How many licenses should I buy for my virtualized environment?

How many licenses should I buy for my virtualized environment?

I have one physical server with one CPU and with Windows 2003 Standard. I have installed Microsoft Virtual Server 2005 R2. I have one virtual machine running Windows 2003 Standard. How many licenses of Windows 2003 Standard x86 do I need to buy? One or two?

    Requires Free Membership to View

    Login

    When you register, my team of editors will also send you the latest expert resources covering all areas of server virtualization, such as platforms, architectures and strategies, server hardware, managing virtual environments, application issues and more.

    Margie Semilof, Editorial Director

    By submitting your registration information to SearchServerVirtualization.com you agree to receive email communications from TechTarget and TechTarget partners. We encourage you to read our Privacy Policy which contains important disclosures about how we collect and use your registration and other information. If you reside outside of the United States, by submitting this registration information you consent to having your personal data transferred to and processed in the United States. Your use of SearchServerVirtualization.com is governed by our Terms of Use. You may contact us at webmaster@TechTarget.com.

In a situation like this, you'd probably need two licenses: one for the host operating system, and one for the guest.

There has been one important change in the way Microsoft licenses for virtual environments, though: you only have to obtain licenses for the total number of images that are going to be running concurrently at any one time. So if you have, say, five virtual machine images but only use one of them at any one time, you only need one operating system license for that machine.

This was first published in October 2007

Back to top