SAP now supports W2K8 R2 for Hyper-V Server

While the validation of SAP applications on Windows Server 2008 R2 currently still goes on, SAP has made last week an important announcment regarding the use of Windows Server 2008 R2 for Hyper-V Server purposes. It's now officially supported by SAP to use the new Hyper-V implementation in Windows Server 2008 R2 for the parent side and SAP installations in Virtual Machines (at the current time however, the VM's have to be on Windows Server 2008 or Windows Server 2003). The support statemenst of SAP can be found on SDN (https://www.sdn.sap.com/irj/sdn/windows-virtualization) or in SAP note 1409608. The advantage to use Windows Server 2008 R2 as Hyper-V Server especially for SAP applications is as follows:

  - Live Migration is available

  - Processor Compatibility enables migrations between older and newer server (different chipsets)

  - Support for more logical processors on the parent, 64 processors vs. 32 in Windows Server 2008

  - Support for Second Level Address Translation

  - Enhancements in the network configurations of VM's like Jumbo-Frames, TCP-Offload for iSCSI

  - Dynamic Add/Remove of storage in a VM

  - Performance improvements in network, storage and memory management of VM's

  - Support of Core Parking in the parent improves the energy efficiency

The capabilities of Hyper-V in Windows Server 2008 R2 makes it very attractive for SAP installations at an excellent price point. Stay tuned for one of my next blogs about the new features of System Center Virtual Machine Manager V2.

Have fun using Hyper-V V2

- Josef