Dynamic Memory, which is Microsoft’s answer to VMware’s memory overcommit feature.

In a bit of great timing by Microsoft, today was the day we published the final installment of Hyper-V expert Greg Shields’ series on Dynamic Memory. Part 1 covers how virtual memory allocation works, Part 2 covers the best practices for virtual memory settings, and Part 3 explains how to monitor virtual memory. Check it out as you play around with the Hyper-V R2 Service Pack 1 Release Candidate.

Dynamic Memory won’t likely give Microsoft a big boost in its battle with VMware, because VMware has offered memory overcommit for a while now. But at least VMware won’t be able to say, “We have it and they don’t!” anymore.

The Windows Server 2008 R2 SP1 RC also includes RemoteFX, which is designed to improve the performance of multimedia and graphics-intensive applications on virtual desktops. In addition, Microsoft made the Windows 7 Service Pack 1 Release Candidate available today.

Microsoft says the service packs will all hit GA in the first quarter of 2011.