Windows Server Virtual Machine Licensing

Question

Hello,

I contact becouse I have a doubt regarding a licensing scenario with Windows Server:

Cluster with High Availability and without DRS rules-> 8 physical hosts of 36 cores each and 46 Windows Server Standard virtual machines of 8 virtual cores each:

Option 1: Licensing of physical hosts-> 18 CIS Datacenter - 2 Core licenses x 8 physical hosts= 144 CIS Datacenter - 2 Core licenses

Option 2: Licensing per VM-> 4 CIS Standard - 2 Core licenses x 46 virtual machines = 184 CIS Standard - 2 Core licenses

Is possible in this scenario license with Option 2 due to is more economical than Option 1?

Thank yoy very much and Kind regards,

Answer 1

Hello there,

What is the edition of your Windows server?

Standard and Datacenter Edition licenses both have a 16-core limit for CPUs, so host servers require an additional license for every 16 cores.

Although there are some common licensing practices across the industry, each software vendor has its own way of doing things. Not all vendors adhere to the same requirements.

Core licenses are sold in packs of two (each pack contains two licenses), and packs of 16 (each pack contains 16 licenses).

When licensing is based on physical cores, each processor needs to be licensed with a minimum of eight core licenses. Each physical server, including single-processor servers, needs to be licensed with a minimum of 16 core licenses. One core license must be assigned for each physical core on the server. Additional cores can then be licensed in increments of two or 16.

When licensing by virtual machine, one license must be assigned for each virtual core allocated to the virtual machine, subject to a minimum of eight licenses per virtual machine and 16 licenses per customer (e.g., if you have only one virtual machine of eight virtual cores, you still need 16 licenses). Licensing by virtual machine requires subscription licenses or licenses with Software Assurance.

Hope this resolves your Query !!

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Answer 2

Some general info

• Each host needs to be licensed.
• A minimum of 8 core licenses is required for each physical processor and a minimum of 16 core licenses is required for each server.
• Core licenses are sold in packs of two.
• Standard Edition provides rights for up to 2 Operating System Environments or Windows Servers containers with Hyper-V isolation when all physical cores in the server are licensed. For each additional 1 or 2 VMs, all the physical cores in the server must be licensed again.
• DataCenter Edition provides rights for unlimited Operating System Environments or Windows Servers containers with Hyper-V isolation when all physical cores in the server are licensed.

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Answer 3

Hello DSPatrick

I have taken into account these information at the time to licensing.

I still have doubts about the scenario I have proposed

Kind regards

Answer 4

For a Cluster with High Availability using Server Standard you'll need to license each host for the max VMs that could be one it at any given time. So you'll need to figure out what that number could be. Of course, with Server DataCenter it's simply based on each host's core count.

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Answer 5

Hello DSPatrick,

I have also taken into account what you mention.

Yo have to notice that in the Scenario 1 i am licensing all the hosts of the cluster with Windows Server Datacenter and in scenario 2 i am licensing only virtual machines. What i want to know is if it is correct to select the second scenario due to is more economical than the first.

Kind regards,