As part of the Hyper-V test and development process, Microsoft has an extensive test and validation process that includes Microsoft IT, Technology Adoption Program (TAP) and Rapid Deployment Program (RDP) customers. These are all PRODUCTION environments where customers deployed Hyper-V, starting with the beta six months ago, and have since moved to the Hyper-V Release Candidate.
Across these programs customers have deployed thousands of Hyper-V virtual machines running:
Windows Server 2003/2008 roles including:
- File, Print, AD, RODC, IIS/Web, Terminal Services, Application Servers, RMS, DHCP, DNS, WSS and more.
- The only Windows Server role that will not work within a Hyper-V virtual machine is the Fax Server role because the Fax Server role requires access to a physical modem(s) and Hyper-V does not provide access to physical COM ports. (Hyper-V virtual machines supports up to 2 virtualized COM ports that can be used to communicate with a physical server, local or remote, via a serial named pipe.)
Microsoft Server Products including:
- SQL 2005/Katmai, Exchange, HPC, ISA, Sharepoint, Project Server, VSTS, etc.
- System Center: Configuration Manager, Operations Manager, Reporting Manager, Data Protection Manager, Virtual Machine Manager
- The only Microsoft Server product that will not work with Hyper-V is the Office Communications Server because it requires access to a physical PCI card which isn’t available within a virtual machine.
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