Hyper-V and Server 2008 Licensing?

I have a co-worker who is under the impression that if you run Server 2008 with Microsoft's virtualization product you have have unlimited virtual servers running on the same license. This doesn't sound right to me. Can anyone shed some light on Microsofts licensing rules for 2008 virtual servers? I'm looking for a definitive link but haven't found it yet. Thanks.

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Comments

royal

Standard = 1 virtual instance allowed
Enterprise = 4 virtual instances allowed
Datacenter = unlimited virtual instances allowed

http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/press/2007/nov07/11-12HyperVPR.mspx

Ricka182

So, you already got your answer...but I just got to say man, Love the Avatar!!!

Technowiz

Thanks Ricka! Gotta love the old school "hi tech".

So if I'm understanding this correctly you can either buy a per processor license of Server 2008 Datacenter and run as many virtual servers as you can on those processors, or if you are going to use VMWare you have to buy a VMWare per processor license, then buy the same Datacenter 2008 license to run on top of it.

This seems to make the cost of running a windows datacenter on VMWare much less cost effective. How is VMWare going to compete with that?

hetty

Technowiz wrote:

This seems to make the cost of running a windows datacenter on VMWare much less cost effective. How is VMWare going to compete with that?

You could open up a huge can of worms with that debate, really, there is so much material online debating about specific requirements which Hyper-V or ESX does or does not support and how much it all costs. There are many fanboys on both sides but these are definitely worth a read.

Hyper-V Quick Migration & VMWare Live Migration - Part 1, Part 2 and Part 3

Virtualization Price War: VMware’s Little Big Horn?
http://download.microsoft.com/download/1/3/0/13021640-B61D-4A7E-9353-D38FE2D44766/Yankee Group- Virtualization Price Wars(Feb 200

.pdf

Page 7 of the Yankee Report has an interesting cost comparison. Some definitely dont agree with the costings.