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Ignite: What's New in Windows Server Hyper-V

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Yesterday's info-packed session on Hyper-V featured Microsoft PPM Lead Ben Armstrong. His friendly, laid-back style helped the audience absorb a tremendous amount of information in not much more than an hour. (Hand-doodled graphics by Sarah Cooley, Hyper-V Program Manager, helped seal the deal.)

They were both on stage in Chicago to tell us about all the goodies we're getting from Hyper-V in the just-released Windows Server Technical Preview 2. Many of these features will also be in Windows 10!

Whenever we think about the cloud, we also have to think about security. When it comes to Hyper-V, Armstrong let us know, our data can be secure. He demonstrated a virtual trusted platform module (vTPM) and Linux Secure Boot, which lets hardware confirm that the Linux kernel is uncompromised on boot. He also discussed shielded virtual machines (VMs), which are highly secure solutions for those who need an added layer of protection.

Isolation is a big factor in virtualization. The storage quality-of-service (QoS) demo showed us how easy it can be to set up policies for capping resource use.

When nodes can’t see each other or their storage, it can be catastrophic—and it happens all the time. Fortunately, Hyper-V has built-in features designed to keep these frequent lapses from causing serious problems. Armstrong's storage resiliency demo showed us that processes will automatically pause during a storage outage and then resume when it’s over. Cluster resiliency is similar—when cluster visibility problems arise, processes pause. Nodes with recurring problems can also be quarantined automatically.

Users of Hyper-V Replica will be happy to know they can quickly change their virtual disks to be replicated—or not—for greater flexibility and reliability.

The new rolling cluster upgrade means you can easily upgrade 2012 R2 Hyper-V clusters with no new hardware, no downtime, and a safe rollback, if needed. Now all upgrades are triggered by admins – in effect, IT has full control so there don’t have to be any surprises.

There was plenty more packed into the session, but the bottom line is that Hyper-V is now better than ever for virtualizing mission-critical workloads. And there's still more going on at Ignite! Check out these demos and much more—including live content while the conference is still in session.