On July 22 Microsoft released the long awaited Windows Server 2008 R2 and Hyper-V R2. The same day anyway Microsoft also released the stand-alone version of hypervisor, called Hyper-V Server 2008 R2.
Compared to the first release, which had a subset of the features available in the Windows Server 2008 edition, this new stand-alone Hyper-V seems to match the capabilities of its Windows-embedded counterpart (this post will be updated if we’ll receive different information). And this includes the most-wanted Live Migration capability.
Instead of having something less, this version of Hyper-V R2 has something more: the capability to boot from flash.
This is a major new feature that Microsoft didn’t announce earlier and that may put Hyper-V side by side with VMware ESXi and Citrix XenServer in the OEMs pre-installation options.
Like the Windows-embedded version, Hyper-V Server 2008 R2 is free and will be released to the Microsoft partners through MSDN, TechNet and other distribution channels on August 6.