Specifications

Microsoft System Center Virtual Machine Manager 2008 R2 Reviewer’s Guide 93
Virtual Machine Manager Integration with Windows Server and
System Center
VMM takes advantage of an IT department’s existing Windows Server and System Center expertise,
minimizing the need for extensive retraining of administrators and Help Desk personnel.
Best Choice for Windows
System Center integrates with, and simplifies management of, the Microsoft systems and applications
many organizations already have in place.
Virtual Server 2005 R2 SP1 and Windows Server 2008 Hyper-V
VMM works with Microsoft Virtual Server 2005 R2 SP1 and Windows Server 2008 Hyper-V. Virtual
Server 2005 R2 SP1 is the server virtualization technology engineered for the Windows Server 2003
platform, and runs most major x86 operating systems in a guest environment. Hyper-V is Microsoft’s
new hypervisor-based virtualization platform designed for Windows Server 2008. Hyper-V runs both 32-
bit x86 and 64-bit x64 guest operating systems and provides support for up to four virtual processors
64GB of RAM per VM.
Volume Shadow Copy
The Physical-to-Virtual (P2V) conversion tool in VMM takes advantage of the Volume Shadow Copy
Service in Windows Server 2003. The Volume Shadow Copy Service can produce consistent shadow
copies by coordinating with business applications, file-system services, backup applications, fast-
recovery solutions, and storage hardware.
Active Directory
System Center utilizes the information stored in Active Directory® Domain Services to provide security
enhanced, managed access to virtual machines and physical host servers. Active Directory integration
also helps ensure seamless user experience as people move from virtual infrastructure to applications
traditionally hosted on physical machines.
Failover Clustering
VMM integrates completely with Windows Server 2008 Failover Clustering and is capable of
automatically detecting when a Windows Server 2008 host has Failover Clustering configured. It can
automatically ensure high availability configuration for discovered virtual machines.