Microsoft preps MOM, SMS and ADS updates for Virtual Server

In spite of a significant delay in its release, Microsoft this week will tout its forthcoming Virtual Server 2004 as a key deliverable of its Dynamic Systems Initiative and plans to enable its existing management servers to manage virtual machines.

At the Microsoft Management Summit 2004 in Las Vegas, executives will discuss plans to make available during the second half of 2004 several new offerings for virtual machine management, including the Microsoft Operations Manager 2004 Virtual Machine Management (VM) Pack as well as Systems Management Server 2003 Service Pack 1 with virtual machine support, sources say.

Additionally, Microsoft is readying to move into beta this May an Automated Deployment Services 1.5 upgrade that will ease deployment and management of multiple virtual images on a single server, sources say.

Microsoft would not comment on this story.

The MOM VM pack will, for example, provide management of all physical servers inside a virtual server, monitor events, enable views of alerts and data, and offer reporting, sources say.

The ADS 1.5 update will enable migration of a physical server to virtual server (P2V) and allow customers to capture and deploy images in virtual machines, deploy a captured image to a VM and configure it, and also deploy an ADS image to a virtual machine and then configure it, sources also said.

The P2V utility will enable smooth and automated migration of NT workloads to VMs, sources added.

Microsoft's Dynamic Systems Initiative, like Hewlett-Packard's Adaptive Infrastructure and IBM's On Demand efforts, is designed to enable automated data-centre and application management across all Windows servers in a network.
'Microsoft wants to manage virtual machines with most of their existing management technologies by treating them as physical machines,' said one source close to the company. 'As it integrates VM management into their existing server management products, they will evangelise VM management to their OEM and ISV partners.'

Virtual Server 2004, which Microsoft acquired from Connectix in February 2002, was expected to be delivered by the end of the year, but its release has slipped to the second half of the year as the company works out kinks and performs robust security reviews. The first beta was made available last month.

Microsoft is shooting to make the MOM 2004 VM Management Pack and ADS 1.5 code available in beta form this spring, but availability isn't expected until the latter half of the year.

According to a document viewed by CRN, Virtual Server 2004 is the enabling technology for migrating NT 4.0 applications from 1,000 individual servers to 50 four-way systems running Windows Server 2003.

Another source close to the Virtual Server 2004 effort said Microsoft plans to offer both 32-bit and 64-bit support for Virtual Server 2004 out of the gate and is considering the creation of a Virtual Data Centre in parallel with its Systems Centre effort.

The Systems Centre plan, aimed at integrating all of the core management products including Systems Management Server, Microsoft Operations Manager and ADS into one unified product, was originally promised in late 2004 but is now expected sometime in 2005, several sources say.