Microsoft Revamps Virtual Manager

Microsoft has released a second beta version of Microsoft System Center Virtual Machine Manager (VMM), in a move it hopes will start getting users to reconsider rival VMware.

System Center, you'll recall, is the suite of management tools aimed at Microsoft servers. The first offering, Microsoft System Center Operations Manager 2007, debuted in March, along with a companion tool called System Center Configuration Manager 2007, now in its own second beta test cycle. (See Microsoft Grows Its Grand Plan.)

The System Center family also includes a Capacity Planning tool, a Data Protection Manager, and other packages in varying stages of beta test or availability.

All these products will be kept up-to-date with Longhorn, the next Windows Server operating system, which is also in beta and is aimed for launch later this year.

VMM is set for release to manufacturing (RTM) this fall, in roughly the same timeframe as the Configuration Manager. As with the rest of the tools, including the Operations Manager, pricing hasn't been set.Besides a new interface that matches those of other System Center wares, Microsoft has equipped its latest beta version of VMM with the ability to track the health of virtual machines along with the physical server within Operations Manager.

"We make it so you can manage physical and virtual machines from the same console," says David Greschler, director of strategic virtualization at Microsoft. "We could always tell you if the virtual machine is up and running, but now we can leverage Operations Manager within Virtual Machine Manager."

VMM is just one step Microsoft has taken to up the ante against VMware. Longhorn will have embedded virtualization capabilities. And Microsoft plans to add a hypervisor for virtual machines in 2008. Code-named Veridian, that product will give Microsoft the means to compete with VMware's ESX -- something it can't do today.

Veridian's beta test has been delayed, Greschler acknowledges, though it's still on track for availability next year.

Meanwhile, Microsoft is still taking stabs at VMware, which in turn has plenty to say to Redmond. (See VMware Eyes Enterprise, Microsoft and VMware Slams Microsoft .) Besides offering physical-to-virtual machine conversion, the latest beta version of VMM provides a virtual-to-virtual conversion, which gives users the means to convert VMware virtual machines into Microsoft's "analogous VM vhd/vm representation."So who would make that conversion, really? At least one user sees the line drawn in the sand. Rodney Orange, supervisor of the Wintel server engineering team at Carnival Cruise Lines, says he plans to look at VMM, but he realizes the time may be nigh for making a choice between VMware and Microsoft. "We have to take a look at both technologies and decide whether we want to take a full Microsoft-type deal or go with someone else."

Today's release won't help users like Orange make a final decision. But it could help them take another step either way.

Mary Jander, Site Editor, Byte and Switch