About WSS 3.0 licensing ...

Question

Hello World !!

I have an intranet with MOSS 2007 Enterprise for 3500 users (CALs Std + CALs Ent) with this topology:
2 WFE + 1 index + 2 SQL in cluster mode A/P which is accessible ONLY by internal users. No internet access.

I have a public site named http://www.publicsite.com which is PHP/Flash site which is hosted by an ISP

I need to plan a WSS 3.0 infrastructure for a new site (only readonly published information) in DMZ which will be
accessible by internal authenticated users:

Users type http://www.publicsite.com (with a button linked URL) or can access by http://sitesos.plubicsite.com
A Form-Based Authentication appears and users type their username/password or can use a RSA Token, so
this site is https://sitesos.publicsite.com

Authentication will make by AD (with Radius or something like this) and users can consult 3 or 4 pages
This site will be recycle 1 or 2 months later.

So question: Should I take a SQL standalone with WSS 3.0 or connect WSS 3.0 server with SQL distant of my intranet ?

There is NO CONNECTION beetween Intranet and this secured site. The number of users is about 1600 users.

So, some questions:

- Do I need license for WSS 3.0 server ?
- Do I need CALs for users ?

If this server is in a DMZ, is it considered like "Internet Facing" and do I acquire a special license ?

I read a lot of articles about licensing and it seems that's not simple.

Thanks for your ideas / help
Regards
Have a nice day
-YES-

Answer 1

Please double check with your Microsoft Rep but this is my understanding:

The license for WSS 3.0 is included in your Windows Server license (Win Server 2003 or 2008).  Also, there are no User CALs for WSS 3.0 they are tied into your Windows Server licenses as well.  So if your server OS is licensed for 1000 users then WSS is also licensed for 1000 users.

There is not a WSS specific "Internet Facing" license, again it is tied into the server OS.  So you may need a Windows External Connector license.

Read this article, it should help you determine if you need the external connector or not and does a pretty good job exlplaining the licensing scheme for SharePoint.

http://officesharepointpro.com/Articles/tabid/149/nodeid/1925/Licensing-Windows-SharePoint-Services-.aspx

Answer 2

Indeed you need an external connector licence for the server hosting WSS , but also for the windows server hosting your sql server database, if you don't run it on the WSS box

"Don’t forget, if SQL Server (any edition) is running on a physical box other than the WSS server, you must have the Windows Server OS license and either Windows Server CALs or an External Connector license. "

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Serge Luca; blog: http://www.redwood.be

Answer 3

I'd like to add to both of the other answers that they only apply in the case where the WSS farm is *completely separate* from the MOSS farm.

It can use the same SQL Server to store its databases but they must be its (WSS's) databases.

The WSS 3.0 farm can not use *anything* that is part of the MOSS farm and can not use any MOSS functions (if these can be split off from the MOSS installation which isn't in any case sure that it is possible at all). If it does then full MOSS licensing is required for the "WSS 3.0" farm too.

In other words. Content is completely separate and any automation will need to come from own code written that will automatically update a document (say) to both a document library in the MOSS system and to a document library in the WSS 3.0 system (etc.) 

(Confirming the need for the Internet connector for the server - at ca 2K per server  it is a fraction of the cost of the connector for MOSS (30K each) however.)

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WSS FAQ sites: http://wssv2faq.mindsharp.com and http://wssv3faq.mindsharp.com
Total list of WSS 3.0 / MOSS 2007 Books (including foreign language) http://wssv3faq.mindsharp.com/Lists/v3%20WSS%20FAQ/V%20Books.aspx