Linux Integration Services version 2.1 goes RTM

For those who may not have seen this on the Microsoft Virtualization blog, the Hyper-V Linux Integration Services for Linux Version 2.1 just went RTM! This is great news for customers using virtualization in a heterogeneous data center environment. Hyper-V has supported Linux as a guest OS for a long time, and this new release really enhances that support at a granular level. You can look for the following new features in the 2.1 release:

• Driver support for synthetic devices: Linux Integration Services supports the synthetic network controller and the synthetic storage controller that were developed specifically for Hyper-V.
• Fastpath Boot Support for Hyper-V: Boot devices take advantage of the block Virtualization Service Client (VSC) to provide enhanced performance.
• Timesync: The clock inside the virtual machine will remain synchronized with the clock on the host.
• Integrated Shutdown: Virtual machines running Linux can be gracefully shut down from either Hyper-V Manager or System Center Virtual Machine Manager.
• Symmetric Multi-Processing (SMP) Support: Supported Linux distributions can use up to 4 virtual processors (VP) per virtual machine.
• Heartbeat: Allows the host to detect whether the guest is running and responsive.
• Pluggable Time Source: A pluggable clock source module is included to provide a more accurate time source to the guest.

Also, please note that this version supports Novell SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 10 SP3, SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 11, and Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5.2 / 5.3 / 5.4 / 5.5. Head on over to the download page to give it a try.