Virtualization Support for SharePoint Products and Technologies
On the SharePoint Team Blog this morning is an exciting announcement about support for SharePoint technologies in a virtualised environment. Most importantly is our support for 3rd party virtualisation software.
"Today we’re excited to announce support and licensing updates for Microsoft SharePoint Server 2007 SP1 and Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 SP1 running in virtual machines. This is part of a larger announcement affecting multiple Microsoft products, including Exchange Server, SQL Server and SharePoint Server.
As of today, we formally support SharePoint Server 2007 SP1 and Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 SP1 running under Hyper-V through our normal support channels. In addition, we now offer support for SharePoint Server 2007 SP1 and Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 SP1 running in 3rd party virtualization software that is certified through our Server Virtualization Validation Program (SVVP). The SVVP is an opt-in program that non-Microsoft virtualization providers can choose to participate in. A list of participating vendors is here.
We’re working on performance and deployment guidance for SharePoint Server 2007 running under Hyper-V that will be published in the next few days on Microsoft TechNet. This blog post will be updated with a link as soon as it’s published.
We have also updated our license terms to allow you to take full advantage of virtualization mobility by waiving the limitation on short-term reassignment (the 90-day license reassignment rule) for SharePoint Server 2007. Effective September 1, 2008, the new rule allows you to move your server licenses and software running instances from one physical server to another as often as you like in the following circumstance – both servers must be located within one or two datacenters within 4 time zones of each other.", SharePoint Team Blog