Microsoft releases Linux Integration Components for Hyper-V

After an unexpected delay, Microsoft finally released the much expected Linux Integration Component for Hyper-V.

Without them any Novell SUSE Enterprise Linux guest OS (the only supported) running on the new hypervisor wouldn’t really perform at its best.

The components included in this first package are:

  • Driver support for synthetic devices
    The Linux integration components include support for both the synthetic network controller and synthetic storage controller that have been developed specifically for Hyper-V. These components take advantage of the new high-speed bus, VMBus, which was developed for Hyper-V.
  • Hypercall adapter
    The Hypercall adapter is a thin layer of software that translates the Xen-specific virtualization function calls from a Xen-enabled Linux kernel to Microsoft Hyper-V hypercalls. This results in improved performance for the Linux virtual machine.
  • Fastpath Boot Support
    Boot devices now take advantage of the storage VSC to provide enhanced performance.

The support for the Integrated Mouse is still missing.

Download the Linux Integration Components here.