SQL server Licensing

[ehinkle]

I have a licensing question, for SQL server. According to the Microsoft licensing for SQL Enterprise edition, if you have that version you can run as many virtualized instances of SQL server that you want on a host pending you have enough processor licenses to cover the number of physical sockets on the box. Does that hold true for the guest VM's that you run on the host? Let say you have a dual socket 6 core server that you purchase 2 SQL Server Enterprise processor licenses. Then you create a single 8 processor virtual machine for the sql server. Will the license you already purchase cover the VM since you licensed both physical sockets? Also, does vmware ESX give you the option to present a dual or quad core processor to the guest, I have seen in workstation the option to do that but have not seen that in ESX.

[JoJoGabor]

I think that is correct. MS license on the physical sockets, so if you have a 2 processor license, this will cover you for an 8 vCore VM.

For your second question, I think you are referring to processor affinity which you set on the VM level, to lock the VM into using specific cores.

[a_p_]

Also, does vmware ESX give you the option to present a dual or quad core processor to the guest, I have seen in workstation the option to do that but have not seen that in ESX.

see Per processor licenses for your application

André

[ehinkle]

thanks for the link, that helped a lot.

[dazman56]

I found this link that spells it out pretty good:

http://www.dabcc.com/article.aspx?id=1546