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SC38103
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SQL Licensing for VM

If I run a VM (W2k3 OS) with one virtual processor on physical hardware that has two dual core processors, how many SQL server processor licenses does Microsoft say I must purchase to run SQL server on this VM?

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Dave_Mishchenko
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I think it would just be one processor license required as per the updated licensing model on page 19.

Updated Licensing

>To help you take advantage of the resource allocation benefits that VM technology offers, all products in the Per Processor licensing model are licensed by virtual processor. If you run the software in virtual OS environments, you need a license for each virtual processor >used by those OS environments on a particular server, rather than all the physical processors in the server.

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admin
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Unfortunately the "correct" answer (according to M$) is two. It's a load of FUD, but that's the official line. The only exception to this is if you use CPU affinity to lock the vCPU to one processor, then you can get away with one SQL processor license, but that means you make ESXs life hard scheduling and you can't use VMotion (more than once every 90 days and you'd need to disable affinity, so it'd get complicate licensing wise).

Have a read of this: http://download.microsoft.com/download/6/8/9/68964284-864d-4a6d-aed9-f2c1f8f23e14/virtualization_whi...

Dave_Mishchenko
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I think it would just be one processor license required as per the updated licensing model on page 19.

Updated Licensing

>To help you take advantage of the resource allocation benefits that VM technology offers, all products in the Per Processor licensing model are licensed by virtual processor. If you run the software in virtual OS environments, you need a license for each virtual processor >used by those OS environments on a particular server, rather than all the physical processors in the server.

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TomHowarth
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Alex, as per Daves Post that is no longer the case, MS are getting ready for the Virtualisation bandwagon and licensing restrictions are changing.

Tom Howarth

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Tom Howarth VCP / VCAP / vExpert
VMware Communities User Moderator
Blog: http://www.planetvm.net
Contributing author on VMware vSphere and Virtual Infrastructure Security: Securing ESX and the Virtual Environment
Contributing author on VCP VMware Certified Professional on VSphere 4 Study Guide: Exam VCP-410
SC38103
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So, answer is one processor license. Thanks to all of you for the input. I'm getting ready to buy licensing to deploy SQL in a VM and I wanted to make the correct purchase decision.

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