Perhaps the most useful new feature in Service Pack 1 is support for Volume Shadow Services. VSS is a component introduced in the original version of Windows Server 2003 that allows the OS to take "snapshots" of folders, files and disks at certain times throughout the day-effectively, another form of backup, although one that doesn't require shutting down a server and running and time- and processor-intensive full backup.

While other server applications have begun riding on top of VSS to provide their own instant backup abilities, Virtual Server hasn't had the support until now. VSS within Virtual Server will allow all of a host's virtual machines to be backed up simultaneously, and recovery from an error is equally simple-select a snapshot, restore it, and the process is complete.

Manageability and usability improvements

Beta 2 of Service Pack 1 makes Virtual Server as a product a little easier to administer and use. New Active Directory integration allows Virtual Server to publish its binding information in AD as a service connection point (SCP) object. This makes it easy to see any Virtual Server services residing within a given forest.

In addition, the file-based disks of virtual machines, known as virtual hard drives (or VHD), can now be mounted outside of the Virtual Server environment as regular disks, enabling files and folders to be copied to and from the virtual disks. This makes it much simpler to deploy scripts, run malware scans and archive files on virtual machines than it was with previous versions of the product.