Software Microsoft supportato in ambiente virtuale

Nell’articolo Microsoft server software and supported virtualization environments è possibile trovare un elenco dei software Microsoft supportati in ambiente virtuale. Dove per ambiente virtuale si intende:

• Windows Server 2008 with Hyper-V
• Microsoft Hyper-V Server 2008
• Supported partners’ virtualization software (al momento Novell, Inc.)
• Server Virtualization Validation Program (SVVP) a cui al momento hanno aderito:
  • Cisco Systems, Inc.
  • Citrix Systems, Inc.
  • Novell, Inc.
  • Sun Microsystems
  • Unisys Corp.
  • Virtual Iron Software
  • VMware, Inc.

Inoltre viene precisato che non tutte le applicazioni sono adatte ad essere eseguite in ambiente virtuale, come ad esempio quelle che richiedono specifici requisiti hardware (come ad esempio l’accesso fisico a schede PCI) in quanto in genere le macchine virtuali non hanno accesso all’hardware fisico sottostante.

In particolare si noti che per quanto riguarda le seguenti applicazioni:

• Exchange: è supportato Microsoft Exchange Server 2007 Service Pack 1 e successivi a queste condizioni:
  • The hardware virtualization software is Windows Server 2008 with Hyper-V technology, Microsoft Hyper-V Server, or any third-party hypervisor that has been validated under the Windows Server Virtualization Validation Program.
  • The Exchange Server guest virtual machine:
    • Is running Microsoft Exchange Server 2007 with Service Pack 1 (SP1) or later.
    • Is deployed on the Windows Server 2008 operating system.
    • Does not have the Unified Messaging server role installed. All Exchange 2007 server roles, except for the Unified Messaging role, are supported in a virtualization environment.
  • The storage used by the Exchange Server guest machine can be virtual storage of a fixed size (for example, fixed virtual hard drives (VHDs) in a Hyper-V environment), SCSI pass-through storage, or Internet SCSI (iSCSI) storage. Pass-through storage is storage that is configured at the host level and dedicated to one guest machine.
    Note: 
    In a Hyper-V environment, each fixed VHD must be less than 2,040 gigabytes (GB). For supported third-party hypervisors, check with the manufacturer to see if any disk size limitations exist. 
    • Virtual disks that dynamically expand are not supported by Exchange.
    • Virtual disks that use differencing or delta mechanisms (such as Hyper-V’s differencing VHDs or snapshots) are not supported.
  • No other server-based applications, other than management software (for example, antivirus software, backup software, virtual machine management software, etc.) can be deployed on the physical root machine. The root machine should be dedicated to running guest virtual machines.
  • Microsoft does not support combining Exchange clustering solutions (namely, cluster continuous replication (CCR) and single copy clusters (SCC)) with hypervisor-based availability or migration solutions (for example, Hyper-V’s quick migration). Both CCR and SCC are supported in hardware virtualization environments provided that the virtualization environment does not employ clustered virtualization servers.
  • Some hypervisors include features for taking snapshots of virtual machines. Virtual machine snapshots capture the state of a virtual machine while it is running. This feature enables you to take multiple snapshots of a virtual machine and then revert the virtual machine to any of the previous states by applying a snapshot to the virtual machine. However, virtual machine snapshots are not application-aware, and using them can have unintended and unexpected consequences for a server application that maintains state data, such as Exchange Server. As a result, making virtual machine snapshots of an Exchange guest virtual machine is not supported.
  • Many hardware virtualization products allow you to specify the number of virtual processors that should be allocated to each guest virtual machine. The virtual processors located in the guest virtual machine share a fixed number of logical processors in the physical system. Exchange supports a virtual processor-to-logical processor ratio no greater than 2:1. For example, a dual processor system using quad core processors contains a total of 8 logical processors in the host system. On a system with this configuration, do not allocate more than a total of 16 virtual processors to all guest virtual machines combined.
• Microsoft Forefront Security for Exchange (FSE): il supporto dovrebbe essere disponibile nel terzo trimestre del 2008.
• Dynamics NAV: è supportato Microsoft Dynamics NAV 2009 e successivi.
• ISA Server: è supportato.
• SharePoint Server e Windows SharePoint Services: è supportato Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 Service Pack 1 e successivi e Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 Service Pack 1 e successivi.
• Microsoft Forefront Security for SharePoint (FSP): il supporto dovrebbe essere disponibile nel terzo trimestre del 2008.
• Microsoft Forefront Client Security: è supportato.
• Microsoft SQL Server: è supportato Microsoft SQL Server 2008 e successivi a queste condizioni (per quanto riguarda SQL Server 2005 si veda questo post):
  • SQL Server 2008 is supported in virtual machine environments running on the Hyper-V role in Windows Server 2008 Standard, Enterprise and Data Center editions. The virtual machine must run an operating system supported for the specific SQL Server 2008 edition.
  • In addition to resources required by the parent partition, each virtual machine (child partition) must be provided with sufficient processor resources, memory, and disk resources for its SQL Server 2008 instance.
  • Within the Hyper-V role on Windows Server 2008, a maximum of four virtual processors can be allocated to virtual machines running Windows Server 2008 32-bit or 64-bit editions. A maximum of 2 virtual processors can be allocated to virtual computers that are running Windows Server 2003 32-bit editions. For virtual computer that host other operating systems, a maximum of one virtual processor can be allocated to virtual computers.
  • Notes:
    • It is recommended that SQL Server 2008 be shut down before shutting down or the virtual machine.
    • Guest failover clustering (configuring failover clustering in SQL Server 2008) is not supported in a Hyper-V environment.
  • Ulteriori informazioni al seguente Support policy for Microsoft SQL Server products that are running on a virtual machine in a Windows Server 2008 Hyper-V environment.
• Windows Server Update Services (WSUS):  è supportato Microsoft Windows Server Update Services 3.1 e successivi.

Per quanto riguarda Virtual Server si vedano:

• Microsoft Virtual Server support policy
• Windows Server System software not supported within a Microsoft Virtual Server environment
• Windows SharePoint Services and SharePoint Portal Server 2003 do not support Virtual PC and Virtual Server for production environments
• Windows SharePoint Services e SharePoint Portal Server 2003 non sono supportati in VPC e VS

Le policy Microsoft di supporto dei propri prodotti in esecuzione su stack di virtualizzazione non-Microsoft sono definite nel seguente Support policy for Microsoft software running in non-Microsoft hardware virtualization software di cui riporto un breve estratto:

“…per i fornitori con cui Microsoft ha stabilito relazioni di supporto relativamente alle soluzioni di virtualizzazione o per i fornitori che dispongono di soluzioni SVVP (Server Virtualization Validation Program) convalidate, Microsoft si impegna a fornire supporto per i sistemi operativi di server soggetti alla politica Microsoft Support Lifecycle, per i clienti che dispongono di contratti di supporto e se il sistema operativo esegue un software di virtualizzazione dell’hardware non Microsoft. Il supporto prevede una collaborazione con il fornitore per la determinazione dei problemi di supporto. Nell’ambito dell’analisi, Microsoft potrebbe richiedere di nuovo la riproduzione del problema indipendentemente dal software di virtualizzazione dell’hardware non Microsoft. Se verrà dimostrato che i problemi non riguardano il software di virtualizzazione dell’hardware non Microsoft, Microsoft fornirà il supporto per il proprio prodotto software coerentemente con il supporto fornito per il software eseguito indipendentemente dal software di virtualizzazione non Microsoft.”