SBS 2011 Premium Add-on

[bremen1874]

I’ve got a PE2900 III running SBS 2003 Premium. It’s stuck with the 4GB memory limitation and it’s really struggling.

I’m considering buying a new server running SBS 2011 with the Premium Add-on (OEM).

I’d like to keep the PE2900 (2 years of warranty left) and use the Server 2008 R2 license that comes with the Premium Add-on.

Is it possible? Presumably the additional Server 2008 R2 license will be OEM which would normally require that it’s supplied with the hardware?

 

[bremen1874]

The Premium Add-on adds SQL Server and an additional Server 2008 R2 license to SBS 2011.

There’s a significant difference between OEM and Retail licensing costs for SBS 2011 with the Premium Add-on (£1,000+). Because of this it would make sense to go down the OEM route with a new server.

If the additional Server 2008 R2 license (and SQL Server) could be used on the existing (and still very capable) PE2900 III then there’s a much better chance that I’ll be able to get the necessary budget authorised.

 

[bremen1874]

There's no issue with the hardware. Dell has Server 2008 R2 listed as a supported operating system.

It’s running a single E5420 Xeon, with seven 73GB 15K SAS drives on a PERC6. With a bit more memory it’d be more than capable of handling anything I’d need it to do.

The only question is whether the terms of the OEM version of the SBS 2011 Premium Add-on licence would permit the use of existing hardware (for the second server).

I’ll have chance to speak to my normal licensing people during the week. I just posted the question on the off chance that someone on here already knew the answer.