choosing the right version of Windows Datacenter to virtualize under Vsphere

[unarcher1]

I actually have a physical infrastructure of 20 servers. I would virtualize everything on 3 hosts with Vmware Essentials Plus and would buy 3 Windows Datacenter licences to have rights to have unlimited Vms on my ESX hosts.

Servers are actually under Windows 2000/2003/2008 with some which were bought OEM or Open licences

What should I buy to meet licencing requirement of Microsoft?

OEM version of Windows Datacenter is the cheaper, but would I be able to use Vmotion?

ROK is more expensive, I saw that it may be bios locked to IBM or HP servers. Would this cause problems if I need to add additionnal Vm's?

Open is really really expensive. Do I really need this one?

What is the right choice there?

[a_p_]

I can't give you an answer on which version (OEM, retail, open) would be the best for you. You should probably contact MS or your HW vendor to find out and be save. However Datacenter is licensed per processor socket, not per server!!! So if you have 3 servers with 2 CPU's each, you will need 6 licenses!

With the Datacenter license you will also get keys for Enterprise and Standard versions of Windows Server (also for older versions like W2K3)

see http://www.microsoft.com/windowsserver2008/en/us/licensing-datacenter.aspx for more.

André

[idle-jam]

You can't buy OEM windows license for virtual machine as OEM needs to be bundle with new hardware purchase. You will need retail or open license. Instead of 6 CPU datacenter license you could buy 5x windows enterprise as each license gives you 4 instances.




iDLE-jAM | VCP 2, VCP 3 & VCP 4

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[a_p_]

Instead of 6 CPU datacenter license you could buy 5x windows enterprise as each license gives you 4 instances.

That's what I thought, too. However after a discussion with MS, it turn out you need to do "peak" licensing when using Enterprise licenses. This means, if you VMotion all VM's to one host, you need to cover this host with the Enterprise licenses (5 licenses). Long story short, with Enterprise licenses you need 15 Enterprise licenses, 5 for each host to cover 20 VMs.

André

[a_p_]

... maybe this describes it better, than going through all the MS license documents.

How to: License Microsoft Windows Server in a VMware environment

André

[AndreTheGiant]

Just to give some other information...

You can use Windows Server OEM, but only with new hardware and only for the first licensed VMs...

Make sense only with Datacenter OEM (that for 2 CPU cost around a Enterprise Multilicense).

But, if you change hardware, you loose the license.

Another disadvanced of the OEM version is that you must have (or buy) media kit and license for old version... With a multilicense you have access to last version directly online.

About the virtual instance, if you have HA and/or vMotion you (to be compliant with licensing) must have on each host the max number of VM licensed).

So for 20 VM, you need on each node 5 Enterprise... o a single Datacenter.

The reason is not technical (there isn't a control to verify the number of VM running), but is formal... Windows OS is sold associated to a physical hardware... so the license is not moved with HA or vMotion... you must have a destination license for it.

Andre