Licensing

Licensing A VM for SQL Server Per Proc in a Virtual Machine

October 13, 2011 // 0 Comments

If your virtual machine has 4 vCPUs and it’s running on a multiple CPU host, how many SQL Per Proc licenses do you need to buy (if you’re not doing Server/CAL)? Well this question just came up at work and we wanted to get it right for the customer. There are two sources of [...]

Licensing DPM 2010

October 13, 2011 // 1 Comment

Two of the System Center products that are generally available have unusual licensing. System Center Data Protection Manager 2010 is one of those 2 unusual ones. Typically for an installation you will buy: A server license: For example System Center Operations Manager, optionally with SQL [...]

Why I Recommend Software Assurance For Hyper-V Licensing

October 10, 2011 // 6 Comments

If you’re in a non-subscription licensing program with Microsoft, then I recommend that you purchase Software Assurance with your Hyper-V licensing (this is the Enterprise or Datacenter licenses that covers your host OS and VM guest OS requirements). There’s 3 reasons: Hyper-V Upgrades Every [...]

Activating Lots of Windows Virtual Machines in a Cloud with KMS

October 5, 2011 // 0 Comments

You know, few of us ever think about the practical sides of Windows/Office licensing when it comes to deploying lots of machines. It’s one thing to identify, buy, and deploy the licenses – but we never seem to think about activating the damned things until it’s a bit late (been there, [...]

VMware Updates vSphere 5.0 Licensing

August 4, 2011 // 0 Comments

I guess 90 support forum pages of customers saying they’re going to dump your product and go to the competition really made an impression on VMware. Trying to convince the world that VMware making more money from less was a good right-sizing process for their customers didn’t quite have [...]

Do You Buy/Sell Hyper-V and/or System Center?

July 28, 2011 // 0 Comments

If you’re a service provider (engineering/consulting/etc) and you’re involved in Hyper-V and/or System Center, or if you’re a customer that is currently buying those technologies, then pay attention. 2011/2012 is a time of interesting change and there are opportunities for customers and [...]

Common Windows VM Virtualisation Licensing Mistakes

July 21, 2011 // 6 Comments

I am not a licensing expert (and hence my lawyer says you should consult a real one for your requirements), but I do work with a team of them, and every day I learn something. Over the past few months, I’ve had a lot of conversations about virtualisation (XenServer, Hyper-V, and VMware) and [...]

Windows Thin PC for Software Assurance Customers

June 16, 2011 // 2 Comments

Microsoft has released WinTPC as an additional benefit for software assurance customers. You can get access to this benefit with SA for your desktops, or by buying VDA VDI licensing. Microsoft is aiming this version of Windows at those who are moving to VDI/RDS session hosts, and who [...]

Will Hardware Scalability Change Microsoft Virtualisation Licensing?

March 28, 2011 // 4 Comments

One of the nice things about virtualising Microsoft software (on any platform) is that you can save money. Licensing like Windows Datacenter, SMSD, SQL Datacenter, or ECI all give you various bundles to license the host and all running virtual machines on that host. Two years ago, you might [...]

MS Partner Event: Server Licensing in a Virtual Environment

November 17, 2010 // 0 Comments

I’m at a MS partner briefing day in Dublin. The focus is on licensing in a virtualised environment. I’ve spent most of the last 3 years in a hosting environment with SPLA licensing. This will give me an opportunity to start getting back in touch with volume licensing. Good News: we got [...]

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Aidan Finn, IT Pro

A blog covering Azure, Hyper-V, Windows Server, desktop, systems management, deployment, and so on ...