Enter and assign purchased SQL licenses to VM hosts, VM or server
The new SQL licensing tab would even make it possible to detect unlicensed instances depending on listed availability or improper VM host movement rules.
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John Q. Martin commented
This is a good idea as many organisations license at host level when virtualising SQL Server systems. It would be good to have VMware hosts added to the licensing tab and then create the hierarchy between vCenter, VMware Cluster, VMware Host, and VM.
This way it is possible to identify where VMs might be running on unlicensed hosts, as well as a true reflection on the license position. Additionally, this opens the door to looking at license optimisation by analysing the number of vCores Vs. Physical cores in the hosts. When looking at Standard per-VM level licensing this could help customers identify the tipping point between switching to host based Enterprise of per-VM guest license models.