virtual application server

virtualization technology enables customers to run multiple operating systems concurrently on a single physical server, where each of the operating systems runs as a self-contained computer.

There are many situations out there where users have a legacy application they want to move natively to Windows Server 2003 or plan to end-life that application that is running on old hardware.

So if you want to upgrade that hardware to run Windows Server you can put a Virtual Server on it and run that legacy application on a legacy machine and have the flexibility to upgrade on your own schedule.

Usage Scenarios for Virtual Server is designed for running enterprise server operating systems and applications.

Some primary scenarios for using Virtual Server include the following:

You can use Virtual Server in situations that require rapid and frequent server reconfiguration. For example, you can use it for development and testing, product demonstrations, or training.

You can create a library of virtual machines in different server configurations without needing to dedicate a physical computer to each configuration.

You can then easily deploy your virtual machines from this library with a few mouse clicks. You can also set up the virtual machines to use undo disks so that changes can be discarded, or you can use differencing disks to create a variety of configurations from one base disk.

This is useful in situations where you must test software or certain software configurations before you actually deploy them.

You might use this approach to test the effect of a software update before deploying it to your organization.

In addition, you can quickly create virtual networks that simulate physical networks. You can then test real-world scenarios in your virtual network.

Many companies have departmental and branch office servers that are underutilized.

This is often because different departmental or branch office applications were written for different operating systems or different versions of the same operating system.

To reduce the number of physical servers you must maintain, you can migrate these applications and operating systems into virtual machines running under Virtual Server on a single physical server.

Many companies have server applications that require an older operating system, such as Microsoft Windows NT® Server 4.0.

To upgrade to a newer, more resilient system would require rewriting the applications.

But this can be very costly. A more manageable and cost-effective approach would be to move older operating systems and server applications into virtual machines running under Virtual Server and a Microsoft Windows Server 2003 operating system.

Both virtual pc and virtual server use the same file types for configuration and resource files.
For example, virtual machine configuration files are .vmc files, virtual hard disk files are .vhd files, and saved state files are .vsv files.

This common file architecture allows virtual machines (within certain limitations) to be shared between Virtual PC and Virtual Server.

Both virtual pc and virtual server allow networking between virtual machines and physical machines. With Virtual Server, however, you can also create and configure virtual networks.

Virtual machine control options.

Options for controlling virtual machines, such as starting, stopping, shutting down, and saving state are the same for virtual pc and virtual server.

disk features.

Undo and differencing disks are available in both Virtual PC and Virtual Server.

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