Chris and Daves SharePoint and Tech Blog

 As I have said I previous posts myself and Alan Richards have been giving a series of presentations on SharePoint 2010 and virtualization, this is an ever evolving presentation thanks to questions we get asked and one of those questions was the licencing model for HyperV so I thought that through this post I would explain the licencing of your Guest Windows servers OS’s on HyperV and the different licencing options you are presented with depending on the host version of Windows that you choose to run your HyperV environment on.

 As I stated in a previous post on licencing SharePoint 2010 for education in the UK the subject of Microsoft licencing is always a lively discussion and so it proved with that particular post but from the research I have done I think the licencing model for HyperV is pretty cut and dried (Well let’s hope so.)

Windows Server 2008 Standard

 This version provides you with a single free licence for your HyperV guest windows server operating system.

Windows Server 2008 Enterprise Edition

 The enterprise edition of Server 2008 allows you to run 4 guest Windows server instances free from additional licence costs.

Windows Server 2008 Datacentre Edition

 With the Datacentre version the licencing model for the host is slightly different in as much as this version is licenced per processor (Not cores but physical platters) so a single quad core processor would only require 1 Datacentre licence but does provide the best value for large HyperV environments, as this version of Windows server provides you with unlimited licences for your guest Windows server operating systems. The Datacentre version was at one point only available as an OEM product when purchased with hardware but that changed in October 2006 and is now available through your normal licencing channel.

 I have provided below a simple table to help with your decisions on which version of Windows server to run in your host HyperV setup.