VHD and Hyper-V APIs Enable Creative New Solutions

Although VHD files are closely associated with virtualization products like Hyper-V, the VHD file format is actually a stand-alone technology useful beyond just virtualization solution scenarios.   With Windows Server 2008 R2 and Windows 7, VHD files attain "volume" status thus enabling scenarios such as "mount a VHD drive", "boot to a VHD", or "create static, dynamic, or child VHDs".   Developers may also integrate such VHD usage scenarios within their applications using new VHD API's.   

Hyper-V exposes WMI APIs to create, manage, monitor, and configure virtual resources.  The Hyper-V WMI APIs can be used in a variety of ways such as:

· By management software vendors who write tools to manage virtualization environments.

· By enterprise developers who may seek to integrate heterogeneous virtualization technologies within line-of-business solutions.

· By developers who want to automate virtualization in test/dev environments through scripts or custom utilities.

Learn more about developing integrated solutions using VHD and Hyper-V technologies.