Good article from AnandTech on the new Intel 5600 series processors. Pay special close attention to the Virtualization Round Trip Latency graph and explanation. This is one of the key reasons that virtualized guests continue to improve in performance and close the gap to a physical host.
Microsoft KB article for RDP 7.0 for Windows XP SP3, Vista SP1 and Vista SP2.
Very cool virtual lab you can do online to get experience setting up Citrix XenDesktop on top of Hyper-V.
https://cmg.vlabcenter.com/default.aspx?moduleid=281742e3-2613-42da-bd58-2c3578f039b4
This has been a long standing complaint of mine when people bring up Hyper-V…memory overcommit. I have heard the arguments against this and I’d really rather be the one choosing rather than lacking a feature I think really helps reduce the cost of virtualization and help the ROI impact that server (and soon desktop) virtualization can make. Now we’ll see when this gets rolled out, which is my other complaint of Hyper-V…tying a hypervisor to a OS release schedule.
We’ve already posted some useful info on licensing servers for a virtual environment, but we also get the question a lot of how virtualization changes licensing for hosted desktop (aka VDI) environments. Well, here are some very useful links.
Virtualization brings about new use cases that did not previously exist in traditional desktop environments. These use cases include the ability to create multiple desktops dynamically, enable user access to multiple virtual machines (VMs) simultaneously, and move desktop VMs across multiple platforms, especially in load-balancing and disaster recovery situations. Microsoft designed Windows Virtual Enterprise Centralized Desktop (VECD) to enable organizations to license virtual copies of Windows client operating systems in virtual environments.
Virtual Enterprise Centralized Desktop Licensing:
http://www.microsoft.com/windows/enterprise/solutions/virtualization/licensing.aspx
More Licensing Details:
http://blogs.technet.com/virtualization/archive/2009/07/13/Microsoft_1920_s-new-VDI-licensing_3A00_-VDI-Suites.aspx
Desktop Virtualization (VDI) Info:
http://www.microsoft.com/virtualization/products/desktop/default.mspx
http://www.vmware.com/products/view/
Hope it helps!
Here are some very useful calculator links that we show many of our customers on the benefits of virtualization.
http://www.vmware.com/go/calculator = VMware TCO/ROI Calculator. Show the potential cost saving from VMware virtualization solutions and identifies the tangible CapEX and OpEX savings.
http://www.vmware.com/go/costperapp = When comparing Hypervisor products, it is best to compare “cost per application” (or VM) when using that hypervisor. Here is a calculator which shows how VMware can provide the lowest overall cost per app over other Hypervisors.
http://www.microsoft.com/Windowsserver2008/en/us/hyperv-calculators.aspx = Windows Licensing Calculator for Virtual Environments (when using Calculator #1, under “Virtualization Technology”, for VMware modify the configuration and choose 3rd-Party virtualization running on “bare metal”). This calculator will help you identifiy the Windows licensing cost savings when used in a virtual environment (when using any Hypervisor product like Hyper-V, vSphere, etc). More and more companies are using the unlimited Virtual Machines option that comes with the Windows Datacenter per CPU license which offers substantial cost savings on Windows licensing when virtualizing!
Just another step towards nirvana
