What is the Windows server environment limit on an MSDN subscription?

Question

We're content management integrators. We want to set-up a different VM for every .Net project we do. We might need 20 a year, maybe 30.

Does the MSDN Professional license allow this? I've seen so much conflicting information by this time that my head is spinning. (I can't believe the amount of contradictory information floating around -- a lot of it on Microsoft's own site.)

In a perfect world, we could install unlimited Windows server environments for development purposes on different VMs. These are not production environments -- each will be used solely for one client's CM integration project.

Two questions --

Am I going to hit a limit at some point on Windows dev environments?

Are the client-side apps different? I have a bunch of people on Macs that all need a Windows install on their VM to test in IE6/7. Can we install Windows on all these VMs for this purpose?

Answer 1

It's very tough sometimes to understand Microsoft licensing. I'd suggest you call them - there should be a contact number when you log in to the MSDN Subscriber web site. However, my personal understanding is that for development purposes, you can install as many servers as you need. The desktop OSs are (were) limited to 10 different installs. I do not know the VM restrictions. Again, your best bet to be in compliance is to call them.

Answer 2

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/subscriptions/subscriptionschart.aspx

The short answer: it depends on your subscription level.

A basic subscription only gives you one license key for most products, which will only allow one installation. It sounds like you will need to purchase volume licenses.

Answer 3

Microsoft licensing is very complex, but it's important to make the distinction here between three things:

1. installation media,
2. product keys, and
3. licenses.

The third one (licenses) is certainly the fuzziest, but my read of the latest MSDN subscription license terms doesn't spot any restriction on how many VMs you could use, so long as you're using them for development purposes such as those you mention.

One very important addition to this is that an MSDN subscription is only licensed for use by one developer. You'll need a separate subscription for each developer that is using MSDN resources for development.

And, finally, when installing images in Virtual PC (and presumably similarly for Virtual Server), I found that if I prepared and activated one image, and then copied that activated base image once for each separate VM instance that I needed, I only had to activate the very first time no matter how many copies I made. This makes it easier to avoid running over the 10 machine activation limit that applies to most MSDN product keys. Although I've never had a chance with Microsoft raising my limit if I called the activation hotline with a reasonable explanation for why mine were all used up.