“Virtual Machine” (“VM”) environments such as Microsoft’s Hyper-V, VMWare, Xen (Citrix and open source), and others offer a variety of benefits for software deployment, testing and development. They also introduce important licensing considerations for all software run in virtual machines.
The fact that one hardware machine may host multiple VMs that can be freely moved from one hardware machine to another means that software licensing concepts must be elevated from the hardware machine to the virtual machine. The easiest way to understand and comply with virtual machine licensing is to treat it the same as hardware machine licensing. So, from the perspective of application software and the deployment components required for it to operate, each running virtual machine is effectively a complete, stand-alone system that requires its own license.
The Software Licensing Agreement provided with each current Data Access Worldwide product refers specifically to how our products are licensed when used in virtual machine environments. While the License Agreement is the authoritative definition of our license policy, the following is an informal summary of how Data Access Worldwide’s products can be used in virtual machine environments and software users’ licensing responsibilities.
Visual DataFlex Web Application Server (and its Connectivity Kit, if used) must be licensed for each running virtual machine that contains the product even if the VMs are running on a single hardware machine. Using one Web Application Server license on multiple virtual machines is a copyright violation just as the use of one license on multiple hardware machines is a copyright violation.
Visual DataFlex Client Licenses and Connectivity Kits – User counted Client Licenses and Connectivity Kits are required for each concurrent user in network computing environments; user counting remains the essential metric for licensing these products in VM environments as well. Visual DataFlex application users are responsible to ensure that regardless of the underlying technology (standard operating system or VM or VMs), no more than the total licensed number of end users concurrently use any Visual DataFlex application.
Inactive deployment VMs, such backup images that contain Visual DataFlex Client Licenses, do not require a license.
Visual DataFlex Studio – While deployment products are licensed by concurrent user count and machine, the License Agreement for Visual DataFlex Studio authorizes use by one designated individual. The License Agreement states, “You may use the Software Product (Visual DataFlex Studio) on only one computer at a time”. Accordingly, the licensed Studio user may operate multiple virtual instances of Visual DataFlex Studio provided that they are running on only one single hardware machine at a time.
Licensing in Virtual Machine Environments