Product Support Updated in Virtual Environments

New guidelines and programs expand the product support Microsoft will offer for its server applications on virtual machines (VMs). Expanded support helps customers who want to deploy hardware virtualization, which enables multiple OS installations to share the same server hardware by running in a VM. However, to get support, organizations might need to upgrade to the latest Microsoft OSs, virtualization software, and server applications, and some server software, such as the Communications Server, is not supported in any VM. Furthermore, support in some cases may be limited to “Microsoft investigating potential issues with Microsoft software running together with non-Microsoft hardware virtualization software.”

Hardware Virtualization Complicates Support

Hardware virtualization expands the mix of hardware and software supporting business applications and services, which could make problems more difficult to troubleshoot. Virtualization also complicates setup and configuration. Hardware virtualization software has its own requirements: for example, Microsoft’s Hyper-V hypervisor requires processors with hardware virtualization support. Hardware virtualization often requires the use of specific versions of OS and server application software, including the installation of specific service packs or other fixes. Installation of those prerequisites may trigger the need to update other components, such as device drivers for the OS.