Virtual machines and licenses

[Jonny Two Shoes]

Hey people

Quick question, I am unsure how to google for this one and haven't seen much on the subject.

If multiple users all use the same Virtual Machine "Image" off a server such as an XP image then how does the licensing work?

Would one require an XP license for every VM user even though they are only using one VM image off a central location?

I'm sure Microsoft would not allow this though however the Virtual Machines concept is new to me and I only recently discovered how they work through my MCSE course I am busy doing part-time. This licensing issue was the first thing that came to mind when I got home and started playing with VMWare Server on my LinuxBox.

 

[bekdik]

Licensing works pretty much the same as if you had separate physical boxen. One license is required for each VM.

I believe that Win 2008 server works a little differently if you are running the VM on a Microsoft virtualization product. I heard VMware were about to fight this discrepancy in court.

 

[Jonny Two Shoes]

Interesting though, because technically you are only using one Windows License Key. So technically only one machine is getting updates etc..

So then as I understand it technically it's like having one desktop with many users, only that the users can access this desktop remotely. This would require one Windows license only no? So what is the difference really?

I understand the fact that each workstation would need a "VMWare" license but the XP license in this case...I see only one required.

Hmmmmmmm. Interesting indeed.

 

[thisgeek]

Well, technically you can only run a single image at a time. You can't run a single image multiple times, otherwise you would have multiple identical machines, and you would have network conflicts etc.

You can have many vms running at once (on the same physical machine), yes, but each one would need to be a different image.