April 18, 2010 at 11:34 pm
I have got 3 servers SRV1,SRV2,SRV3 running SQL EE licensed for 2 cpu. I am planning to consolidate all the 3 servers in a single VM with 4 cpu under 3 different instances in isolation. I have already done the homewwork of monitoring the cpu,mem and i/o for couple of months in the 3 servers and then came to a conclusion that its safe to consolidate. I cannot do it in a single instance and needs to keep them isolated.
Now my question is how many license do i require. Do i need only one or 3 license for 3 instances.
I have already gone through MS sites but couldn't come to a solution, licensing are bit confusing for me and hence asking bigwigs of SQLservercentral to help me out.
April 19, 2010 at 1:00 am
You only need to licence the physical CPU sockets or in the case of a VM the virtual CPU's.
If you license the VM host machine at SQL Server Enterprise edition this allows you mulitple VM's all of which are covered by the host licence. SQL Server is not licensed at the instance level, the licensed CPU allows multiple instances. Check this link for info on virtual licensing.
BTW, Which hypervisor are you using? I would recommend that you do not assign 4 vCPU's to any VM!
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
"Ya can't make an omelette without breaking just a few eggs" 😉
April 19, 2010 at 1:19 am
ok if i can get a 2 CPU license for a VM not the host can i use multiple instance at cost of one license ?
The link you gave is very good but i need sometime to digest.
Is there any particular reason why you donot suggest a 4 cpu in VM. I would like to know more on this.
Right now i don't know which hypersior is being used , i need to get in touch with the server team.
April 19, 2010 at 8:58 am
If you're using VMWare ESX\VI then VMWare don't recommend 4 vCPU's. In extreme cases it can cause the host CPU to max out. All VM's are generally created with 1 vCPU. If the application being hosted is truly SMP aware then assign 2 vCPU's, it is not best practice or recommended to assign 4 vCPU's. Check the VMWare website for more info and check which hypervisor you are using
Ananda-292708 (4/19/2010)
ok if i can get a 2 CPU license for a VM not the host can i use multiple instance at cost of one license ?
no, multiple instances at the cost of 2 licences (you are licensing 2 processors). You may install 50 instances for Ent or 16 for all others.
Ananda-292708 (4/19/2010)
The link you gave is very good but i need sometime to digest.
read it well, it has a lot of info
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
"Ya can't make an omelette without breaking just a few eggs" 😉
Viewing 4 posts - 1 through 3 (of 3 total)
You must be logged in to reply to this topic. Login to reply