It is without a doubt that your business might
benefit from using a top of the line IT platform such as Server 2008 r2 Enterprise. The edition of the software
you are to purchase, however, will depend on certain variables. These include
how many virtual machines or VM’s you are about are to use and your rubrics for
high availability.
If you want to use server 2008 functions such as
Live Migration, you will need to purchase the Enterprise or Datacenter versions
of the app as these are only available in the stock keeping units of each. Then, the number of virtal machines that
Standard supports is one physical OS and one virtual operating system. On the
other hand, one physical operating system is supported by Enterprise followed
by 4 virtual OS’s. While one actual operating system and virtual OS’s are
unlimited with Datacenter.
Another thing you should take note of is that
multiple licenses may be assigned to one physical server. If you buy 2 copies
of Server Enterprise and assign them to a particular server, that then allows
you to run up to 8 VM’s. You can also purchase 8 copies of Std Edition or two
from Datacenter.
In terms of efficiency of use, several factors come
into play, these include how you ration the VM’s per server. In the case of
Standard Edition, it is ideal to use 3 VM’s while 3 copies of the Std platform
are used. For Enterprise, it is better if you use 4 VM’s for each processor and
4 per server. If you have a dual processor and you want to use up to 8 virtual
machines, 2 copies of Server Ent. Is the ideal to purchase.
It is most efficient to use Datacenter if you run
more than 4 VM’s for every processor. This way you can use an unlimited amount
of virtual machines per processor and you can in turn license each processor.
You may also want to use Datacenter rather than Enterprise if you anticipate
further requirements. Just take note that all the processors need to be
licensed. Finally, it is important to remember that using the highest number of
virtual instances limits you to running only the Hyper-V workload inside the
parent partition. Running more workloads than that makes you lose a virtual
instance right.
These are just some of the things to remember on
when you’re deciding to get Server 2008R2 Enterprise or something else. Take note of these guidelines and see
which ones are most appropriate to your business needs.
