How do you license Virtualisation?

Licensing Virtualisation isn't as hard as you'd think.  Basically if it's running you have to be licensed.

There's also a lot of FUD out there that would have you believe that Microsoft is 'cheating' to make it more affordable to use our virtualisation stack (this isn't true - the licensing rules are the same).  There's a real nice document here that covers VMware ESX Server, VMware VMotion, SWsoft Virtuozzo, and Microsoft System Center Virtualization Machine Manager. This document also Intentionally compares VMotion, System Center Virtual Machine Manager and Microsoft Host Clustering (AKA Quick Migration) to build awareness with VMware customers that we have similar management and “VM movement” capabilities.

We've also launched the Windows Server Virtualization Calculator which provide two ways to estimate the number and cost of Windows Server Standard Edition, Enterprise Edition and Datacenter Edition licenses needed for your virtualization scenarios to help you determine the most cost-effective edition of Windows Server.

Enjoy.

Dave.