VMware's free server virtualization platform (the old GSX Server product back in the day for you old timers) is getting close to a final release of its new 2.0 version as it now reaches release candidate 1 stage.
New features added in this release include:
- Volume Shadow Copy Service (VSS): Properly backup the state of the Windows virtual machines when using the snapshot feature to maintain data integrity of the applications running inside the virtual machine.
- Virtual Machine Communication Interface (VMCI): Support for fast and efficient communication between a virtual machine and the host operating system and between two or more virtual machines on the same host.
- Support for SCSI pass-through (generic) devices: Allows for SCSI devices such as tape backup devices to be connected to virtual machines.
- Expand disk capacity on the fly: Allows for adding new SCSI hard disks and controllers to a running virtual machine.
- Firefox 3 as a supported browser for the management interface.
- Remote Client Devices: Access devices such as CD-ROMs that are not physically connected to the host via VMware Remote Console
Find out more information or download the product.