Virtual Server Licensing with Server 2008 Enterprise & Datacenter Editions
Question regarding licensing of virtual servers...I plan on purchasing Windows Server 2008 Enterprise or Datacenter Edition, which include virtual image use rights for four or unlimited virtual servers, respectively. That concept is simple enough, however the official documentation of this licensing policy is lacking any real details.When you go to actually use the "virtual image use rights" that came with your copy of Server 2008, by installing another copy of Server 2008 in a virtual machine, what edition can you choose? Only the one that is installed on the host machine (Datacenter host, Datacenter guests ONLY), or the same or lesser (Datacenter host, Datacenter/Enterprise/Standard guests)? And do you use the same key as the host machine, is another volume key provided in the box, or do you have to go through other avenues to get a "virtual image use" volume key?Anyone that has actually gone about this --or anyone at Microsoft -- that can chime in on this would make my day.Thanks in advance...
August 28th, 2008 11:07am

Got my answers from Microsoft pre-sales: You can purchase a copy of Windows Server 2008 Datacenter (OEM or Retail) to licensea physical server; you can choose to installsaid copyand use Hyper-V --or use any other hypervisor(VMware, Xen, etc.) -- to utilize your unlimited virtual image use rights (OEM will obviously never be able to be transferred to another physical server, though). You can create as many virtual machines as your physical server will support, and install Windows Server 2008 (any edition, the same or lower) without purchasing any additional licenses. You can use the same key that is on the COA sticker for every Windows Server 2008 installation (again, any edition, the same or lower) in a virtual machine on the licensed physical machine. As long as the above is adhered to, you are granted unlimited activations for said key. The same applies to Enterprise and Standard; in Enterprise, you are granted 4 virtual image use licenses; in Standard, you are granted 1 virtual image use license.Hope this helps anyone else considering theOS for virtualization...
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August 29th, 2008 6:35pm

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