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Licensing for virtual servers

  • April 12, 2007 at 9:18 am

    #177688

         Hi everyone. I have a physical box with 3 virtual servers installed .I want to install

         SQL 2000 on each of the 3 virtual servers. Does Microsoft require a separate

          license for each virtual server or will I be legal with using a single license for all 

        three virtual servers running on the single physical box? Thanks to everyone for 

         being there to help.

     

         Ed   SQL2000 SP4

  • April 12, 2007 at 10:34 am

    #700153

    If I remember correctly, and you may want to verify this on the Microsoft website, SQL Server needs to be licensed seperately on each virtual server.  I was looking at this as we are considering using virtual servers here as we move toward blade servers and server consolidation.

  • April 12, 2007 at 2:14 pm

    #700217

    For SQL Server 2000 you need to purchase a seperate license.  But If you purcahse SQL Server 2005 Enterprise only the host needs to be licensed and you don't need a license for virtual instances of SQL Server 2005 Enterprise Edition. Check the link below

    http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/press/2007/Feb07/02-19SQLSP2PR.mspx

    Good day

    Bulent

     

  • April 12, 2007 at 3:05 pm

    #700228

    My understanding is that Bulent is correct. Enterprise edition allows unlimited instances, but Standard must be licensed in each VM.

  • April 12, 2007 at 3:18 pm

    #700232

    Here is an excerpt from the licensing document from Microsoft:

    For Workgroup, Standard and enterprise edition, each virtual operating environment running SQL Server 2005 must have a processor license for each processor that the virtual machine accesses. If a copy of SQL is running on a physical operating environment, then processor licenses are required for all of the processors on that physical server. For enterprise edition there is an added option : if all processors in a machine have been licensed, then the customer may run unlimited instances of SQL server 2005 on an unlimited number of virtual operating environments on that same machine.

  • April 13, 2007 at 8:57 am

    #700398

    Thanks to everyone for your help.

  • April 16, 2007 at 9:26 am

    #700719

    Can someone provide the link to Microsoft for this licensing information?

    Thanks,

    Ed

  • April 16, 2007 at 8:06 pm

    #700819

    Start here:

    http://www.microsoft.com/sql/howtobuy/default.mspx

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