Windows Server 2008 R2 SP1 Beta: Review

The beta release of Microsoft Windows Server 2008 R2 Service Pack 1 introduces new ways to manage virtual machine memory, graphics and peripheral devices that add new dimensions to the usefulness of Hyper-V. While these advances step up Microsoft’s challenge in the virtual server and desktop arena, the preview offered in the beta release reveals that the first service pack release for the most current Microsoft server operating system is still catching up with already established benchmarks for enterprise-class virtualisation.

These features, including Dynamic Memory, RemoteFX and improvements to USB redirection, will require IT manager attention as plans are made for server and remote desktop implementations over the next several years. IT managers who are considering data centre virtualisation projects should put the Windows Server 2008 R2 service pack beta on their immediate evaluation shortlist. The beta is stable enough for use in a test environment. My tests at eWEEK Labs showed that the fundamental implementation changes warrant enterprise users allotting significant test and strategic planning resources for an in-depth look at the SP1 beta.

The SP1 beta became available in July and is offered as a no-charge download from Microsoft.

Testing

I tested the SP1 beta on what can best be described as a professional design system because a sufficiently powerful graphics card is not part of our standard server test bed. In this case, I used a white box system outfitted with an AMD Phenom II 1055T processor with 12GB of RAM and an ATI FirePro V8800 graphics card. This system, and all the virtual server instances that I created in my test environment, were running Windows Server 2008 R2 SP1 beta version 178.

It’s clear that with SP1, Microsoft is signaling that the server hardware of tomorrow will need to be equipped very differently from how it is today if certain workloads, including those that vary significantly in memory usage or desktop graphics support, are destined for the data centre. I needed to wrestle up DisplayPort–capable monitors (in my case using a DisplayPort to DVI adapter) and lots of fast RAM to support my tests, none of which are yet common fixtures in the eWEEK Labs’ equipment locker.

Enterprises that are accustomed to buying server hardware with only minimal graphics capabilities will need to become much more savvy in the ins and outs of specifying high-end graphics cards for data centre servers that are destined to host sophisticated virtual desktop implementations. This is on top of the growing RAM requirements of dense virtual environments.

Memories

The SP1 beta includes Microsoft’s answer to VMware’s memory management system. In Windows Server 2008 R2 SP1 this feature is called Dynamic Memory. I used the Dynamic Memory feature to balance the memory automatically between my VMs based on preset limits. As with most management systems, Dynamic Memory uses policy set in a period of calm to determine how scarce resources (in this case RAM) will be divvied up in times of tumult and contention.

When I created my VMs, I specified several RAM memory parameters including Startup, Maximum, Buffer and Priority. These parameters make sense in that they specify the minimum amount of RAM needed to start a system, the maximum I would ever want it to consume, a buffer measured as a percentage and the priority of this workload in the overall scheme of business operations.

In my tests, the VMs performed as expected. When I beefed up operations on a high priority VM, the other VMs were starved in order to keep my priority system running at top performance. When RAM requirements on my priority system fell, this resource was reallocated among the other VMs on the test system. During the beta cycle I’ll be looking into claims made by both Microsoft and VMware as to the best way to implement memory management systems, a feature that VMware has had for some time.