Updated: July 14, 2020 (May 21, 2007)
Charts & IllustrationsWindows Server OS Virtualization Licensing
The accompanying chart summarizes virtualization-related license rights for Microsoft server OSs. Virtualization licensing is based on the particular edition of Windows Server employed, and the licensing model used by each edition. Windows Server 2003 Datacenter Edition is licensed per processor, while other editions are licensed per server. Not shown are Web Edition and Compute Cluster Editions. Neither can be used to host virtual machines (VMs), although either can be used as the OS inside a VM, with restrictions on the types of workloads they can perform.
| Windows Server Edition | Processors Supported | Server OS Licenses Required for Host OS | OS Licenses Required for Each Windows Guest OS |
| Small Business Server 2003 R2 | 2 | 1 | 1 |
| Windows Server 2003 Standard Edition R2 | 4 | 1 | 1 |
| Windows Server 2003 Enterprise Edition R2 | 8 | 1 | 0 for up to 4 virtual machines (VMs) |
| Windows Server 2003 Datacenter Edition R2 | 1 per |
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