Server Licenses

[andybarker27]

My understanding is if you purchased 1 x Windows Server 2012R2 Standard it allows

 

 

Phyiscal server and 2 VMs to run

 

 

If you needed 4 VMs on the same server you either buy 2 x Standard licenses or a Datacentre license.

 

 

 

But what happens if this physical server was running standard server but the VMs were hosted on a SAN.

Physical server hosted 4 VMs, i assume 2x Standard licenses would be needed??

 

 

SAN setup...

if you have 2 or 3 physical servers and a SAN or 2 x SANs you would go down the route of datacentre. but would you need 2 or 3 datacantre licenses?

[m25man]

https://hyperv.veeam.com/blog/virtualization-rights-windows-server-2012-r2/

 

Explains it without to much Microsoft BS.

[Tallwood_6]

The SAN element has no impact on the number of licenses required.

Standard edition licenses for 2 virtual machines on two physical processors, so yes 2 standard licenses would be required to run 4 virtual machines on a single host.

Datacentre licenses for an unlimited number of virtual machines on 2 physical processors.

 

Datacentre licensing is going to be the simplest and most cost effective license type if your going to be hosting large numbers of virtual machines per host.

[Blue_Cookeh]

It's important to note the physical portion of the licensing (if using x2 VMs) only accounts for a host running the Hyper-V role and nothing more.

[PotNoodleTech]

My advice if you can is to always get a datacentre licence as then you can run as many VMs as you want at no extra cost. Makes it so handy moving forward.

[KK20]

it isn't always cheaper for datacentre, I find this site with diagrams useful Virtualisation Licensing for WS2012 & WS2012 R2 | Aidan Finn, IT Pro . We have a 2 host cluster (2x 8 core CPUs in each cluster host) and a standalone quad core single CPU DC too. We have 6 windows server guest VMs (VOSE as MS calls them) and the cluster hosts do nothing other than host and backups. We need (in total) 13 MS licenses (12x VMs due to cluster pair and 1x standalone) all my servers have no more than 2 physical CPUs so a single license covers this aspect. However, for VMs each server license allows 2x VOSE so taking my physical standalone server out of the equation I now only need 12/2 or 6 server licenses. In total I need 7 licenses.

 

I cannot use datacentre otherwise I would need 2x datacentre and 1x std as the licenses are bound to hardware (with a single migration allowed in 90 days) so I cannot use a single datacentre to license the lot as there are 3 pieces of physical hardware that need licensing. the way you license also counts, you might only need to declare your changes upon renewal - it depends on what you are doing and what model you are using (this might make speculative licensing obsolete for you). Another caveat is that your hosts should be doing nothing other than things essential to hosting. The hosts cannot be DCs (!) or email/print/file sharing servers (!!!) as this would necessitate the hosts being licensed independently too. I believe datacentre gets round this though (don't quote me on that, and as to WHY you would want the host to do something else is beyond me)

[Steve21]

Not sure if I'm misunderstanding what you're saying but you shouldn't need as many as you're asking. Why can't you use Data Centre?

 

2 HOSTs with 2 CPU = 2 Data Centre. 1 Standalone for your physical DC, That's it everything you require. Even if you have 100000000 VMs running

 

That doesn't matter how many VMs are running on your HOSTS as they're covered by the HOST license.

 

Steve

[KK20]

cost. EES license is £30 per std license but datacenter is £180. £360 vs £180 (looking at the cluster licenses only). Sure I could have the option of running more VMs if I wish but for the foreseeable future I wont need more MS VMs (there are more Linux VMs running on the clusters)

[CAWJames]

AFAIK you have to count Linux in the count too, not just MS OS's. We looked into this years ago, and thought std licence and loads of CENTOS VM's, woo and hoo... but we were advised they were counted as an OS, didn't matter if it was MS or whatever

 

I should add, please feel free to shoot me down on this, as it was back in the 2008R2 days, and things may have changed

Edited April 1, 2016 by CAWJames
Just as a thought

[KK20]

Pugh didn't seem to think so. Linux has no licensing requirements on hyper-v from any of the people I have spoken too. Who did you speak too? The server licensing is quite specific - VOSE is windows server only (not even Windows desktop). Centos, Ubuntu, Redhat is not windows server and is not on the downgrade rights either so a 2K12R2 license would not cover Linux anyway.

[Tallwood_6]

Standard edition licences for 2 virtual operating system environments so this should include linux.

[CAWJames]

To be honest, it was ages ago and was when we were licensing the old Enterprise version of 2008R2, I *think* it was RM. We were basically told an "OSE" was any code that ran as an OS, not just WinServer.

 

As I edited, I am fully expecting to be shot down as the advice is old and Vrights may have changed considerably.

[Tallwood_6]

Windows licencing is clear as mud

[CAWJames]

Ask 10 licensing bods a question and you will get 11 different answers an old microsoftism

 

Having just done some quick google-fu, I think I am wrong and it is the wording in the official docs that refer to VM rather then VOSE.

 

Which also means those thinking about VDI can host ALL their LICENCED Windows 7/8/10 DESKTOP instances on Standard or even the free Hyper-V server

[KK20]

VOSE has always meant "server" OSE in MS terms when looking at 1POSE 2VOSE or 1+1 in 2008 days (or buy one get 4 free in the old days etc) - I added an edit2 to explain my reasoning. Any other OS is licensed outside of the scope as required; A windows 2k12 license would not cover you for a windows 7 or 8.1 VM for example (that would be done via VDI) - ironically it was this path that led me to question our MS licensing resellers (I wanted to VM a windows 7 machine for a specific piece of software - turned out it was a very expensive proposition due to VDI). Hyper-V core edition can load up on Linux VMs without paying a single penny to MS. Likewise, hyper-v core plus a desktop OS paired with VDI wont involve any serverlicensing.

 

CALS on the other-hand are another matter, Linux servers may be using elements of AD (from a correctly licensed windows server) in which case anything using those Linux servers will need CALS (don't forget external connectors too) - you cant get around desktop CALS by presenting clients the Linux server (which is using windows server resources) for example.

 

(EDIT: you posted after I started the reply so there might be some overlap with VDI etc - the main confusion is MS terms of VM, server and OSE.)

 

EDIT2: I should have put my own google-fu up. The 2012r2 licensing guide from MS points to VOSE "product terms" hyperlink. This details that the VOSE are linked to the server running instances - therefore if your host is a running instance of server 2012R2 (and the license is a 2012R2 standard) then you are allowed another pair of VOSE 2k12R2 running instances. The agreement also allows you to downgrade the running instance to a previous version hence why you can use a VM server 2008 OS on a 2k12 license. Windows 7 is not on the downgrade rights for 2k12R2 so cannot be used within the 2012R2 VOSE running instance "allowance" and would need to be licensed separately (VDI in this case). Linux is not on the downgrade rights for 2012R2 therefore would need to be licensed separately (and Linux needs no licensing so you are clear).

Edited April 1, 2016 by KK20

[LytchettNM]

Just to throw a spanner in the works you could use Microsoft hyper-V server which is a free version of server for your hosts which would save you having to license your hosts at all leaving you with just your VM's to deal with, I'm not sure I would want to put my DC or DC's all into hyper-V but it's an options.

https://technet.microsoft.com/en-gb/library/hh833684.aspx here is a link to the MS page about it.

[Blue_Cookeh]

We're licensed for 3 Windows Server Standard installs. Currently this gives us the rights to run x3 Server Standard physical machines (running the Hyper-V role only) and 6 Windows VMs on top. In reality, we run 4 Windows VMs on 2 Hyper-V roles and 1 Physical server.

 

We were told Linux guests don't count towards Hyper-V licensing, which makes sense since you can download the Hyper-V core server for free...

 

Also, there's no need for a physical DC nowadays