Does each virtual server on a Windows virtual server box need its own copy of Windows server, presumably data centre edition on rental at £25 a month, or is there a 'fiddle' (legal or otherwise?) to use just one copy 'spread' over as many VPS as you have on the box?
Reading The M$ site for the their own virtualisation software it seems to suggest you need one licence for the hardware box, plus one for each virtual - so even more. If thats right, how can seemingly legit hosts on here be offering Windows Vitual servers from £20 a month?
Sorry if the question and answer is really obvious - but it is monday morning.
A Standard Windows 2003 server licence can have up to 4 vps' fully licensed without any extra fees - therefore 4 vps' per standard licence. The datacenter license enables you to have as many as you can fit onto the server.
If you're running Virtuozzo you don't need actual windows server licenses, you need user licenses - so maybe the VPS's for £20 will be using Virtuozzo rather than VMWare/Xen/Etc VPSs
Cheers,
Sean
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Quote:
Originally Posted by nitrohosting
Isn't Enterprise required for the '4 at no extra cost'?
I'm surprised that 'otherwise' is an option for anyone running a legitimate business.
No, standard works fine. Enterprise allows you to run Enterprise OR Standard within the VE's, but Standard on the host does give you 4 VE's.
I'm not convinced the Microsoft license allows Virtuozzo users to have unlimited VE's, it's grey but I would say it's limited to 4 also even though there is just one kernel running. We certainly don't put any more than 4 VE's on a Windows box, but that's more for our sanity than licensing reasons.
Does each virtual server on a Windows virtual server box need its own copy of Windows server, presumably data centre edition on rental at £25 a month, or is there a 'fiddle' (legal or otherwise?) to use just one copy 'spread' over as many VPS as you have on the box?
I had this very discussion with M$ at the launch of their new voip/comms version of Windows server, and the answer was you need *lots* of windows licences.
Principally
One for the server
One for each VPS
but there are some "interesting" additional licences needed if you're on multi-core/multi-cpu servers, to do with how many cores available to the VPS
Quote:
The Hyper-V support is for virtualisation technologies, and is already a confusing area for licencing - to run a few windows VM’s on a Dual-Quadcore server currently needs about £450/month of Win2K3 licences - one per cpu, one per VM per core - so to run 3 VM’s each able to access all 8 cores requires a total of 26 licences @ £15/month each !!!
Andrew, you sure? Would love it if this was the case, however we always assumed Enterprise was needed.
From the SPUR (Oct 07):
Quote:
a) Determining the Number of Licenses Required. You must first determine the number of software
licenses you need. The total number of software licenses required for a server equals the sum of the
software licenses required under (i) and (ii) below.
i) To run instances of the server software in the physical operating system environment on a server,
you need a software license for each physical processor that the physical operating system
environment uses.
ii) To run instances of the server software in virtual operating system environments on a server, you
need a software license for each virtual processor that each of those virtual operating system
environments uses. If a virtual operating system environment uses a fraction of a virtual processor,
the fraction counts as a full virtual processor.
Then separately:
Quote:
For Windows Server 2003 R2 Standard and Enterprise Editions:
Windows Server 2003 R2 Standard Edition. The total number of software licenses required for a server equals the sum of
the software licenses required under (i) and (ii) below.
(i) To run one instance of the server software at any one time in either one physical operating system environment or
one virtual operating system environment on a server, you need a software license for each physical processor on
that server.
(ii) To run each additional instance of the server software at any one time in either one physical operating system
environment or one virtual operating system environment, you need a software license for each physical processor
on that server.
Windows Server 2003 R2 Enterprise Edition. The total number of software licenses required for a server equals the sum
of the software licenses required under (i) and (ii) below.
(i) You need one software license for each physical processor on a server, which permits you to run on that
server, at any one time:
• one instance of the server software in one physical operating system environment, and
• four instances of the server software in virtual operating system environments. You may run only one
instance per virtual operating system environment. You may run an instance of Standard Edition in place
of Enterprise Edition in any of these virtual operating system environments.
If you run all five permitted instances at the same time, you may only run the instance of the server software
in the physical operating system environment to operate hardware virtualization software and to manage and
service operating system environments on the server.
(ii) You need an additional software license for each physical processor on the server to run four additional
instances of the server software in virtual operating system environments. You may run only one instance per
virtual operating system environment.
You need 1x Enterprise license per CPU socket to cover 4 Virtual Servers (+the host) or multiples thereof http://www.microsoft.com/windowsserv...nsing-faq.aspx
Or 1x Datacentre per CPU socket for unlimited virtual servers.
You don't have to worry about how many processor cores there are.
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Last edited by xtraordinary : 10th February 2008 at 10:52 PM.
Yes, it depends on number of physical processors only.
Quote:
Originally Posted by LeaUK2
2. I'm confident that a year ago you couldn't use 'Standard' to gain the 4 VM OS licenses, it had to be Enterprise. Has this now changed?
It didn't change, it's always been Enterprise.
But now with Server 2008 they seem to allow one free VM in addition to the main host system.
Q. If I have one license for Windows Server 2008 Standard and want to run it in a virtual operating system environment, can I continue running it in the physical operating system environment?
A. Yes, with Windows Server 2008 Standard, you may run one instance in the physical operating system environment and one instance in the virtual operating system environment.
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So, physical processor = socket good news there then..
According to MS' fancy calculator:
You can run upto 4 VMs (Standard or Enterprise) on baremetal if you purchase an Enterprise license.
You can run 4 VMs + an underlying Win2K3OS if you purchase an Enterprise license.
But SPLAs can be linked to sockets so I'm not sure if this confuses the issue any further. Also, the calculator assumes only one 'processor' per VM.. but of course you may like to run more. Not sure how this fits either!
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Last edited by LeaUK : 11th February 2008 at 02:30 PM.
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Quote:
If you're running Virtuozzo you don't need actual windows server licenses, you need user licenses - so maybe the VPS's for £20 will be using Virtuozzo rather than VMWare/Xen/Etc VPSs
From MS website:
Quote:
Q. Do the virtualization licensing rights of Windows Server 2008 apply when used with non-Microsoft software virtualization technologies?
A. Yes. The use rights apply regardless of the virtualization product being used. However, any non-Microsoft software virtualization technologies are not supported by Microsoft.
good news there then..
