How to license server OS when using OVS/EES

[Jonesminor]

Please could someone suggest the best way of licensing our servers, the OS in particular?

 

We switched to EES in 2012, I suspect from a Schools Agreement. Previously, the latest server releases would magically appear on the VLSC but I believe we now have to license servers separately. We're testing Server 2012 but will probably wait for R2 before going live.

 

We have 10 physical servers, 5 of which are running VMware ESXi, the other 5 2008 R2. There are 15 virtual servers running 2008 R2.

 

We run ISA, Exchange and SharePoint virtually and we have separate licenses for these.

 

If possible, we'd pay annually with access to all the latest Server OS releases.

 

Thanks in advance.

 

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[Gibson335]

You could consider adding DataCenter to your EES agreement, as this covers multiple servers and versions - ideal for virtual use. At some point you could also add Exchange as well.

[Chris_]

We're licensing our servers as part of our EES agreement. We have 3x ESXi hosts with 2 processors so 3x Server 2012 Datacenter licenses cover us as each Datacenter license covers 2 processors.

 

If your physical servers each have 2x processors and your ESXi hosts each have 2x processors you're probably best licensing 5x copies of 2012 Datacenter and 5x copies of 2012 Standard. I think the Datacenter licenses are around £100 p/a and the Standard licenses are somewhere between £25-50 p/a. Your best bet would be to speak to the company that you get your EES agreement from.

[Jamo]

We're licensing our servers as part of our EES agreement. We have 3x ESXi hosts with 2 processors so 3x Server 2012 Datacenter licenses cover us as each Datacenter license covers 2 processors.

 

If your physical servers each have 2x processors and your ESXi hosts each have 2x processors you're probably best licensing 5x copies of 2012 Datacenter and 5x copies of 2012 Standard. I think the Datacenter licenses are around £100 p/a and the Standard licenses are somewhere between £25-50 p/a. Your best bet would be to speak to the company that you get your EES agreement from.

 

You should think about how often you want to upgrade. Compare EES with select in both formats but remember to take in to account growth of the server farm in the future datacenter is prob the way to go though

[Jonesminor]

Many thanks! I shall speak to our supplier re the datacenter option.