Licensing Windows Server in a Virtual Environment

re: Licensing Windows Server in a Virtual Environment

Dave — Fri, 14 Nov 2008 07:45:42 GMT

It's a shame it took 5 pages of typing to explain licensing 3 editions of the same software. Sorry, not a fan of MS licensing.

I have 2 questions:

1. Standard and Enterprise include CAL's but datacenter does not correct?

2. How does the licensing differ (if at all) for hosting providers?

re: Licensing Windows Server in a Virtual Environment

mattmcspirit — Fri, 14 Nov 2008 12:15:33 GMT

Hi Dave,

With the greatest respect, if I'd have summarised it, it would have generated more questions, hence why I've explained it with scenarios, so people can fully understand it and reuse the information as they see fit. Not everyone knows this information, so to summarise it in a few paragraphs won't give them the information they need.

No, I don't believe DC comes with CALs, unlike Enterprise and Standard which come with a few.

For hosters, you can read this document, but beware, it's longer than 5 pages...

http://blogs.technet.com/mattmcspirit/archive/2008/10/07/are-you-a-hosting-partner-running-hyper-v-thinking-about-it-read-this.aspx

Matt

re: Licensing Windows Server in a Virtual Environment

Randy — Fri, 14 Nov 2008 17:57:29 GMT

Do you have any insight into how this works with SBS 2008 Standard?

I assume that SBS 2008 Premium, or any version of EBS 2008 would work the same as above because they come with a second or third copy of Server Standard that could be used for the host O/S.

However, SBS Standard comes with just one copy of Server and MS has 'fixed' SBS so that it cannot be installed as just Server. It will cease working after a few months which keeps people from purchasing it as a cheap alternative to standalone Server. So, where would we get the host copy of Server so that we could virtualize SBS?

(Please don't suggest that we use Windows Hyper-V Server 2008, the freebee. That is not even close to being ready for primetime. Our other alternative is ESXi, which is free, but kind of a hassle to manage for small installations.)

Thanks!

re: Licensing Windows Server in a Virtual Environment

mattmcspirit — Fri, 14 Nov 2008 18:40:45 GMT

I'm not sure I understand what you mean by "SBS Standard comes with just one copy of Server and MS has 'fixed' SBS so that it cannot be installed as just Server. It will cease working after a few months which keeps people from purchasing it as a cheap alternative to standalone Server"

SBS2008 is effectively Windows Server 2008 Standard underneath, yet costs $1,089 (Retail) compared with $999 for the individual Windows Server license. The pricing is more expensive than in 2003.

Contrary to what you state, I would say that Hyper-V Server 2008 is 'ready for primetime'. It's not got the clustering feature, but we're not trying to say it has. This is why we position it as a solution for simple consolidation, VDI, staging/test/dev and branch consolidation. It scales up to 32GB RAM (and SBS2008 needs 4GB, right?), 4 vCPUs per VM, DAS/SAN storage etc. The Hyper-V bit is effectively the same, just without the clustering. If that's what you need, you'd either need to go down the Windows Server 2008 Enterprise/Datacenter, or wrap VirtualCenter and VMware HA around your ESXi deployment.

Matt

re: Licensing Windows Server in a Virtual Environment

Randy — Sat, 15 Nov 2008 07:17:33 GMT

Yes, you are correct that with 2008, SBS is slightly more expensive than plain Server. I have not tried to install SBS, quit after the first reboot before Server becomes SBS and wait to see if it fails after X number of days. Microsoft may have eliminated the timeout period.

What I meant by not ready for primetime is with our initial testing, it was quite difficult to install and set up for a simple installation with SBS and maybe one more server.

If we can install Server 2008 with the Hyper-V role as a host for SBS 2008 Standard instead of Hyper-V Server 2008 and VMM 2008 or some other mgmt tool, it would be much easier to manage at multiple client sites.

We have many clients with SBS 2003 and more and more of them are requiring multiple servers to fulfill the needs of their LOB applications, so if we can virtualize those servers and consolidate on one box, everyone wins.

Thanks for your assistance!

re: Licensing Windows Server in a Virtual Environment

mattmcspirit — Sat, 15 Nov 2008 14:29:25 GMT

Hi Randy,

Hmm – I’ve not tried it either with SBS2008 – may be worth a try, but I guess it’s not as ‘worth it’ as it once was with SBS 2003. I think everyone accepted SBS2003 was an absolute bargain for what you were getting – SBS2008 is a more realistic price for what is still a fantastic set of technologies for an SMB.

In terms of Hyper-V Server 2008, I think for a wide range of organisations, it’s a bit of a behavioural change. Whilst not a difficult ‘install’ per se, as soon as some people are presented with the blue command line, it becomes more difficult to configure. Once you’ve cracked it though, it becomes fast to deploy and easy to get going.

Don’t forget, that Hyper-V Server 2008, under the covers, has some of the Server 2008 core components, which means you can perform a network based, unattended installation (which is repeatable in the future) of it. So, take this scenario – you have the Hyper-V Server 2008 DVD, you attach an unattend.xml file with it, and deploy, and that unattend file contains all the settings you would ‘normally’ configure each time you first install the Hyper-V Server. That way, all your installations of the host box are the same from a networking, firewall ports etc perspective.

Once you’ve got that kind of environment , that will speed and ease the setup, but there are other options. One we’ve been playing with internally in my small team, is using network installations to deploy the Hyper-V Server 2008. So, you have a Windows Server 2003 SP2/2008 with Windows Deployment Services, and you’ve downloaded the Microsoft Deployment Toolkit (free, and a great tool!), and this tool enables you to build custom images for deployment over a network. So, first up, I build a custom Hyper-V Server build. The MDT provides me with the tools and process I need to construct that unattend.xml file for that build too. Once I’ve finished my ‘build’, I can deploy it, over the network, to a bare metal machine, using Windows Deployment Services as part of 2008 or 2003 SP2. So, now you have an alternative way of deploying the host machine, which is great, but what about deploying SBS 2008 into the VMs?

Well, if you chose to use Windows Server 2008 as your Deployment Server, you could also enable the Hyper-V Manager MMC, which means that once you’ve deployed those Hyper-V Server’s, you can manage them from one place. All you’d need to do to deploy SBS, is use the MDT mentioned above, pull the SBS install files etc from the SBS 2008 DVD, drop them on the deployment server, and whenever you create a new VM using the Hyper-V Manager MMC, you set the VM to network boot, and it will install the SBS 2008 OS from your deployment server. Whether you choose to unattend the installation or not is up to you – either way, you’ve got an easy and centralised (and very cheap!) way to rapidly deploy a Hyper-V Server host to bare metal, and then actual guest OS’s into the VMs!

One point to note with SBS 2003, is that it’s not yet (and I don’t know when!) supported on a hardware virtualisation platform, like Hyper-V, ESX, XenServer etc. That’s not to say it doesn’t run great – it’s just important to remember that it’s not supported yet. SBS and EBS 2008 are both supported.

Overall, does that sound useful?

Matt

re: Licensing Windows Server in a Virtual Environment

mikedatl — Thu, 20 Nov 2008 19:10:02 GMT

Great write-up of the licensing. This will be very beneficial for people wanting to understand this. One small correction.

"In previous versions of Windows Server, i.e. 2003, you could only buy Datacenter edition on hardware. There was no other channel, bar OEM, that organisations could get hold of Datacenter, so, in many cases, it would have been restricted to the larger organisations who were buying whopping hardware. That’s changed for 2008."

Actually, Windows Server 2003 Datacenter became available through normal channels in October 2006 - the same day these virtualization rights were introduced. You still get the rights with Windows Server 2003 and 2008 and can use the downgrade rights for earlier versions of the OS.

A site that I refer to often for all things MS licensing related is Emma's site: http://ladylicensing.spaces.live.com/default.aspx.

-Mike DiPetrillo

re: Licensing Windows Server in a Virtual Environment

mikedatl — Thu, 20 Nov 2008 19:10:04 GMT

Great write-up of the licensing. This will be very beneficial for people wanting to understand this. One small correction.

A site that I refer to often for all things MS licensing related is Emma's site: http://ladylicensing.spaces.live.com/default.aspx.

-Mike DiPetrillo

re: Licensing Windows Server in a Virtual Environment

mattmcspirit — Thu, 20 Nov 2008 19:55:35 GMT

Hi Mike,

Thanks for the comment! I'm a VCP and a regular reader of your blog, - nice work there!

You're dead right, and I'll update the post to reflect this.

Great point about Emma's blog too - she's a legend and I'm always calling her with specific licensing questions! It's great to have her direct dial number!

Thanks again,

Matt

re: Licensing Windows Server in a Virtual Environment

apap — Fri, 05 Dec 2008 14:30:06 GMT

Hello Mike,

We have a scenario where we have to physical servers with MS Server 2008 with Hyper-V. What we want to do is install another virtual instance on both machines - does this mean we have to dish out more money for DSP software?

Doesn't virtualization, once enabled, allow for unlimited (limited only by hardware capabilities) OS instances as long as they have their valid keys?

Thanks for your help,

re: Licensing Windows Server in a Virtual Environment

mattmcspirit — Mon, 08 Dec 2008 14:03:02 GMT

Hi Apap,

You are fine to install another instance on both machines, but it depends on your licensing. If you are using Windows Server Standard 2008 on the physical hosts, as detailed above, you can run 1 free instance on each host, but the host then has to be used to manage the VMs and nothing else. So, if you have Host A, and Virtual Machine A running on Host A, you can only use Host A to manage Virtual Machine A etc.

Virtualisation with Hyper-V, once enabled, allows for 128 running instances on 4 x 4-core CPUs (16 cores), or 192 running instances on 4 x 6-core CPUs (24 cores). Remember though, just because you can, doesn't mean you should...

Matt

re: Licensing Windows Server in a Virtual Environment

Dennis — Fri, 19 Dec 2008 12:50:36 GMT

After reading everything there is just one thing that I do not yet understand. We would like to have 2 servers: 1 Windows 2008 Enterprise server (so I can install 4 instances in a virtual environment) and 1 VMWare ESX server. As this page states

http://www.microsoft.com/windowsserver2008/en/us/licensing-faq.aspx

I can only install the virtual servers on the same box (in this case the Windows 2008 Enterprise server) and am not allowed to transfer the licenses to the VMWare server. Do I need to buy additional licenses for the VMWare server or is 1 license for Windows 2008 Enterprise enough?

So, in a nutshell, utilizing the licensing options for virtualisation can only be done when the host OS is running Windows. Assigning licenses to a VMWare ESX server is not possible. Is this correct?

Thanks,

Dennis

re: Licensing Windows Server in a Virtual Environment

mattmcspirit — Fri, 19 Dec 2008 13:27:52 GMT

Hi Dennis,

The key word here is assign. If you take Physical Server #1, you are choosing to install WS2008 Enterprise, which is great, but, at the same time, what you're actually doing, is assigning that WS2008 Enterprise license to that box, and that gives you the 4 free VMs on that physical box. Not the installation, the assigning.

So, this means that I can 'assign' (literally, paper based assigning, remember Microsoft's licensing is a trust model) a WS2008 Ent license to a physical ESX Server, and my 4 concurrent Windows Server VMs running on that ESX box are free.

To answer your question specifically, the host OS does not have to be running Windows Server - it can be running whatever virtualisation platform you want - you assign the license to the physical box, and whether you choose to use WS as the host OS too is up to you.

Hope that helps,

Matt

re: Licensing Windows Server in a Virtual Environment

Bijal — Fri, 02 Jan 2009 16:52:16 GMT

Just a clarification please, does that mean you can only assign a license on ESX (only discussing vmware) and not vmware server (previously GSX). Am I correct in saying that you actually need to install the OS, not assign a license, on the physical GSX host.

Thanks.

re: Licensing Windows Server in a Virtual Environment

mattmcspirit — Mon, 05 Jan 2009 18:17:55 GMT

Hi Bijal,

Nope - you can assign a Windows Server license to any physical server you like, regardless of the actual Operating System that's installed on the bare metal (ESX, Linux, Windows Server etc).

So, take this example, if you bought a license for Windows Server 2008 / 2003 R2 Enterprise, you could install it onto the physical kit, then install VMware Server on top of that, and then, you would also have the 4 free running instances to run in VMs on top of VMware Server.

Slightly different example - you've bought Windows Server 2008 Enterprise, or you've already got a license for Windows Server 2003 R2. You can install Linux on the physical box, then install VMware Server, then assign your Windows Server license to that Linux physical box, and again, you get your 4 free running instances.

The virtualisation layer doesn't matter, whether it's Hyper-V as part of Windows Server, whether it's Virtual Server 2005, whether it's VMware Server, ESX, XenServer and so on - you assign the Windows Server license to the physical box, and get the 4 free / unlimited VMs to run on top of that Virtualisation layer.

Hope that helps,

Matt

re: Licensing Windows Server in a Virtual Environment

Eric — Thu, 08 Jan 2009 15:12:44 GMT

After a long search about the topic, I found your article. Great write up. Helped me a lot. I just need somthing more to figure out.

I'm looking at testing Hyper-V by getting a server with Windows 2008 Standard x64 (OEM). Once I assign the license to the VM will it be a 64bit environment as well or can it be a 32 bit environment? Will it make me choose? Do I need a 32 bit media disc? Many thanks.

re: Licensing Windows Server in a Virtual Environment

mattmcspirit — Wed, 14 Jan 2009 11:17:10 GMT

Hi Eric,

There is no reason why it can't be a 32-bit environment, however you will need to download the 32-bit media. You could download the eval, or you could contact the OEM vendor and see if they will supply it. In terms of product keys, you should receive your 'virtual' keys' in the box with your physical server.

Just remember though, the eval of Windows Server 2008 RTM will run for 240 days (60 days x 4 licence-resets) so that should give you plenty of test time.

Thanks,

Matt

re: Licensing Windows Server in a Virtual Environment

Wade — Sat, 17 Jan 2009 00:30:03 GMT

Great and easy to understand article. Thanks for the effort.

re: Licensing Windows Server in a Virtual Environment

Wotcher — Mon, 19 Jan 2009 18:49:24 GMT

Thank you very much for this write up. Very useful. Oh and you have the patience of a saint. Also thanks to mikedatl for the link to Emma Healey's site. She has a very useful post (16th Jan 2009) relating to changes CALs and Virtualisation. This answered the perhaps the only area I was still unclear about after reading your article Matt.

Thanks

re: Licensing Windows Server in a Virtual Environment

mattmcspirit — Mon, 19 Jan 2009 22:01:18 GMT

Hi Wotcher,

Thanks for the comment - I really appreciate it. I know how frustrating it is to find clear licensing information, especially on Microsoft's technologies, so I've tried my best to explain it as simply and clearly as possible - so far, it looks like it's worked. I'll be working on follow-ups for our Server Management Suite, and VECD for Deskops.

You're also spot on about Emma's site - she's a legend! :-)

re: Licensing Windows Server in a Virtual Environment

Jim — Fri, 30 Jan 2009 21:10:09 GMT

two concerns:

1. let's take the 16:1 server consolidation scenario where you've said that with win2k8 enterprise, it would cost $48k, but with datacenter it would cost $18k. you've left out a variable that i would think applies to most people doing a server consolidation -- i'm already running 16 windows servers. I already own 16 windows standard licenses. I already pay SA on them. I already can move these to a new machine running someone's hyperV w/o paying a dime (as long as I don't move them back in 90 days, according to you).

2. ladylicensing says on her blog, dated Aug 19 that ms is removing the 90 day restriction on moving stuff back.

I'm interested to know your thoughts on each of these points. I admit that I might be completely in the dark, so please let me know where my thinking is wrong on the first point.

thanks so much for shedding light these confusing issues!

re: Licensing Windows Server in a Virtual Environment

Jim — Fri, 30 Jan 2009 21:33:16 GMT

I'm curious if when you say, "If it’s only a very temporary situation, i.e. you’ve moved all VMs onto physical host 2 for a short window whilst host 1 is patched, then you should be fine – Microsoft’s licensing is based on a trust model and understands the importance of temporary maintenance etc.", you are surmising, or are you stating a legal fact. I don't see anything in the EULA that says something like that. this could have drastic implications in a purchasing decsion assuming we already own the windows standard licenses for the servers we want to consolidate - see previous post.

thanks again for such an enlightening article.

Jim

re: Licensing Windows Server in a Virtual Environment

mattmcspirit — Fri, 30 Jan 2009 21:55:48 GMT

Hi Jim,

You're spot on with the first comment - you can indeed move your 16 Windows Server Standard licenses over, as long as they aren't OEM. You're also spot on about the reassignment rule - if I assign a license, I can't reassign it for another 90 days.

In Emma's (Lady Licensing) post, she's talking about Server Application Licensing, not the Server OS, so, for things like Exchange 2007 in a VM, that's fine to float around as a VM across physical nodes, with no reassignment necessary.

In terms of the temporary situation - In all honesty Jim, I was just trying to be realistic for customers, so it's not a legal statement as such, but it would be unfair of MS to make customers buy more licenses just to allow for a patch schedule.

I'll check with Emma for a better, more 'official' line, but MS would know that you aren't abusing the system on that occasion.

Thanks for reading,

Matt

re: Licensing Windows Server in a Virtual Environment

Catalin Adler — Thu, 05 Mar 2009 17:07:39 GMT

I have a win 2008 x64 datacenter edition (hosted&rented in a datacenter) with 2 x86 vm (win2008 web x86, win 2008 std x86). how do i activate theese vm's? i only have the host serial number (product key); it doesnt work on x86 systems.

re: Licensing Windows Server in a Virtual Environment

mattmcspirit — Thu, 12 Mar 2009 22:04:18 GMT

Hi Catalin,

When you buy your Windows Server license, you should get a 'physical' and a 'virtual' key, plus you should have access to both the x64 and x86 media (and keys) - have you tried to contact the distributor who supplied your licenses?

Matt

re: Licensing Windows Server in a Virtual Environment

Catalin Adler — Thu, 26 Mar 2009 20:05:00 GMT

Hi Matt,

Actually it's a hosted server. we rent it from a datacenter (the 'rent' means hardware+software). it is fully dedicated to us. i have the original product key, but it's a x64 product key.

am i to understand that the hoster should have provided mi with both keys?

Thanks,

Cata

re: Licensing Windows Server in a Virtual Environment

mattmcspirit — Fri, 24 Apr 2009 20:23:36 GMT

Hi Catalin,

The hoster would be the first place I would start asking, yes, after all, it's them that you are renting your software from, so they should be able to get you the keys (or should help you activate it based on the software being in their name!)

Matt

re: Licensing Windows Server in a Virtual Environment

jeremiah — Wed, 10 Jun 2009 20:49:44 GMT

this is one of the best blog posts I've ever read. It's a little long-winded for me, but as you pointed out, if you don't write for the lowest common denominator, you'll just end up creating more questions.

well done.

re: Licensing Windows Server in a Virtual Environment

Leon — Thu, 11 Jun 2009 00:46:11 GMT

Hi, thanks for the great explanation. I have a question regarding licensing to virtual machines' CPU counted by Datacenter edition.

You mentioned that Datacenter edition is licensed to CPUs. If I have 2 physical quad-core CPU. I only need 2 licensing of Datacenter edition.

How about the guest virtual machines? Can I assign more than 2 cores to the guest virtual machines to install Windows Server 2008 Datacenter edition?? Or I am limited to assign only "2" CPU to my guest virtual machines??

Thank you,

Leon

re: Licensing Windows Server in a Virtual Environment

mattmcspirit — Thu, 11 Jun 2009 10:06:45 GMT

Hi Leon,

Thanks for the comment. To my knowledge, Datacenter licensing is purely associated to the physical CPU, so, in your example, you would need 2 x Datacenter licenses, but each of your VMs could have 1-4 vCPUs.

Bear in mind, Hyper-V V1 supports up to 8vCPUs per Physical Core, so you have 8 cores total, so you can run up to 64vCPUs total. This isn't a hard coded limit however. That could be 64 x 1vCPU VMs, or 16 x 4vCPU VMs. Don't be lured into using multi-vCPU VMs for the sake of it though - make sure your virtualised app / service can take advantage of the multiple threads!

I'll double check with licensing to make sure I'm correct here, but I've never heard of any restriction through to the VMs. If you don't hear from me again in the comments in the next day or so, take my above information as correct.

Thanks,

Matt

re: Licensing Windows Server in a Virtual Environment

Lieve Geelen — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 18:02:54 GMT

Just to avoid any confusion on the Datacenter licensing model: Windows Server Datacenter edition is licensed under the per processor + CAL model so you need a license per processor and a Client Access License for every user (user CAL) or device (device CAL) that has access to the server. With 1 single Windows Server Standard 2008 license you are entitled to run 1 physical instance and 1 virtual instance of Windows Server Standard. This rule does not apply to version 2003 where you have to purchase a license for every physical or virtual instance.

re: Licensing Windows Server in a Virtual Environment

mattmcspirit — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 18:08:14 GMT

Correct - however you still need your CALs if you deploy Enterprise or Standard editions.

Thanks!

Matt

re: Licensing Windows Server in a Virtual Environment

Greg F — Fri, 07 Aug 2009 16:40:16 GMT

Hi Matt:

I can't thank you enough for this blog. I have to write up a positioning paper for my company on Hyper-V licensing and my head started spinning very soon after researching it. Your blog is very helpful.

I have a few questions.

1) I have two physical Hyper-V hosts, each with 2- Quad Core CPU's. At first, I plan to have 4 VM's on each host. I was going to buy one Enterprise license for each host. Do I have to buy 2 licenses for each host because I have 2 CPU's or can I just buy one Enterprise license (per host) now and then buy a second one later if I run more VM's?

2) I am also running the Windows 2008 R2 RC right now with the Clustering on both hosts. You mention that I can temporarily move VM's for patching purposes. But in the clustering environment, do I have to puchase 2 Enterprise licenses per server for failover purposes?

3) Also, I heard they were going to remove the 90 day restriction on OS's in the Windows 2008 R2 release. Is that true or just a rumor?

Thanks in advance Matt!

re: Licensing Windows Server in a Virtual Environment

mattmcspirit — Mon, 10 Aug 2009 09:43:05 GMT

Hi Greg,

OK, let's tackle these Q's:

1) Nope - Enterprise is licensed per physical box, not per CPU. So, if you had 2 CPUs, and you wanted a max of 4 free running instances at a time, you could buy 1 license of 2008 R2 Enterprise (2008 R2 is now the current version!) for each of your hosts. This would give you your desired 4 free VMs per host. If you wanted to grow higher than 4:1, you could buy another Enterprise license later, but, at 5:1 or higher on a 2 CPU box, I would consider Datacenter edition. This will give you unlimited VMs per Host, and you'd need a total of 4 (Datacenter is licensed per CPU and you have 4 CPUs across the 2 hosts).

2) Microsoft licensing is based on a trust model. If one of your physical servers failed, and you had to run 8 VMs on one host, for that time, to be compliant, you could infact reassign your Enterprise license from Node 1, to Node 2, (leaving you with no licenses on the failed Node 1, and 2 licenses on the running Node 2), and then, when you had your Node 1 fixed again, assign license #2, from Node 2, to Node 1. Again, the licensing is based on a trust model - if you had an outage of a few hours, whilst you got the Node 1 fixed, it would hardly be classed as abusing your licenses, as long as it didn't stay like that for a long period of time, in which case, you can reassign your licenses as stated above.

3) 90 day restriction still stands for the OS - they removed it for things like Exchange, SQL, SharePoint etc. As far as I know, this still stands for R2. This is why Datacenter edition makes things very easy, as you're never non-compliant!

Thanks!

Matt

re: Licensing Windows Server in a Virtual Environment

Marc — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 17:55:44 GMT

Hello

Thanks for a great article!

In a scnario where our virtual hosts are Server 2008 DC, what versions of Server 2008 can we run as "virtual clients" are we licenced to use DC eddition on the virtual hosts too?

many thanks

Marc

re: Licensing Windows Server in a Virtual Environment

mattmcspirit — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 18:06:26 GMT

Hi Marc,

Thanks for the comment. If you're hosts are licensed with 2008 Datacenter, your virtual clients can be Datacenter, Enterprise, Standard or Web, and even downgraded to previous versions like 2003.

Hope that helps!

Matt

re: Licensing Windows Server in a Virtual Environment

Tom — Sun, 22 Nov 2009 22:11:27 GMT

If I buy Enterprise Edition, and download 2008 HYPER V Server can I somehow increase the number of VMs for free and maximize my use of 2008 server VMs vs the 2003 server licenses I currently have? What is the max scenario I can get out of 2008 Server Enterprise using the assigning method? or will I somehow always be limited to 4 VMs? i don't wan't to be in any grey areas or licensing violations.

I am trying to virtualize all my phsical servers right now. I have 4 physical boxes. Each is compliant to run Virtualization. Each has enough 64 bit hardware without running into resource issues like not enough memory, hd space and cpu power. I have spent a small fortune on new hardware and new software (crm and ERP system). My budget leaves me with enough room to buy 1 Enterprise 2008 license and I have 3 windows 2003 server std Retail Box licenses and 2 windows 2003 server enterprise licenses .

Currently I have at least 9 roles on my phsical boxes Exchange server, sql server, application server, file server, sync server, e-commerce, domain controller, teminal server, backup domain controller. They are all on 2003 server OS licenses i mentioned above.

Is there a way to go all virtual without spending more than the Enterprise license? (I don't want to use 2005 virtual edition either.)

My goal is to eventually bring all servers up to windows server 2008 and have all my machines virtualized .

re: Licensing Windows Server in a Virtual Environment

mattmcspirit — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 20:22:06 GMT

Hi Tom,

Thanks for the comment.

Each Server 2008/R2 Enterprise license you assign to a piece of physical hardware, will give you the rights to run 4 instances (at any one time). Technically, there is nothing stopping you running 5, 6, 10, or 20 VMs at once, but from a licensing perspective, each Enterprise license gives you 4 running instances only.

So, if you are planning on running 4 hosts, each with Hyper-V Server 2008 R2, you could buy 1 Enterprise license for one of your hosts, and this would give you 4 Guest OS's on that host, but for the other 3 hosts, your Windows Server 2003 licenses will only give you 1 OS per licence. So, you could go 'all virtual' but to get to 2008 in the future, you'll need more than 1 2008 Enterprise license, unless you look at Datacenter Edition, which will allow you to conolidate more guest OS's on a particular host.

Hope that helps,

Matt

re: Licensing Windows Server in a Virtual Environment

Dan — Thu, 03 Dec 2009 00:00:14 GMT

Great information:

What I still don't get about Datacenter is "unlimited number of free running Windows Server guest OS’s on that host." Where do these free Guests come from? In other words do I just purchase I copy of Server 2008 std 32bit and use it for as many VMs as I want? What about activation?

Thanks. Dan

re: Licensing Windows Server in a Virtual Environment

mattmcspirit — Thu, 03 Dec 2009 21:08:23 GMT

Hi Dan,

To my knowledge, when you buy your Volume license of Datacenter Edition, you've got the rights to run unlimited guests on that host, so you build as many VMs as you like, and activate them with something like a KMS Server. You wouldn't need to purchase any other copies of Windows Server for that host - you're completely covered.

Lots of activation info here: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/dd197314.aspx

Hope that helps!

Matt