Microsoft Datacenter License for vSphere Hosts

[TheNuts]

I have 1 HP DL 380 G6 running vSphere Enterprise u1. I purchased a Microsoft Datacenter License for the server. I have 20 Windows 2003/2008 servers running on the host. My question is, if I purchase another HP DL380 and create a DRS cluster, do I need to purchase another Datacenter License for the 2nd ESX vSphere host? If DRS runs Fully Automated and vmotions a VM to the other host, I want to make sure I am compliant with licenses.

I ran across this...You can move active instances of a virtual instance from one computer to another without limitation . This will allow, for example, a virtual image that is stored on a SAN to be deployed to any server with available resources and licenses.

To compliment the above scenario, licensing only counts towards the number of actually running virtual instances that are running. This will allow customers to store as many dormant

So I am a little confused. Do I need Datacenter licenses/Windows licenses for all Hosts in a DRS cluster or will just 1 Datacenter license in a 2/3 host DRS cluster be sufficient in the case of vmotioning VMs?

[vSeanClark]

You need to license the physical host server for the amount of virtuals that you'll need on it. So if you split 10 on one host and 10 on another host, both need a Datacenter license. You can not split a datacenter license between physical servers.

Sean Clark - vExpert 2009, VCPX3 - http://twitter.com/vseanclark - http://seanclark.us - http://vmunderground.com

[TheNuts]

I figured that may be the case. We do not necessairly "need" VMs to run on a different Host but in the case of a DR scenerio where we would lose 1 Host and the VMs would be migrated to a different Host, I guess that host needs licensed? Also, as we continue to grow our VM infrastructure we will be adding more and more VMs and would like to distribute the VMs across multiple Hosts so it looks like Datacenter licenses for all ESX hosts

[AntonVZhbankov]

>if I purchase another HP DL380 and create a DRS cluster, do I need to purchase another Datacenter License for the 2nd ESX vSphere host?

Yes. Windows Datacenter license is bound to physical host.

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MCSA, MCTS Hyper-V, VCP 3/4, VMware vExpert

http://blog.vadmin.ru

[RParker]

Any server running Windows Server in a VM must be licensed. Customers opting to host Windows Server VMs using a third-party virtualization technology still need to buy Windows Server licenses for the server. For example, a two-processor server using VMware ESX to host an indeterminate number of Windows Server VMs would need to have two Windows Server Datacenter per-processor licenses assigned to it, even though no Windows Server OS is installed on the physical server.

[TheNuts]

Thansk for the replies.

A quick question about the DRS cluster. I am going to have 3 HP DL380s, however 2 are DL380 G5s and 1 is a DL380 G6. All 3 have different CPUs. Are there any issues with running the G5s and the G6 in EVC mode?

[AntonVZhbankov]

Actually depends on CPU model. If you have Xeons 53xx as oldest then there will be no problems with EVC.

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MCSA, MCTS Hyper-V, VCP 3/4, VMware vExpert

http://blog.vadmin.ru

[TheNuts]

The CPUs for the 3 servers will be a E5345, E5440 and L5520

[AntonVZhbankov]

>The CPUs for the 3 servers will be a E5345, E5440 and L5520

OK then. Set up EVC to Core 2 level. But there should not be any running VMs on 5440 and 5520 at that moment.

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MCSA, MCTS Hyper-V, VCP 3/4, VMware vExpert

http://blog.vadmin.ru

[vSeanClark]

From Microsoft licensing perspective, I would say no.

If your question is about EVC, it might be best to post as new discussion in the vSphere ESX or vCenter Server community to get better responses and keep better organization.

[MattG]

Check out EVC the KB:

http://kb.vmware.com/selfservice/microsites/search.do?language=en_US&cmd=displayKC&externalId=1003212

If you find this information useful, please award points for "correct" or "helpful".

[msemon1]

For Microsoft licensing purposes you do need to license both hosts. Datacenter is per processor so if you license 4 Datacenter licenses on each host than you can host 8 Windows VM's on each host. My understanding is templates, clones and other VM's not powered up are not counted against your license count during "true up" with M$.

Mike

[DSTAVERT]

From the horses mouth http://download.microsoft.com/download/F/C/A/FCAB58A9-CCAD-4E0A-A673-88A5EE74E2CC/Windows_Server_2008_Virtual_Tech-VL_Brief-Jan_09.docx

[tietzjd25]

MS licenses

If you host has 2 Processors then you need 2 Data-center licenses for it.

Than you can have as many VM's as you like on that server. So if you have 3 node cluster with 6 Processors you need to buy 6 Data-center licenses, and you can that have as many VM's on those 3 VMware Host as you like.

Never buy anything but Datacenter if you plan on using Vmotion or DRS as each time VM moves from one host to the other the Vm that moved still count as licensed server for 90 days.