Windows 7 server will be called Windows Server 2008 R2 and has a wealthy list of new features as well as the next version of Hyper-V.

first some of the new feaures in Hyper-V

Processor support has grown in Hyper-V R2, the next version will be able to support up to 32 logical processors on the host computer which is twice as many as currect 2008 Hyper-V

Hot add ans remove hardware, this will allow you to add and remove virtual hard drives and pass-through drives to a running virtual machine with the need to reboot - minimizing downtme, this requires it to run a scsi controller, you will not be able to hot add remove storage controllers. 

Live migration, this is mainly for the bigger networks but will enable you to move running virtual machines.

SLAT - Second level translation will leverage new processor features to improve performance and reduce load on Hyper-V, it will improve memory management performance and will decrease hyper-v memory usage from around 5% to 1% for the total physical memory.

Dynamic memory is another internesting new feature, you will be able to create a pool of memory that is dynamically distributed accross virutal machines, this can be controlled by setting initial ram and a minimum and maximum for each virtual machine, this should allow for greater consolidation by addressing one of the most limiting factors.

More features of 2008 R2 -

improved features of terminal services, direct access it will also include powershell 2.0

InPrivate browsing - Loads a new IE window and browsing you do doesnt go in to your browser history, if you want to buy a gift online your family wont come across it by accident.

Compatibility view - IE8 has built in compatibility view button, for sites that dont display properly on the new browser.

SmartScreen Filter - New Security features help protect you against deceptive websites.

Accelerators - These can be used to help you with all sorts of tasks, translating, emailing and mapping by right click on the page.

There is also now a favorites bar at top with a button to add pages directly to the bar, there are also some performance improvements and changes to the address bar, that now gives you better list of sites you have visited. You can try the beta for yourself and find out more information here

Got more than one computer you want your files on?

Windows Live FolderShare allows you to sync folders to all your computers, you can also use it to share files with freinds and family. It works on both the PC and Mac and can sync files up to 2GB.

All you need is a Windows live account, go here and download the software, its free.

Now this is an interesting server, as it’s completely free, installs in less than 5 minutes, configures up in about 20 seconds and does exactly what you need it to do … run Hyper-V machines. Great to see that no licence is needed to run this OS and great to see that it’s very usable.

We’ll be playing with this a bit more over the next few days, so watch this blogspace. (Yup it’s running in Parallels.)

Get hold of ietab here. Great stuff and it works perfectly too.

Pitty there’s no OS X version but it makes sense I suppose :).

What’s interesting about this is that Google have written a new operating system for their new phone. We’re all used to Windows Mobile, Symbian (what runs Nokia phones etc), OS X (what runs the iPhone) and others but Google has now written what it calls Android. They’ve taken an interesting route to getting developers to write software for it even before it is actually released. They held a competition online giving large (read $275,000.00) cash prises to the best software writers. There appears to be some really great looking software coming out, but I see no word on Exchange Active Sync yet.

More detail about Android can be found here. And there are various videos looks at the software available for it here.

Watch this space for more info shortly.

Break down of the system -

Hosted server running Windows Server 2003 x64 and Microsoft Virtual Server 2005 R2 running 3 virtual servers

1x Windows Server 2008 Terminal Server
1x Windows Server 2003 R2 running Active directory, Exchange 2003 and file server
1x Windows Server 2003 R2 Web Server

When moving to the new server hardware we needed to take all the virtual servers over from the old server, this is a great example of how well virtual servers can be great disaster recovery with the only difference being the servers would be restored from a backup.

We backup our virtual servers to another data centre every night, in this case we are actually moving the servers from the old server to the new server, being in a data centre this was very quick as the speeds of a data centre are far greater than any normal business internet.

Once we had finished setting up routing on the new host server and installing Virtual Server 2005 R2 we then mounted the virtual servers and powered them on, our entire system was then up and running.

This process took a total of 5 hours, this shows how Virtual Server can greatly reduce down time should a disaster happen or if a hardware upgrade is required, it also reduces power usage by using one powerful physical server to run multiple virtual servers.

If you would like more information on virtual servers or hosted servers please contact us, we will be happy to help.

Google Chrome Beta, Google’s new web browser is available today for download, if you have Google as your homepage you may have already seen the link to download it.

First impressions are good, it seems to load pages very fast with some nice features.  It automatically imported my bookmarks from Internet Explorer, We would suggest you have a good look at the options, you don’t get a homepage by default nor do you get a button to take you to a homepage.

Here are a few things we have found so far –

• Set the homepage and select the option for a homepage button in options under the basics tab. 
• To add a bookmark click the star that is on the left of the address bar. 
• When loading a new tab Google Chrome will show you most visited pages and browser history, although this might be helpful, if you don’t want something to show in that list – click the page icon to the right of the address bar and select ‘New incognito Window’ this will stop the pages and cookies being logged.
• To turn a Tab into a window simply drag the tab down below the address bar. 
• To search simply type what you want to search for in the address bar. 
• If you download a lot you will like the downloads page, it shows you everything you have downloaded and you can search it.
• Google Chrome has its own task manager, this allows you to close a tab that has crashed and also shows you how much memory each tab is using, to view this right click at the top of the Google Chrome window and select task manager. 

More updates as we continue to test, please remember this program is beta and install and use it at your own risk.

SBS 2008 promises to be more powerful and secure, bringing new tools to manage domain names and data folders.

• It is also bringing in new single CALs making SBS licensing more flexable and cost-effective.
• improved manageability with monotoring not only servers but client PC’s as well with customizable reports.
• SBS 2008 Premium also comes with SQL 2008 and a second Server 2008 license (SQL 2008 needs its own server to run on)
• New block-based server protection that can complete backing up your system in minutes rather than hours.
• Improved remote web workplace, intergration of new SharePoint and support for the newest Windows Mobile devices.

All sounds very good, we will be test it out and blogging about it shortly.

SQL 2008 has a list of new features including -

• Enterprise Reporting Engine - Reports can easily be delivered throughout the organization, both internally and externally, with simplified deployment and configuration.
• Internet Report Deployment - Customers and suppliers can effortlessly be reached by deploying reports over the internet.
• Report Builder Enhancements - Easily build ad-hoc and author reports wih any structure through report designer.
• Microsoft Office Intergration - SQL 2008 provides new Word rendering that enables users to consume reports directly within Microsoft Office Word. In addition, the existing Excel renderer has been greatly enhanced to accommodate the support features, like nested data regions, sub reports, as well as merged cell imporvements.