System Center 2012 CTP for Windows Server “8” Beta support now available!!!
Published Feb 15 2019 10:52 AM 101 Views
First published on TECHNET on Mar 14, 2012

Greetings All,

We are excited to release Community Technology Preview (CTP) of System Center 2012 for Windows Server “8” Beta support. This release will allow customers evaluating System Center 2012 to jointly evaluate the Windows Server “8” Beta and provide the engineering team with feedback pertaining to both products working together. At this point we are requesting feedback on your use of Windows Server “8” Beta with the evaluation version of System Center 2012, specifically using the Data Protection Manager and Virtual Machine Manager components. Please evaluate the products and send us your feedback on the following capabilities:

This particular build of System Center 2012 is a Community Technology Preview specifically built to enable testing of using System Center 2012 to manage Windows Server 8.  It should be used only in a test lab.  You cannot upgrade other builds of System Center 2012 to this CTP build and you won’t be able to upgrade from this build to any other build of System Center.

Data Protection Manager


a. Protect VM’s on Cluster Shared Volumes 2.0.


b. Protect VM’s on remote SMB shares.


c. Protect de-dup enabled file share volume.


Virtual Machine Manager


a. Hyper-V Network Virtualization : This capability allows customers to realize software controlled isolated networks.


b. Storage of Hyper-V VM’s on SMB2.2 File shared : Windows Server “8” Beta brings dramatic benefits to customers to lower their TCO when it comes to storage. With the CTP customers can provision Windows Server “8” Beta File servers so VM’s can be deployed on clustered or standalone hosts.


c. Deploy VM’s using the new VHDX format : Customers looking to deploy VM’s with large amounts of storage (up to 64 TB) will benefit tremendously from the new VHDX format. In addition, this format also provides resilience against data protection in light of power failures and improved performance on disks with large sector disks.


d. Enhancements in Virtual Machine Live Migration : Customers can now live migrate virtual machines in a non-clustered environment and even when hosts do not share any storage.


e. Storage Migration : Customers can migrate the storage of a virtual machine while the machine is running.


Please note: This is an early preview  intended for those customers who wish to evaluate System Center 2012 and Windows Server “8” Beta together.  We would love to get your feedback, so get your copy from here and send your feedback here !

Vijay Tewari

Group Program Manager, System Center


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‎Mar 11 2019 09:09 AM
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