[windows software] I have no idea about licensing or if our licensing is legit!

[TomHD]

Hello All,

 

I've never dealt with the licensing side of things at our place but now I want to understand what and how we do it. One, so I have an understanding of licensing and two, so I can confirm we are following the rules!

 

I don't really know where to start! Our school consists of approximately 80 staff, 520 kids, 1 physical DC, 2 VMs on 1 host one being SIMS the other Exchange 2010, ~110 PCs, ~30 laptops.

 

I have logged into VLSC and can view the License Summary but I don't really know what I'm looking at! The FAQ hasn't really helped me and I figured you wizards out there could help me understand much quicker

 

Please tell me if more info will help, many thanks. TomHD

[nathan]

Have a word with your finance team and ask for a list of all ict purchases made. That might give you a starting point

[JordanT91]

We might be able to help you a bit if you show us your license summary. You can compare it to mine:

 

There's a good chance you will have EES.

 

You say your school consists of approximately 80 staff, 520 kids, 1 physical DC, 2 VMs on 1 host one being SIMS the other Exchange 2010, ~110 PCs, ~30 laptops.

 

You firstly need to work out how many Full Time Equivalent employees your school has. "The FTE calculation is easily produced by simply determining how many staff you have that work over 200 hours per annum and have access to (i.e. use) computers in your school, this gives your FTE value. You would not include staff such as caretakers or gardeners (unless they use IT in their work)."

As you can see, my FTE count is 78. It doesn't matter how many desktops, laptops or pupils you have, it's all based on FTE count. You would get Office and Windows desktop licences based on this.

 

Servers are a different matter, and it can get a bit confusing. I have 2 licenses for Datacenter, meaning I am covered for two hosts with unlimited amount of VMs on each. Someone more knowledgeable about licensing will probably be able to help more but I think you would need a standard Server license for your physical DC and a standard license for your host. The Standard license covers you for up to two VMs, so if you think you may need more you will need a Datacenter license.

 

Then there's CALs, of which you get some included in EES (again based on FTE) but other than that I know very little about them.

 

Upload a screenshot of your license summary and we'll see what we can work out for you.

[TomHD]

@JordanT91, here we go thanks for the information too.

 

I've requested the FTE numbers from admin and will get back with them asap

 

When you say 200 hours for FTE!? Should that be 2080 hours?

Edited May 20, 2016 by TomHD

[Boredguy]

Well at a glance I'd say you had an OVS-EES licence with a FTE of 67 which covers you for upgrading your OS to Windows 10 (as long as it had a valid OS installed already) and running Office 2016 and the basic CALS for connecting to the server.

You have 1 Windows Server licence which covers your physical DC (or the 2 VM's but not both)

[LeMarchand]

When you say 200 hours for FTE!? Should that be 2080 hours?

 

Not according to MS. Apparently full time = c. 5hrs/week. Basically if they use a computer/have a log in, include them. (So pretty much everyone except possibly cleaning and catering bods).

[JordanT91]

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@JordanT91, here we go thanks for the information too.

 

I've requested the FTE numbers from admin and will get back with them asap

 

When you say 200 hours for FTE!? Should that be 2080 hours?

 

FTE in the UK, AFAIK, is 200 hours per annum. So in a school, barring maybe lunchtime supervisors, everyone would have to be counted as long as they use Microsoft products.

[Koldov]

You have 1 Windows Server licence which covers your physical DC (or the 2 VM's but not both)

 

Do you mean AND the 2 VM's? I was under the impression a STANDARD server licence covers the Server OS and 2 VM's.

 

At least I hope it does...

Edited May 20, 2016 by Koldov

[JordanT91]

Do you mean AND the 2 VM's? I was under the impression a STANDARD server licence covers the Server OS and 2 VM's.

 

At least I hope it does...

 

My interpretation is the same as yours.

 

From https://static.spiceworks.com/attachments/post/0013/0245/WindowsServer2012VirtualTech_VLBrief.pdf: "For example, if you have one Windows Server 2012 Standard license assigned to a server, you may run one instance of Windows Server 2012 Standard in the physical OSE and two instances of Windows Server 2012 Standard virtualOSEs on the server at the same time."

[Boredguy]

Do you mean AND the 2 VM's? I was under the impression a STANDARD server licence covers the Server OS and 2 VM's.

 

At least I hope it does...

 

The original post said 1 physical DC and 1 Host with 2 VM's

The Standard licence only covers 2 VM's on a physical unit (in addition to the Hyper-V if no other roles are installed), so for both boxes there should be 2 licences.

It is possible that the DC server came preinstalled with Windows, or the licence is under a different agreement.

[bald_pig]

Do you mean AND the 2 VM's? I was under the impression a STANDARD server licence covers the Server OS and 2 VM's.

 

At least I hope it does...

 

I get the impression that the 2 VM's are on a separate server from the DC, so you'd need one for each.

[DJ-1701]

Basic principles of 2012 Select Server licenses.

 

1 Server 2012 license grants at a maximum either:

 

- 1 Physical Server OS installation and 1 VM OS installation.

or

- 2 VM OS installations. (In which case you would have VMWare, HyperV Server or another licensed copy of Windows Server for the physical).

 

2012 Datacenter Edition though grants unlimited installations on 1 Physical Server.

[Blue_Cookeh]

Basic principles of 2012 Select Server licenses.

 

1 Server 2012 license grants at a maximum either:

 

- 1 Physical Server OS installation and 1 VM OS installation.

or

- 2 VM OS installations. (In which case you would have VMWare, HyperV Server or another licensed copy of Windows Server for the physical).

 

2012 Datacenter Edition though grants unlimited installations on 1 Physical Server.

 

Just to confirm the bold bit. You can use your 1 Standard license to license the physical Hyper-V host (provided NO other role is running on it) + the 2 VMs on it.

 

This is how we have our's, x2 Standard licenses so we can have two Hyper-V hosts with 2 VMs on each. This was confirmed with Microsoft licensing, and our partners, directly in the past. FTE was also confirmed at 200 hours per year if they have access to computers for work (not including POS systems etc). EES works out great for us in this regard, since our FTE is low but our PC count is relatively high (although not for long :/)

 

... although Microsoft themselves don't seem to understand their licensing at times.

Edited May 20, 2016 by Blue_Cookeh

[Koldov]

Just to confirm the bold bit. You can use your 1 Standard license to license the physical Hyper-V host (provided NO other role is running on it) + the 2 VMs on it.

 

Yes, this seems to be the case.

 

 

Got to say that's not how I read it originally, but it confirms what others have said - You can have a base host server AND 2 VM's as long as no other roles are installed on the base host.

 

download.microsoft.com/.../Windows_Server_2012_R2_Licensing_Datasheet.pdf

[Koldov]

1 physical DC, 2 VMs on 1 host one being SIMS the other Exchange 2010

 

The original post said 1 physical DC and 1 Host with 2 VM's.

 

Hmmmm... Not sure now, we'll have to wait for the OP to clarify - maybe just a question of terminology?

[Steve21]

Hmmmm... Not sure now, we'll have to wait for the OP to clarify - maybe just a question of terminology?

 

Either way it'd need 2 standard licenses. As you couldn't have a DC running on the "host" licenses if you're using 2 VMs as that's all your licenses. (DC role etc isn't related to the hosting of VMs and thus can't be used when 2 VMs on the host from my understanding)

 

Or if it's 1 HOST (2 VMs) + 1 DC it's 2

 

Steve

[TomHD]

Thanks for clearing up the FTE hours.

 

To clarify, I have a physical box running DC/CC4 and another physical box running VMware which hosts 2 Win Server 2008R2 VMs, one for SIMS and the other for Exchange.

 

I'm still waiting on a colleague for the figures to calculate FTE, I'm sure there will be an issue with this as the school has grown a fair bit without anyone looking at licensing!

[Steve21]

I'm still waiting on a colleague for the figures to calculate FTE, I'm sure there will be an issue with this as the school has grown a fair bit without anyone looking at licensing!

 

Guessing by the looks of it you had 67 (on your VL pic earlier), so even if you say it's 80 now (back to your first comment) you'd only be talking say £35~ per user difference, so £500 more maybe tops to include Office/Windows/CALs etc.

 

Steve

[TomHD]

Guessing by the looks of it you had 67 (on your VL pic earlier), so even if you say it's 80 now (back to your first comment) you'd only be talking say £35~ per user difference, so £500 more maybe tops to include Office/Windows/CALs etc.Steve

To be fair its going to be more like 80-100 now. So if the FTE numbers has risen are we breaching the rules​? And obviously if so that would need rectifying?

[LeMarchand]

@TomHD

 

There are also changes afoot with licensing:

 

 

You may find it worth trying to speak to your reseller as it might possibly be advantageous to take out a 3 year agreement.

[TomHD]

Thanks @LeMarchand, I will look into that later and will have a word with the reseller, whoever that might be

[Boredguy]

Your ok if the numbers rise during the year, as long as you declare the new FTE on the renewal anniversary.

 

If your DC is running CC4, then the likelihood is you got the Windows licence for that via RM so check on your RM account (since it will unlikely show on the Microsoft Licencing site)

[LeMarchand]

the reseller, whoever that might be

 

You'll have to nag the office for that! Every school I've worked at seems to use someone different and some are much better than others. If it's Ergo, PM me and I'll send you the name of the guy I've dealt with who is very helpful.

[JordanT91]

Thanks @LeMarchand, I will look into that later and will have a word with the reseller, whoever that might be

 

If you go to Relationship Summary, Contacts you should be able to get a good idea who your reseller is. You'll probably have your organisation as a few contacts, then there'll be a channel partner and then 'Indirect' which may be your reseller.