So if you read Part 1 of this topic, I covered Windows Server Operating System Licensing and Support options. In this section, we will cover Microsoft Server Applications. In the same fashion, we will cover Licensing and then Support.

But first, the link to the actual Microsoft Volume Licensing Brief 'Application Server License Mobility' is here.

Licensing
In the past, with every Microsoft Server Application, you needed to 'assign' the software to a particular physical machine, and couldn't move (via vMotion, XenMotion etc.) that application server license to another machine more than once in 90 days, or if you had a hardware failure. The only real way to then move those licenses at will was to license each physical server with the total amount of licenses that may simultaneously run on that physical server.

However, starting September 1, 2008, all current versions of Microsoft Application Server software (and later) that are acquired via Volume Licensing (note that this does not apply to Retail and OEM Licenses) can freely be moved within the same server farm, and thus the 90 day assignment requirements are removed.

Couple things that I want to make clear here - this only applies to licenses acquired through Volume Licensing; if you purchased Retail or OEM product, this doesn't apply.

Secondly, only current products are waived from the previous move restrictions. In fact, Microsoft has clearly stated that Exchange 2007 (not 2003), SQL 2008 (not 2005) and SharePoint 2007 (not 2003) have these benefits, but previous versions do not.

Thirdly, pay attention to the way Microsoft defines 'Server Farm.' In the Application Server Mobility document, they indicate that a license can be moved to another server in the same server farm. A server farm can consist of up to two data centers, each physically located within 4 hours of the local time zone or within the European Union. At first glance, I thought this would be some sort of disaster recovery benefit, but then I read the document again, and it specifically said that the license could only be running in once instance at a time.

So its pretty straightforward. If you have 4 running instances of Exchange Server 2007, and you have 20 Virtual hosts, you only need 4 Exchange Server 2007 licenses and can move them around at will. In the previous model, you would need 80 licenses of Exchange Server 2007 to be able to move the virtual machines at will.

Per Processor Licensing
Microsoft does have Per Processor licensing for some of its products, and the only ones included in the new provisions are SQL Server 2008 Enterprise, BizTalk Server 2006 R2 Enterprise, ISA 2006 Enterprise and Commerce Server 2007 Enterprise.
The way this works then, is that you have to license for the number of physical processors you are actually running your instances on. For example, if you plan to run two SQL Servers, and assign a physical processor to each, then even though you have 20 VM hosts in your farm, you will only need two SQL 2008 processor licenses. Now if you plan to have each SQL Server virtual machine use two physical processors, you would need a total of four processor licenses.

Support
In the past, Microsoft provided different support options for non-Microsoft hypervisors, and typically only provided support for customers with Premier Support, although in practice I haven't seen Microsoft turn their back on anyone yet.
The published list of supported applications that can be run in a virtualized instance is here.
As part of the Server Virtualization Validation Program (SVVP), Microsoft is now extending support to customers running non-Microsoft hypervisors that are enrolled in the SVVP. A series of tests and certifications will be done to ensure that these vendor's products are ready to support Microsoft Application and Server Operating System Software. The SVVP website is here.
The SVVP and the inclusion of other vendor's virtualization platforms is a huge step forward for existing VMware and Xen customers, and will help virtualization adoption for many customers that have been on the fence.

Most of this is good news for my virtualization teams, but more importantly, its great news for all our existing customers. In the next section, I will dive into the licensing and support issues surrounding desktop virtualization, and in particular, Vista Enterprise Centralized Desktops (VECD).

Cheers,

Nathan

Check out my 'Understanding Microsoft Licensing for Virtualized Environments' presentation: http://www.vmworld.com/people/nathan.coutinho?view=documents