Licensing for virtual servers

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Licensing for virtual servers

coenzyme77

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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

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Lynn Pettis SSC Guru Points: 442447 More actions · Answer 1

Lynn Pettis

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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.

Bulent Gucuk SSCertifiable Points: 5279 More actions · Answer 2

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

Steve Jones - SSC Editor SSC Guru Points: 728159 More actions · Answer 3

Steve Jones - SSC Editor

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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.

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Lynn Pettis SSC Guru Points: 442447 More actions · Answer 4

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.