Hi, I am working on consolidation project. We are planning to move sql server instances from physical to virtual or in other words converting from physical to virtual. I want to know any issue regarding licensing. Is there any change in licensing when we convert physical to virtual. We also have sql server cluster (physical). We want to convert to virtual. Is there any issue regarding conversion or licensing. Any help will be appreciated.
First moving from physical to virtual cant be called as consolidation but rather visualization.Though I have seen organizations doing consolidations even for virtual environments.
As far as licensing for virtual environment goes it depends on what licensing model you have for your physical server whether its processor based or CAL based.And if processor based then whether you have hyper-threading on or off.
After Monday and Tuesday even the calendar says W T F ....
Schan thanks for reply. Basically we have plan to convert physical cluster to virtual. For licensing, we have processor based license. For processor based how it will affect for virtulization and any affect with hyper-threading on and off?
It is called Virtualization and Visualization as I stated in my previous post..My bad..
By no means I am a licensing expert but with what I know if you have hyper-threading off on the physical machine the licenses for no of cores would be counted and if on then no of threads.
So basically if you have 4 processors in your VM and your physical machine is dual core with hyperthreading off then the no of processor license you would require would be
4/2(dual core)=2 processor license
With hyperthreading off no of cores come into picture and when on then no of threads(physical processors) come into picture.
After Monday and Tuesday even the calendar says W T F ....
You really need to talk with your MS account representative to find out what your options really are. There are options to run any number of virtual servers with SQL Server - but that requires at least Enterprise Edition licenses.
It also depends on the versions you are installing as to how they will be licensed.
..There are options to run any number of virtual servers with SQL Server - but that requires at least Enterprise Edition licenses.
It also depends on the versions you are installing as to how they will be licensed.
Jeff
Yes there are..
But that would mean that all the physical processors(across all cores) should be licensed with Enterprise edition and then only can you run unlimited instances in one physical machine and N number of virtual machines running only on that physical machine.
After Monday and Tuesday even the calendar says W T F ....
quote:Originally posted by Sachin.Nand Yes there are..
But that would mean that all the physical processors(across all cores) should be licensed with Enterprise edition and then only can you run unlimited instances in one physical machine and N number of virtual machines running only on that physical machine.
After Monday and Tuesday even the calendar says W T F ....
I know - and it changes based on the version you are installing. I believe with SQL Server 2008 Enterprise - it is an unlimited number of virtuals, but with 2012 you can only have 4 instances.
That is why I highly recommend talking to your MS account representative about this and see what options they have available.
Physical cluster to virtual
Posted - 05/29/2012 : 10:31:19
