OVS Agreement Calculations

[SVSITSupport]

Hello

 

I have our OVS agreement coming up for a full renewal as a new V number agreement.

I'm hoping to sense check the last 2 items that we currently have, as I'm confident of how all the other numbers are calculated

 

Confident numbers:

95x 2UJ-00008 DsktpEdu All Language LicSAPk OLV F 1Y Acdmc Enterprise ECAL - based on FTE staff

95x 359-05417 SQLCAL All Language LicSAPk OLV F 1Y Acdmc Enterprise UsrCAL - based on FTE staff

95x 6VC-01519 WinRmtDsktpSrvcsCAL All Language LicSAPk OLV F 1Y Acdmc Enterprise UsrCAL - based on FTE staff

3x 228-09539 SQLSvrStd All Language LicSAPk OLV F 1Y Acdmc AP - full blown instances of SQL, Express not counting - used on SIMS, SCCM & SCVMM

1x 312-04098 ExchgSvrStd All Language LicSAPk OLV F 1Y Acdmc AP - Exchange servers

 

Unsure numbers:

64x 9EA-00315 WinSvrDCCore All Language LicSAPk OLV 2Lic F 1Y Acdmc AP CoreLic

24x SysCtrDatactrCore All Language LicSAPk OLV 2Lic F 1Y Acdmc AP CoreLic

 

Server Core Licensing

 

Our infrastructure consists of 4x 2x8 Core Hypervisors - HP BL460c G8. We run a total of 22 VMs across these 4 hypervisors. (we also then have a single 2x10 separate physical HP DL380 G9 as our backup server)

My understanding so far, is that on the hypervisors, a minimum of 8 cores must be licensed per CPU, and a minimum of 16 per whole server must be licensed - so we match that perfectly as we need 16 cores licensed.

16 cores x 4 hypervisors = 64 cores requiring license in total

However, as highlighted in bold, we purchased a 2Lic bundle, and on the VLSC it shows 128 cores:

 

so, would I be correct in saying that we only need 32 x 2Lic bundles instead, so the VLSC shows 64 cores are licensed? (or is there some extra convoluted calculation I have missed as part of this?)

In addition to this, what licensing is required for the backup server with 2x10 cores? or is that not needed as it's not a hypervisor?

 

System Centre Licensing

So once again, this was bought in a 2Lic bundle - so the VLSC shows that we have 48 of this

I'm really struggling to understand this licensing at all. We run SCCM and SCVMM, all as VMs on the aforementioned hypervisors..

This document seems to show that it's potentially similar to the main Server Core licensing, and needing 16 cores licenses per instance? https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/licensing/product-licensing/system-center

 

Any help would be greatly appreciated please!

[SVSITSupport]

Hello

Just wondering if anyone has any idea at all on this please?

We have our renewal due on 30/04/2022 & I'm hoping to start the renewal process soon

Any help would be very much appreciated!

[localzuk]

There are WinSvrDCCore 16Lic versions - these seem like they may be easier to deal with? (As the minimum per physical server is 16 cores, then you top up with 2Lic packs I believe). So, in your case, you would need 4 x 16 core packs.

 

For the system center licensing, you should have an equal number to the above, if you are managing the servers on the same systems.

 

To make life even easier, we don't purchase these separately here, instead we buy CISSTEDCCORE - which is a combined Server DC and System Center DC license pack as a single SKU. I believe these come in 16 core and 2 core packs as well, so you either need 32x 2 core packs, or 4 x 16 core packs.

[SVSITSupport]

Thanks lolcalzuk - much appreciated

 

So there is nothing needed to cover our backup server? (single physical server 2016 unit that does not run any VMs) and just the total of 4x16 is needed from a SvrDCCore point of view to cover the hypervisors?

 

With our system center licenses, we will only ever run them on 3 of the 4 hypervisors we have, so would we just need 3x16 to cover that?

[localzuk]

Ah, missed the backup server - you'd want a Standard edition license for the backup server, both in terms of Windows server and system center. And as the minimum cores is 16, you'd want 1 x 16 core pack of each (or a 16 core pack of CIS).

 

With regards system center licenses, the licensing for this is a bit different.

 

Basically, the desktop pack you are buying covers any system center management license for clients, but doesn't cover any server management at all. If you manage any of the servers in any way via system center (be it MECM, SCVMM or any other system center product), then the server ML licenses are needed. So, if you use MECM to manage updates on the other server at all, you'd need to license it too.

[johnlevis]

Hi @SVSITSupport

 

We've got a table that you can fill in with the relevant server details, give me a shout and I can run through it with you