Microsoft has made the programming interface for its
Viridian
virtualisation technology available to third-party software
developers.
Its decision should improve compatibility between virtualisation
products running on the forthcoming
Windows 2008 server operating system.
On his Microsoft blog, Jeff Woolsey from Microsoft's
virtualisation team, said, "Microsoft will extend the Open
Specification Promise to the hypercall application programmer's
interface [API] within Windows Server virtualisation [codename
Viridian]."
An updated draft of the hypercall (API) is now available on
Microsoft's website.
This interface provides the specification for the virtualisation
technology being built into Windows Server 2008. These APIs are
available for use by any organisation seeking to integrate or
extend their software with Windows Server 2008 and Windows Server
virtualisation, Woolsey said.
Novell has said it will ship virtualisation products using the
Microsoft API. What this means is that Windows Server 2008 will be
able to run as a guest operating system on the
Xen hypervisor virtualisation software, which ships with its
SuSE Enterprise Server 10 Linux product. "Microsoft's decision to
put the hypercall API under their Open Specifications Promise will
make it even easier for Novell, our customers and partners, and the
entire open source community to develop high-quality virtualisation
that deliver true interoperability between Windows and Linux,"
Roger Levy, senior vice-president and general manager.
Simon Crosby, chief technology officer of the Virtualisation and
Management Division of Citrix, said access to Microsoft's
technology will ensure that virtual machines created on
Citrix's XenServer product will be compatible with the
virtualisation component of Windows Server 2008.
Windows Server virtualisation is scheduled to be available
within 180 days of Windows Server shipping, which is expected
February next year.