The licensing around virtual server can be found at http://www.microsoft.com/windowsserver2003/howtobuy/licensingr2/overview.mspx
It is also important to differentiate between what is technically feasible (way more than 4 vm's on a server) vs. what is included at no additional cost with the Server OS License. To summarize: Windows Server 2003 R2 Enterprise Edition Use Rights Microsoft has added two important licensing benefits to Windows Server 2003 R2 Enterprise Edition. First, under a single license on a server, you may run up to four instances of the server software in virtual operating system environments on that server (only one instance per virtual operating system environment). Second, if you are licensed for Windows Server 2003 R2 Standard Edition, you may run an instance of Standard Edition in place of Enterprise Edition in any of those virtual operating system environments. Customers will find key benefits in licensing Windows Server 2003 R2 Enterprise Edition as their virtualization platform but may still need to run Windows Server 2003 R2 Standard Edition within the virtual machines. Microsoft has enabled this scenario as a significant benefit to licensing Windows Server 2003 R2 Enterprise Edition. Windows Server 2003 R2 Datacenter Edition Use Rights Run Unlimited Virtualization Instances of Windows Server Starting October 1, 2006, customers have the use rights to run an unlimited number of virtualized instances of Windows Server on processors licensed with new Windows Server 2003 R2 Datacenter Edition licenses. The use rights also allow the choice of running Windows Server 2003 R2 (or previous version) Standard Edition, Enterprise Edition and Datacenter Edition as the host operating system and in the virtual instances. In addition to Windows Server and Microsoft Virtual Server, the use rights apply to any virtualization technology or host operating system, although they may need to be acquired, licensed and supported separately from third-parties. Please let me know if you have any questions, Barnaby -- Barnaby Jeans Senior IT Advisor Microsoft Canada ________________________________________ From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Gustin Johnson Sent: October 7, 2006 3:22 AM To: CLUG General Subject: Re: [clug-talk] Semi-OT: VMWare & Windows licenses/activation -----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- Hash: SHA1 Actually I believe it is Server 2003 R2 *Enterprise* that allows multiple copies on the same physical machine. Only 4 in total though, which is kinda weak given that a quad dual core opteron can be had at "reasonable" prices (I have a client with one of these beasts, and vmware is what we are currently running). The problem with XP is WGA, which will notice that the hardware has changed. With XP, you get to do one or the other, but not both (there are technical and legal issues here). If you already dual boot you should keep this configuration. I use cedega and vmware to keep windows from actually booting the hardware. Also, I don't think that Xen is really going to help you with your gaming. Tek Budda wrote: > Nick Wiltshire wrote: >> Hi all, >> >> I've been contemplating installing VMWare on my laptop to make testing web >> apps in Windows environments easier. >> >> My issues are: >> -I already dual boot for games, and VMWare is no good for that purpose, so >> I'd >> like to keep my standalone install. >> -I'd rather use my money for kindling than pay for another copy of Windows :) >> >> I'm wondering if installing it is legal in this manner -- it's still on a >> single (physical) machine. > > If just for testing why not try to get a hold of a demo copy of the os > you want to test with? > > > _______________________________________________ > clug-talk mailing list > [email protected] > http://clug.ca/mailman/listinfo/clug-talk_clug.ca > Mailing List Guidelines (http://clug.ca/ml_guidelines.php) > **Please remove these lines when replying -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: GnuPG v1.4.2.2 (GNU/Linux) Comment: Using GnuPG with Mozilla - http://enigmail.mozdev.org iD8DBQFFJ1WywRXgH3rKGfMRAj+kAJ4rg53WNIH/kZtf7JBGyEyTvjLbSgCcC92P w/aY76j8RKnHXAvv8KlcdSQ= =1FhX -----END PGP SIGNATURE----- _______________________________________________ clug-talk mailing list [email protected] http://clug.ca/mailman/listinfo/clug-talk_clug.ca Mailing List Guidelines (http://clug.ca/ml_guidelines.php) **Please remove these lines when replying _______________________________________________ clug-talk mailing list [email protected] http://clug.ca/mailman/listinfo/clug-talk_clug.ca Mailing List Guidelines (http://clug.ca/ml_guidelines.php) **Please remove these lines when replying
