Javier's SBS Wonderland : SBS Licensing

How to buy SBS 4.x/2000 CALs

Javier — Tue, 29 Mar 2005 12:45:00 GMT

This question is coming up a lot in the SBS newsgroups. Basically if you have an SBS 4.x or 2000 server and need to buy CALs for it you will soon find out that they have been discontinued. You need to buy SBS2k3 CALs and use your “downgrade rights“ to install them on the older SBS version.

Sounds simple? Yes... well... not quite. When was the last time you saw something simple regarding licensing? :-)

The problem is that SBS2k (and prior) used a floppy disk to install the CALs (which is no longer needed in 2k3). To obtain this disk you need to call MS Fulfilment Center and ask them to send the media (small fee). For your convinience, the phone number (in the US) is (800) 360-7561 and the sku of the disk is 807-00144.

By the way... this info is (in part) on the Licensing Faq.

Free TS CALs for SBSers

Javier — Tue, 30 Nov 2004 20:19:00 GMT

This is awesome! Get free 5 TS CALs if you buy SBS2k3 + Win2k/2k3. But, you have to hurry because it is only valid from November 1st, 2004 to February 28th, 2005. Order them here: http://microsoft.order-7.com/sbstscals/

I just learned about this when Gavin blogged it today (read the whole article). I'm not sure how this slipped under my radar. Kudos to Gavin!

New Info: Apparently this offer is only valid in Canada. I'm waiting for confirmation, but it appears to be that way. :-(

Per Processor Licensing

Javier — Mon, 25 Oct 2004 14:42:00 GMT

Although this is old news for SBSers (and not totally relevant)... now Microsoft has made public their policy of using Per Processor licensing (as opposed to Per Core). SBS 2003 is currently limited to 2 physical processors, but it can support 4 HyperThreading (virtual) processors. These are great news, because the experts predict that the chip engineering focus will change in the next couple of years to dual-core (instead of just higher transistor density) processors. Now Intel and AMD can build these chips without licensing concerns.

Check out the official statement from Microsoft