Impending MS license changes!

[DMcCoy]

At last!

Microsoft slackens VM licensing rules | The Register

[Ric_]

That really is good to hear.

[dhicks]

At last!

Curses, we've just spent £600 making sure we have two servers covered for Windows Server Enterprise...

"Businesses are taking steps to make their IT operations more dynamic and are delving into virtualization as a cornerstone strategy..."

I.e. "Crap! Self-contained Linux-based VMs can be easily distributed without worrying about licensing, we'd better sort something out sharpish or half our revenue will disappear in 5 years time..."

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David Hicks

[DMcCoy]

I think it's more to do with the fact that hyper-v is starting to be slightly useful.

[PEO]

let me get this straight, I can Install server 2003 on microsoft vm and not have to purchase a licence?

[DMcCoy]

let me get this straight, I can Install server 2003 on microsoft vm and not have to purchase a licence?

No, you will not have to purchase ANOTHER license to move applicable applications to another host within 90/180 days.

If you migrate machines between multiple hosts, under the current licenses you *could* need as many licenses as you have servers that may run it despite only running one copy at any one time.

So for my blades I would need 6 copies of Exchange, but that would only cover one running instance.

EDIT: For anyone reading this in the future - Does NOT apply to Windows server OS

[dhicks]

If you migrate machines between multiple hosts, under the current licenses you *could* need as many licenses as you have servers that may run it despite only running one copy at any one time.

Yep, this is our exact problem - we wanted two or three Windows servers running under Xen on one physical server, mirrored across to another physical server in case of hardware failure. We had to make sure we had two-or-three licenses for each physical server (we wound up getting Enterprise for both), despite the fact that the second physical server wouldn't actually be running the VMs most of the time.

Do these license changes mean I can now have 4 copies of Windows Server running on each machine, or if one machines conks out I can have 8 copies all running on one machine? Do the license changes apply to copies of Server bought before the license changed, do you think?

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David Hicks

[DMcCoy]

Oh dear. Glad I went with datacenter!

This is accomplished by allowing customers to reassign licenses freely across servers within a server farm. The changes apply to software licenses for certain server applications and all external connector (EC) licenses. In these cases, the limitation on short-term (90 days or less) license reassignment is waived. This change does not apply to software licenses for the Windows Server® operating system, Client Access Licenses (CALs), or Management Licenses (MLs). This change applies only to licenses acquired under a Volume Licensing program. It does not apply to licenses acquired through other retail sources.

[dhicks]

Glad I went with datacenter! <snip> This change does not apply to software licenses for the Windows Server® operating system

Oh well, not really a problem - we're still licensed to run 4 Windows VMs on one machine and mirror them on another one. It's not like I wanted many copies of Windows running on my network anyway :-)

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David Hicks