Microsoft Windows Server Virtualization

Infrastructure grows and its mission evolves. To accommodate increasing workloads, faster, denser (i.e., more cores) processors are deployed, translating into additional investment in software. When Windows Server 2008R2 was released, Microsoft introduced new virtualization rights:

– For Standard Edition, one (1) physical operating system environment (“OSE”) and one (1) virtual OSE. This is known as the “1+1” rule.

– For Enterprise Edition, one (1) physical OSE and up to four (4) virtual OSEs. This is known as the “1+4” rule.

-Datacenter Edition enjoys unlimited virtual OSE (while retaining the single instance on the physical OSE).

Two important factors within the above points:

1. the physical OSE can only be used for management of the virtual OSE(s)
2. the virtualization rights require that all processors in the server be licensed.