Following the announcement Novell customers will now be able to receive cooperative support from both companies, as Novell’s membership extends 18-month technical collaboration around virtualisation of Windows on SUSE Linux Enterprise. Novell is currently running the tests required by the validation process in the Server Virtualisation Validation Program, and expects the tests to be completed by August 2008.

The Server Virtualisation Validation Program, is a new programme to enable vendors to validate the combination of Windows Server 2008 as a virtual machine guest running on third party server virtualisation solutions.  Under the program, vendors will self-test and validate certain technical requirements of their server virtualisation software running Windows Server 2008 as a guest operating system.

As part of its extensive interoperability agreement with Microsoft, Novell holds a unique position as SUSE Linux Enterprise is currently the only Xen hypervisor on which Microsoft will provide full support today for Windows Server 2008 and Windows Server 2003 running as a virtual guest. Microsoft's Server Virtualisation Validation Program is designed to provide customers with additional peace of mind.

Customers with validated solutions will benefit from the support provided by Microsoft as a part of the regular Windows Server technical support framework.