Question about licencing guest OS's under Hyper-V

Wed, 01 Jul 2009 12:11:15 Z

I read somewhere that a fully-licenced WS2008 server running Hyper-V includes licencing for up to four Windows Server guest VM's.

My question is, how does this work with respect to licence keys and activations, etc. Do the guest OS's not ask for licence keys when installed, do they not activate and therefore use up a licence in their own right? In other words, how in fact do you take advantage of this feature?

(I have a fully licenced WS2K8 core server box, running Hyper-V. I have two additional WS2K8 guests installed on it, one core and one full. They are both saying "cannot activate", because I have not put keys into them. I want to know what to do next, without using another (expensive!) licence. I know I can run them for up to six months by re-arming the initial temporary licence, so there is no hurry.

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Question about licencing guest OS's under Hyper-V

Wed, 01 Jul 2009 12:46:39 Z

Windows Server 208 Enterprise edition allows up to four server virtual machines. Standard edition only one, Datacenter edition unlimited.

What we are talking about is the right, not necessarily the ability to legally run virtualized server operating systems. Once you start talking about the actual activation process, it's the same as with physical machines. You have to have the product activation keys.

Here's the best post I've seen on explaining virtualization licensing rights: http://blogs.technet.com/mattmcspirit/archive/2008/11/13/licensing-windows-server-in-a-virtual-environment.aspx

Here's an explanation of activation keys: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc308698.aspx

Question about licencing guest OS's under Hyper-V

Wed, 01 Jul 2009 16:04:04 Z

Licensing for Hyper-V is serious fail. I understand the need/wish to isolate the clients from the host, but you DO still have host integration services. The best way would be to have the clients licenced would be through an API to the host and get the licensing "done" through the host (which would also allow MS to force the licensing limits for the server versions, which isn't the case atm).

Right now unless you have 5+ machines and can use KMS keys, its a downright nightmare with the licensing of the Hyper-V's with MAK keys, especially if you are trying to move stuff from 1 machine to another.

Example: We purchased a full Datacenter 2 processor edition (to get unlimited hyper-v's), and got 12 activactions. 12. For fully licensed product with unlimited clients its downright unacceptable that you are close to being forced to use KMS - i.e. have 5+ physical servers - before licensing works. Right now the situation is that we have hit the 12 and now need to call MS every time we are adding a hyper-v client.

As I said - just pure fail. My 2 cents anyway.

Question about licencing guest OS's under Hyper-V

Thu, 02 Jul 2009 07:39:49 Z

Hi,

John has provide the most authoritative explaining of virtualization licensing from Microsoft. I will include another wonderful explaining about virtualization licensing, you can refer to:

Hyper-V Licensing Explained!

http://msmvps.com/blogs/virtualreality/archive/2009/04/01/hyper-v-licensing-explained.aspx

If you want to do the further research about virtualization licensing, it is recommend you to contact Microsoft Licensing center so that you can get the most qualified pool of respondents. Thanks for your understanding.

http://www.microsoft.com/licensing/contact-us.aspx

NOTE: This response contains a reference to a third party World Wide Web site. Microsoft can make no representation concerning the content of these sites. Microsoft is providing this information only as a convenience to you: this is to inform you that Microsoft has not tested any software or information found on these sites and therefore cannot make any representations regarding the quality, safety, or suitability of any software or information found there. There are inherent dangers in the use of any software found on the Internet, and Microsoft cautions you to make sure that you completely understand the risk before retrieving any software on the Internet.

Best regards,

Vincent Hu