Emma Healey (Licensing Escalations Manager at MS UK) did an online session on licensing in the virtual world at the recent TechNet online event.
- A volume license for Windows Server is assigned to hardware. You could only reassign (move to different machine) it once every 90 days. This is an installation, not a VM migration.
- From Sept 1st 2008, we’ve been able to move CAL licensed applications from one host to another within a “server farm” as often as required. The 90 day minimum rule does not apply.
- Only the Enterprise editions of Per Processor SKU’s have free mobility. The 90 day rule does not apply.
- The free virtual operating system environment licenses cover legacy Windows OS’s.
- We CAN freely move VM’s from one host to another. This is NOTHING to do with reassigning licenses. You need to be sure the host can sufficient licensing. There are no timing issues. The 90 day rule does not apply.
Oh yeah, the licensing for SPLA is still punitive, i.e. DataCenter only exists as an anonymous SKU and authenticated SKU’s cannot be run (even if paid for) on it.