Sorting through some of the chaos of licensing for Microsoft server products in virtual environments

Microsoft licensing has always been difficult to understand. Adding virtualization licensing that is different from standard licensing makes it even more confusing. Let’s sort through some of the chaos of licensing for Microsoft server products in a virtual environment.

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Just a few weeks ago, I had a plan to sift through the confusion of licensing Microsoft products in a virtual environment. I finished the piece and gave myself a nice pat on the back. I thought that wasn’t too bad. Now I understand your pain. Just a few days from the Virtualization Coach going live, Microsoft put out changes to their licensing. Ouch! So here is the revamped “skinny” on how to license Microsoft products in a virtual environment.

Let me start by saying that Microsoft resolved the issue with the 90-day license transfer restriction. If you are not familiar with this restriction, let me provide you with a brief summary. When you purchase a Microsoft license, it is assigned to a physical server. If you have a virtual machine and you move it to a server that does not have a Microsoft license, Microsoft considers this movement of virtual machines as a transfer of license. At this point, once the license is transferred, you can’t reassign it to another physical server/host for 90 days. This issue caused major grief if you were trying to create a highly available virtual server farm. Basically, you can begin migrating virtual machines within your server farm without incurring additional licensing costs. This policy goes into effect on September 1, 2008.

Windows Server 2008 Enterprise

If you purchase a single Windows Server 2008 Enterprise license, you can run up to five instances on a server. Furthermore, if you run four instances virtually, you can run one instance physically to manage and run the hardware virtualization. If you are running five(four licenses of Microsoft OS virtually) instances, under no circumstances may you run software on the physical (fifth instance) other than to manage and support the four virtual environments.

You also have flexibility in what OS you choose. You can choose Windows 2008 Enterprise, Standard, or the Windows 2003 Server product line. Figure A is an example taken from Microsoft’s white paper. Microsoft calls this 1 +4.

Figure A

Run up to five instances on a single license of Windows Server 2008.

Windows Server 2008 Standard

The above scenario applies for Windows Server 2008 Standard as well except that you many run a total of only two instances of Windows Server 2008: one physical instance and one virtual instance. The caveat here is that you can run only one instance of Windows Server 2008. You can run it physically or virtually with Hyper-V. If you run it virtually, you can run another instance physically but only to manage and run hardware virtualization software. Microsoft calls this 1 + 1.

Windows Server 2008 Datacenter

With this version of Windows, you can run any number of instances of the software as long as your server is licensed according to how many physical processors are in the server. You can also run any combination of operating systems, as shown in Figure B.

Figure B

Run an unlimited number of instances with Windows Server 2008 Datacenter.

Note: In all of these scenarios, you still need to purchase client access licenses.

So in a nutshell, Microsoft is revamping their virtualization strategy to make it more desirable to try Windows Server 2008 and Hyper-V. Additionally, many companies will welcome the flexibility of licensing Microsoft is offering.

Many companies will like the shift away from licenses by physical servers to a license for a server farm. Imagine moving OS software and application software throughout the farm and not incurring additional costs; it is a reality on Sept. 1 and covers 41 Microsoft applications.

Microsoft also updated its support policy for 31 server applications and third-party virtualization platforms including VMware. Virtualization licensing is a work in progress, and I will continue to keep you updated as I learn about more changes we both know are sure to come.