Red Hat said that its customers will now be able to deploy fully supported virtualisation environments that combine Microsoft Windows Server and Red Hat Enterprise Linux. The companies have completed testing and validation for mutual customers using server virtualisation.
In February 2009, Red Hat and Microsoft announced agreements to validate and support the companies’ corresponding virtualisation and operating system platforms. The agreements have enabled the delivery of expanded virtualisation interoperability through the cross-certification of Red Hat Enterprise Linux and Microsoft Windows Server.
According to Red Hat, customers can now deploy tested and supported heterogeneous, virtualised Red Hat and Microsoft (KVM) hypervisor, with Windows Server 2003, 2008 and Windows Server 2008 R2 guests; and certification of Windows Server 2008 Hyper-V, Microsoft Hyper-V Server 2008, Windows Server 2008 R2 Hyper-V and Microsoft Hyper-V Server 2008 R2 host with Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5.2, 5.3 and 5.4 guests.
Steve Brasen, principle analyst at Enterprise Management Associates, said: IT administrators supporting heterogeneous infrastructures certainly understand the pain of having to deal with multiple independent technical support organisations.
With this announcement, Red Hat and Microsoft are ensuring their customers can resolve any issues related to Microsoft Windows on Red Hat Enterprise Virtualisation, and Red Hat Enterprise Linux operating on Microsoft Hyper-V, regardless of whether the problem is related to the operating system or the virtualisation implementation.
In addition, Microsoft products certified on Windows Server and Red Hat products certified on Red Hat Enterprise Linux are also supported in these heterogeneous virtualised environments, providing customers with deployment choice and flexibility, Red Hat said.
Mike Evans, vice president of corporate development at Red Hat, said: We are happy to offer our customers added choice and interoperability in virtualisation – the ability to deploy mixed virtualisation environments with Red Hat and Microsoft platforms – with coordinated support by both companies.
Red Hat customers have the flexibility to run their applications in environments that span from bare-metal servers, to virtualized servers, to public clouds – and this additional support will broaden their deployment choices even further.
