windows 2003 licenses

[verschijning]

Hi,

My supplier told me that it is not possible to run more than 4 windows 2003 standard edition servers on 1 ESX machine.

Can anybody confirm this (or deny) and tell me what licenses I have to use when I want to install more then 4 windows 2003 servers?

Thanks

[Sarek]

If you have Windows 2003 SR2[/b] you can install 4 service with one license.

Sarek

[verschijning]

The question is not if I can use 1 license.

The question is how many w2k3 standard editions can I install on 1 ESX

[LiamGP · Accepted solution]

I'm sure there is a limit, but you can pretty much install as much Virtual Machines as you like. Your going to run out of ESX Server resources quicker than your going to hit the configuration maximum!

[verschijning]

So you're running more than four win2k3 standard licenses on 1 machine?

[LiamGP]

Yeah, we have more than 4.

Why do they say you cannot run more than 4 per server?

[verschijning]

Probable to sell me more licences and hardware

[Sarek]

You can run more than 4 servers of W2k3 standard on 1 ESX server. Thats no problem. But if you are talking about license in the old physical way you had one server installed which cost one windows 2003 license. When W2k3 SR was released Microsoft announced that you could install 4 W2k3 servers and only pay for 1 license of Windows. So for example if you have bought 10x W2k3 SR 2 license you could install 40 w2k3 virtual servers with these license keys without paying any more.

Sarek

[paulo_meireles]

So you're running more than four win2k3 standard licenses on 1 machine?

Just for the record, we have physical servers running around [b]50[/b][/u] Windows Server 2003 VMs... :smileygrin:

[verschijning]

and all are standard edition? (and not enterprise)

[verschijning]

This is what I ment (and i think my supplier as wel....)

[Asher_N]

You can run as many 2003 Standard VMs as your hardware will support. 2003 R2 allows you 4 VMs per license, but I'd check if ESX VMs are allowed, as opposed to a physical system running R2, and 4 additional MS Virtual Server on that system. MS licensing is still a nightmare.

[paulo_meireles]

and all are standard edition? (and not enterprise)

Yes, they're all Standard. Your supplier may be confusing the number of CPUs that can be used by a Windows Server 2003 Standard machine, which happens to be four. See more here.[/url]

So, there's a limit on the number of CPUs per (virtual) machine, but no word about machines (or virtual CPUs) per physical CPU. There are also limits imposed by VMware, like "no more than 128 vCPUs per physical server" or "no more than 8 vCPUs per core". I'm exceeding this last one actually, and sky hasn't fallen. You can see the limits here[/url].

Paulo

[robbie800]

Here is a summary

Windows Server 2003 R2 Standard -- No additional licenses for VM. The host OS requires a license and each VM requires its own OS license.

Windows Server 2003 R2 Enterprise -- One license can be applied to a host system and up to four additional VMs on that host.

Windows Server 2003 R2 Datacenter -- One license can be applied to an unlimited number of VMs on the host. Licensing is per server processor (not core).

The third question from the bottom talks about using VMWare as a host.

http://www.microsoft.com/licensing/highlights/virtualization/faq.mspx

[verschijning]

tnx

[gogogo5]

We have just been through this decision making process. In the end we purchased the Datacentre Edition which, as posted above, allows us to install an unlimited number of VMs. We have 2 x dual core Xeons in our Proliants so its 2 x cost of Datacentre license per ESX host. This makes it very cost effective as your VM base grows. And you are allowed to install Standard, Enterprise or Datacentre as the base OS in VM.

[Tr0llk1ng]

Sorry to reopen this thread, but a microsoft employee told me that this change in the licensing strategy just says that you're allowed to use this "virtual" licenses to install VMs as long as the base for the virtualisation is a microsoft based operating system. This means you can use this virtual licenses to install VMs on VMware Server but not on ESX. as long as you use ESX (or XEN,..) you have to pay the full price for each VM Operating License...

Does anybody really "know" something about this claim?

BG Christoph

[gogogo5]

Pulled from Microsoft's web site:

http://www.microsoft.com/technet/windowsserver/evaluate/datacenter.mspx

Unlimited Virtualization Rights[/b]

Windows Server 2003 R2 Datacenter Edition licenses now include unlimited virtualization rights, meaning customers can run an unlimited number of virtualized instances of Windows Server on processors licensed with Windows Server 2003 R2 Datacenter Edition without having to purchase additional licenses. The use rights also allow the choice of running Windows Server 2003 R2 (or previous version) Standard Edition, Enterprise Edition, and Datacenter Edition as the host operating system and in the virtual instances. In addition to Windows Server and Microsoft Virtual Server, the use rights apply to any virtualization technology[/b] or host operating system, although they may need to be acquired, licensed and supported separately from third-parties.

The unlimited virtualization rights significantly simplify the licensing of Windows Server for large-scale virtualization, and make it more affordable to consolidate on the Windows Server Platform.

[Dave_Mishchenko]

If you're licensing W2K3 Standard, then you would have to license each VM seperately - 10 VMs = 10 W2K3 Standard Licenses.

With W2K3 R2 Enterprise, one license will cover 4 virtual machines, regardless of the host OS. So 12 VMs = 3 W2K3 Enterprise licenses. See this link: http://www.microsoft.com/windowsserver2003/howtobuy/licensing/r2eelicensingfaq.mspx

With W2K3 R2 DataCenter, you can install an unlimited number of VMs (on a single host). As with the above link, this one states that the host OS or virtualization technology is not an issue: http://www.microsoft.com/windowsserver2003/howtobuy/licensingr2/overview.mspx

[oreeh]

I had a customer who a MS employee told the same bullsh*t.

After some emails and snailmails he got the official information that the mentioned license scheme (and FAQ on the MS site) applies to ANY virtualization product.