VM /ETC

The much anticipated announcement of a change in Microsoft licensing policy for virtual environments was delivered today as promised but with an unexpected let down. Microsoft has waived the 90 day mobility restrictions for applications like Exchange, SQL, Sharepoint, Systems Center Operations Manager, and many others but still limits the Windows Server operating system. Microsoft, apparently only concerned with silo-ed hypervisor deployments like Hyper-V, continues to only allow the migration of a virtual machine operating system once every 90 days. Microsoft considers a VMotion or live migration of an entire virtual machine as a transfer of license between hardware platforms.

The following paragraph was taken from the Overview section of the new Application Licensing Mobility Brief:

“This is accomplished by allowing customers to reassign licenses freely across servers within a server farm. The changes apply to software licenses for certain server applications and all external connector (EC) licenses. In these cases, the limitation on short-term (90 days or less) license reassignment is waived. This change does not apply to software licenses for the Windows Server® operating system, Client Access Licenses (CALs), or Management Licenses (MLs). This change applies only to licenses acquired under a Volume Licensing program. It does not apply to licenses acquired through other retail sources.”

The Application Licensing Mobility Brief is now available for download from the Volume Licensing Briefs page of Microsoft.com. The Licensing Microsoft Server Products in Virtual Environments brief is also available from the Volume Licensing page. Understanding the combination of the 2 briefs is required in order to make sure companies have adequate Microsoft licensing coverage for virtual environments.

Although the software licensing changes could mean significant savings in a virtual environment for companies already properly licensed, in my opinion these briefs only clarify that many organizations are not meeting Microsoft’s terms for virtual infrastructure. This makes today’s news hardly worth celebrating.

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