How will SQL Server 2008 R2 licensing work for virtual servers?
R2′s licensing has an ugly change for shops who use virtualization. Right now, if you buy SQL Server 2008 Enterprise Edition now by the CPU, you get unlimited virtualization rights. If you’ve got a 4-socket virtual host and you buy 4 sockets of Enterprise Edition, you can run as many SQL Servers on that host as you want. From Microsoft’s SQL Server 2008 Licensing Guide: “For enterprise edition there is an added option: if all physical processors in a machine have been licensed, then you may run unlimited instances of SQL server 2008 in one physical and an unlimited number of virtual operating environments on that same machine.” You may not be running SQL Server widely in virtualization environments yet, but ask yourself how many SQL Server 2000 and 2005 instances you’re running today. SQL Server doesn’t just go away – the instances you install today will still be in production for years to come. They might not be virtualized today, but they’re gonna be virtual years from now, and today
