Server 2012 R2 OVS-ES - advice needed

[StevieM]

We currently have an OVS-ES subscription for Windows and Office, but we'd previously purchased Server 2008 and CALs outright. Now that we are looking at replacing our server and upgrading to 2012, I thought it would be worth adding it to our subscription but I have a few questions.

 

Is there a requirement to purchase a COA like there is for the Windows subscription?

If we purchased a Server 2012 R2 subscription, would that cover multiple installations on both physical and virtual machines?

Would CALs based on the number of FTEs cover all devices?

Do we need to specify a particular version of Server?

 

Any advice would be really welcome, as I find the whole licensing thing a bit of a minefield.

[CAWJames]

We purchase windows client by FTE, but windows server by server. Each 2012 standard licence covers 2 processors and 2 virtual instances, and if you have both virtuals running, the host OS can only be a hypervisor, no other roles, so 2 VM's and host not doing much, or 1 VM and a host that can do things! DC is not much different in that it is 1 licence per 2 processors like standard but allows unlimited VM's, obviously limited by your hardware.

 

Licences can be stacked, ie if you need to cover more processors, or want more VM's, although for the price of the DataCenter version on EES, we just covered our hosts with 3 DC licences!

 

You should be covered by FTE count if you licence the desktop for all CAL's

 

And your choice of Standard or DC depends on VM use really.

 

Hope that helps, we went through it the last couple of years, and mostly have my head around it!

 

James

Edited July 14, 2014 by CAWJames

[StevieM]

Thanks, James. I'm still a little confused though.

 

I've been quoted for an outright purchase of 2 x Server Standard licences and CALs for all current devices by two different providers and, on average, it works out about 6 or 7 times as expensive as a quote for an annual Server Standard and CALs OVS-ES based on FTEs. With Windows, each device must have an existing licence for a qualifying OS (i.e. W7 Home Premium) before we can use our volume licence to upgrade to Pro or Enterprise. Is it the same with Server? Do I need to purchase the licences in addition to the subscription? If this is the case, would it be possible to simply purchase a single Server Standard licence (to cover two physical processors) and a Server Datacenter through OVS-ES to enable me to upgrade the OS to cover multiple virtual machines?

 

(By the way, I have emailed our current reseller about this but it usually takes a few days to get a response to questions over licensing.)

[localzuk]

We currently have an OVS-ES subscription for Windows and Office, but we'd previously purchased Server 2008 and CALs outright. Now that we are looking at replacing our server and upgrading to 2012, I thought it would be worth adding it to our subscription but I have a few questions.

 

Is there a requirement to purchase a COA like there is for the Windows subscription?

If we purchased a Server 2012 R2 subscription, would that cover multiple installations on both physical and virtual machines?

Would CALs based on the number of FTEs cover all devices?

Do we need to specify a particular version of Server?

 

Any advice would be really welcome, as I find the whole licensing thing a bit of a minefield.

 

In quick answer form:

 

1. No.

2. Depends on the version. Windows Server Standard gives you 1 hardware and 2 VM installs. Datacenter gives you 1 hardware and unlimited VM installs on that hardware. The licenses are per 2 CPU sockets.

3. CALS are based on the FTE count, yes. You pay for the FTE count and are covered for all devices.

4. No.

[StevieM]

Thanks, @localzuk.

 

So just to clarify:

 

If we were looking at a two processor setup with 4 VMs, I could either purchase two Server Standard subscriptions or 1 Datacenter subscription and we'd be covered?

[localzuk]

Thanks, @localzuk.

 

So just to clarify:

 

If we were looking at a two processor setup with 4 VMs, I could either purchase two Server Standard subscriptions or 1 Datacenter subscription and we'd be covered?

 

Yup. That's correct. For a guide, you'll be looking at around £30 for a Server standard license or £180ish for a Data Centre license.

[StevieM]

Yup. That's correct. For a guide, you'll be looking at around £30 for a Server standard license or £180ish for a Data Centre license.

 

That's a BIG price difference! We could license 12 processors and 12 VMs for the price of a single DC license. Server Standard subscriptions definitely look the way to go then. Thanks, again.

[localzuk]

That's a BIG price difference! We could license 12 processors and 12 VMs for the price of a single DC license. Server Standard subscriptions definitely look the way to go then. Thanks, again.

 

Yup. There did used to be the "Enterprise" license that was in between and allowed, IIRC, 4 VMs.

 

However, Data Centre does make sense for some. We have our 2 node hyper-V cluster, both running data centre as we run around 30 VMs on top of the 2 of them. You also have the issue that with Standard, you're not allowed to migrate VMs from one machine to another more than once every 180 days (at least, that's what the old rule was).

[StevieM]

We have our 2 node hyper-V cluster, both running data centre as we run around 30 VMs on top of the 2 of them.

 

Wow! I take it your establishment is a little larger than my 360 seat KS2 school.

[localzuk]

Wow! I take it your establishment is a little larger than my 360 seat KS2 school.

 

About 1.6x that size at the moment (but we've been up to 800 in the past), but we broke everything down to be one VM per function. Makes maintenance a lot easier, as I can restart any of the servers and its only am minor issue as everything else carries on running.

[CAWJames]

What he said

[StevieM]

What he said

 

Hahaha! Thanks. After reading that bit of extra information from @localzuk, your post now makes perfect sense.

[limawhiskey]

I'm about to board the OVS-ES train too, and I'm also finding it a bit of a minefield, so this thread has answered a lot of my questions, thanks.

 

We're moving from perpetual licensing as I recently got a quote for 550 OS and office licenses and it was around £20,000!

 

I'm planning on taking a similar approach - desktop license and CALs by OVS and servers on a license-by-license basis. I'm also planning to split server roles going forward too, so expect to end up with around 10 or 12 versus our previous 4. At the moment we run VMware but I have been considering a switch to Hyper-V as the datacentre licensing seems advantageous.

 

For a guide, you'll be looking at around £30 for a Server standard license or £180ish for a Data Centre license.

Can I ask where you get that license pricing? I've been quoted £101 for academic Server Standard 2 processor licence so that seems like a bargain.

Edited July 9, 2015 by limawhiskey

[CAWJames]

Our last renewal for server was:

 

214−075 OVSF Win Server Standard 2 Processor Lic 1Yr AP for circa £30, and for our datacenter licenses(for unlimited VM's on our cluster hosts; 217−161 OVSF Win Server DataCenter 2 Processor Lic 1Yr AP circa £200

 

Hope that helps, and gives you some part numbers and price guide!

 

Thanks

 

James

[localzuk]

We got quotes from about 5 companies, all of them came in around the £32 mark. Softcat, IDNS, Millgate, UK Computer Supplies etc...

 

I suspect you're not being quoted for an OVS-ES license there.

[StevieM]

Glad this thread has helped you out, too, @limawhiskey. We also paid £30 for 2012 R2 Standard, and it was around £2 - £2.50 per member of staff for CALs from @Millgate (who are brilliant, btw).