We are planning to commence building Virtual PC images. Before we start, we need to ensure we are compliant with licensing for XP and Office.
The issue is how we license Office and XP for the virtual machine.
We want to create two images. these two images could be running on any thing from 0-50 machines on a given week. We want to avoid having to manage 50 Different Virtual PC images/files as this would be an administration Hell!.
Q1.) Ideally if we had a file recording the 50 XP and MS office Product keys would this be sufficient?
The best answer so far is:
The Dynamic Systems Initiative is a Microsoft effort to facilitate licensing in
a virtualised world. The launch press releases from late 2005 specifically talks
about its use for Windows Server and includes the line: Licensing by running instance improves the value and
flexibility of Windows Server System products. Customers will no longer license
every inactive or stored instance of a Windows Server System product.
Customers can now create and store unlimited numbers of instances, including
those for backup and recovery, and pay only for the maximum number of running
instances at any given time.
We won’t be running the Windows
Server product, but the underlying license may be available for other OS’s
including XP. I think that this model would meet our
needs.
The link to the original press
release is: http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/press/2005/oct05/10-10VirtualizationStrategyPR.mspx
Q2) What do we need to do to ensure compliance for XP and Office in the
virtual machine?
