Exchange 2007 Licensing Question
Is a separate license needed for the Edge Transport Service? Or does the license include "typical Install" as well as Edge Transport.
March 20th, 2007 2:35am

Good Question. I was faced with similar questions previously when proposing Exchange 2007 to my clients and fortunately managed to get some answers out of some guys I know at MS here in the UAE. As we all know by now,there are5 different Exchange server roles, 4 of them can be installed on the same server or deployed on multiple servers depending on the size & complexity of your infrastructure and requirements. The 5th one, however has to be deployed on its own hardware (& preferably not a domain member server). Best practices, of course, recommend keeping the roles installed on seperate hardware and where multi-roling isa must, only using certain roles together due to security, overheads, funtionalityand scaleability of the organization. Now when it comes to licensing this is all a bit confusing, the question of " since these roles are all native to exchange 2007, do we need seperate licenses for each server running a role or does a single license entitle us to spread the roles accross multiple boxes?" The answer to that is quite simple really - NO, a single license entitles the owner to run a single instance of exchange code on his network. (funny that, its quite logical when you think about it.) This being said, if you want to deploy Exchange Edge server and an Exchange MBX/HUB/CAS server you need, you guessed it, 2 licenses since you are running 2 instances of exchange code on your network. The same applies to Windows Server, Windows Desktop o/s, Office, etc... so keep that in mind for future reference when you are thinking about setting up new servers and the licensing implications.
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March 20th, 2007 5:58pm

Thanks Johan, I was able to call Microsoft as well and they confirmed it. I think because of that requirement it should be allowed to install Edge on the same box, especially if you are already using a tight corporate firewall.....
March 20th, 2007 6:38pm

I've searched all over Microsoft's site and the web, and there's nothing out there to confirm that only one license is needed to spread out the four Exchange roles amongst four different servers. I haven't seen the statement that one license grants the user to install one instance of Exchange on the network. Instead, the statement has been that the licensegrants the user to install once instance of Exchange ona single server (not network). I found an Exchange 2007 licensing document, and here are some key statments from it: http://download.microsoft.com/documents/useterms/Exchange%20Server%20Enterprise_2007_English_b9c9bc0c-872f-42ce-8f7c-456f7ef8fff7.pdf ...you may not assign the same license to more than one server. A hardware partition or blade is considered to be a separate server. You may run one instance of the server software in one physical or virtual operating system environment on the licensed server at a time. Instance - You create an instance of software by executing the softwares setup or install procedure. You also create an instance of software by duplicating an existing instance. References to software in this agreement include instances of the software. Run an Instance -You run an instance of software by loading it into memory and executing one or more of its instructions. Once running, an instance is considered to be running (whether or not its instructions continue to execute) until it is removed from memory. The problem is that this document does not discuss anything about the roles. Can anyone give the final word on this to make it absolutely definitive??? Thanks, Steve
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January 16th, 2008 8:27pm

You are completely correct in this post- Except where expressley stated otherwise, Microsoft Licensing dictates that for each hardware device which will run Microsoft Code a License IS required, therefore if you want to deployed Exchange Roles on different Servers you would need licenses for each server on which you deploy a role / combination of roles.
January 17th, 2008 12:36pm

Thanks Johan. I think that solidifies it for me. Personally, I think it's kind of lousy that one license is required if you install all the roles on one server; but if you want to install the roles on separate servers, a new license is required for each server with an Exchange role. I'm not sure what the justification is for that, but my initial thought is that it's a rip-off. Hope I'm not offending anyone out there. But it seem to me it's like a six-pack of beer costing $10, but if you want tobuy six beers individually, having to still pay $10 per beer! Thanks, Steve
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January 17th, 2008 6:11pm

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