Licensing Policy Implementation with MSCS

• Microsoft Windows NT Server, Enterprise Edition version 4.0 - Microsoft Cluster Server

SUMMARY

The following article discusses the licensing considerations when you deploy Microsoft Cluster Server (MSCS).

MORE INFORMATION

Each application vendor must determine its own licensing policies for applications running on Microsoft Cluster Server clusters.

The current policy for server application licensing provided by Microsoft applies to MSCS clusters: an application must be separately licensed for each server on which it is installed.

Per-Seat Licensing

If the customer is using per-seat Client Access Licenses (CALs) for the application, those licenses apply when a client is accessing the application on either server in the cluster.

Per-Server Licensing

If the customer is using per-server (or concurrent use) Client Access Licenses for the application, each computer in the cluster should have a sufficient number of per-server Client Access Licenses for the expected peak load of the application on that computer

For example, if both nodes of a cluster were running Microsoft SQL Server Enterprise Edition, with 100 Clients Access Licenses per node, as the typical number of connections, the nodes should both be set for 200 CALs to service the connections after failover.

NOTE: Per-server Client Access Licenses do not failover from one computer in the cluster to the other.

Cluster Server Licensing

In a Cluster Server cluster, if an application runs on both servers, or even if it only runs on one server at a time but must be installed on both servers to permit failover, the application must be licensed for both servers. Thus, MSCS is licensed per server.

Client licensing is covered under the Microsoft Windows NT Server licensing agreement.