It pays to complain
There’s been a “small” issue with licensing around Hyper-V for a while and because of all the complaints we’ve received we have actually changed our licensing.
The issue was this: I’m a Windows Server 2003 shop and want to virtualise onto Hyper-V. Because Hyper-V is a role of Windows Server 2008, I now have all my users & PCs accessing resources on 2008 servers. This means that I now have to go and buy new, 2008 CALs for everyone!
Here’s that again in “official speak”:
Under current licensing policy a physical server environment running Windows Server 2003 requires matching version CALs for all users (i.e. Windows Server 2003 CALs). However, if physical Windows Server 2003 Operating System Environments (OSE) run as virtual machines hosted by Windows Server 2008 Hyper-V, Windows Server 2008 CALs are required.
So the change we have made gets rid of this stupidity. And in “official speak”:
With the change, no Windows Server 2008 CALs are required if Windows Server 2008 is being used to:
• run hardware virtualization software
• provide hardware virtualization services
• run software to manage and service operating system environments on the licensed server
You’ll be able to read the official line later on today at https://www.microsoft.com/licensing/resources/volbrief.mspx when the US wakes up.
So, in a nutshell, if you think something is wrong – say so. It pays to complain!
Dave
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