SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 9

Upgrade Protection Licensing and Pricing Policies

In general servers are licensed according to the number of physical servers and CPU sockets on which SUSE Linux Enterprise Server is installed.

Virtual Images

Using virtual images on a physical server or processor does not alter the general licensing policy. Therefore there is no additional charge when using virtual images with hardware partioning or on top of a host system running SUSE Linux Enterprise Server. If your host system is running another operating system licensing is done according to the maximum number of processors in your physical server used with SUSE Linux Enterprise Server.

Dual Core Processors

Dual-core processor technology, the placement of two processor cores in one physical socket, is an exciting development in the enterprise server market. Dual core processors are essentially a performance upgrade to an existing single core processor, and as such conform to general licensing policy. Novell considers a dual core processor as a single processor for licensing and maintenance of its server products.

Hyperthreading Processors

While some software applications may recognize Hyperthreaded processors as two processing units, Novell considers Hyperthreaded processors as a single CPU socket for licensing and maintenance of its server products.

Clusters

A Cluster is generally regarded as a collection of interconnected servers working together as a single computing resource. Two common types of Cluster configuration are Fail-over Clusters and High Performance Clusters (HPC).

Fail-over Clusters

Special licensing applies for Fail-over Clusters in situations that conform to all of the following criteria:

• From the customer or application point of view the fail-over cluster behaves like a single system.
• The cluster nodes implement identical or redundant use cases, e.g. a Database server or a Webserver.
• The cluster contains "Active Nodes" and "Stand-by Nodes". During normal operation only Active Nodes communicate to the outside.
• Stand-by Nodes will be activated only if a malfunction of Active Nodes occurs.

Stand-by Nodes are free of charge and need not to be licensed.

Active Nodes are priced as regular servers, e.g. SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 9 for x86 and for AMD64 & Intel EM64T 1-Server up to 16-socket Annual Upgrade Protection e-License.

High Performance Computing Pricing

For academic and research purposes we have special HPC pricing available. Please contact your Novell sales person or your HPC-Cluster hardware vendor for further information.