If you need to run 4 VMs on the same physical server that has two 8-core processors but with the Windows Server Datacenter license, you need to buy 8 dual-core Datacenter licenses for Windows Server VM licensing order: Physical cores must be licensed first and only after that virtual machines must be licensed.

Taking into account the current price for Windows Server licenses, it may be better to buy Windows Server Standard licenses if you are going to run up to 12 virtual machines on a single physical server. If you need to run 14 VMs or more, the more rational decision is to buy Windows Server Datacenter. VM migration is especially needed if you run VMs in a cluster. In this case you need to buy the number of licenses to cover all VMs on all hosts for each physical server as if you are migrating all VMs from all hosts to one host.

In this case, each VM is licensed to migrate to any host. You can migrate a Windows Server license between physical servers once every 90 days. The Hyper-V virtual machine activation binds to the activated instance of Windows Server installed on a physical server that acts as a hypervisor. Virtual machines can be activated without an internet connection. There is no need to manage product keys for VMs. Activation is preserved if licensed VMs are migrated between licensed hosts.

We have two physical servers. Each server has one 6-core processor. Two VMs must run on each server. Windows Server Standard license can be used. We need to buy 8 dual-core licenses for each server because it is not possible to buy less than 8 double-core licenses to license a physical server even if there are less than 16 cores. Note: VMs used in examples are running Windows Server of the edition mentioned in the corresponding example.

Each server has one core processor. Four VMs must run on each server, and Windows Server Standard is installed on each physical server. We have to buy 16 double-core licenses or two core licenses for each server.

In total, we buy four core licenses for the whole Windows Server environment. The configuration is the same as in Example 2. Each server has 4 VMs and these VMs must be able to migrate between servers.

As a result, we need to buy an additional 16 double-core licenses for each server. Finally, each server has 32 double-core licenses or four core licenses. As a result, four additional core licenses must be bought for each physical server. Totally the equivalent of 80 cores must be covered on each server and there must be 40 double-core licenses or 5×16 core licenses for each server. There are three servers. The first server has two processors and each processor has 20 cores.

The second server has one core processor. The third server has one core processor. VMs running Windows virtual servers need to be migrated between hosts. Windows Server Datacenter is used in this case and, as such, we need to take into account the terms of Microsoft datacenter licensing. First of all, we must buy licenses for the server cores.

Server 1. A total of 40 cores must be licensed 20×2. The base core license covers 16 cores. We need to license 24 cores in addition to that and buy one more core license and two 4-core licenses. You can simply buy 20 double-core licenses. Server 2.

You need to buy a base core license and one double-core license or just buy 9 double-core licenses. Server 3. You need to buy two core licenses or 16 double-core licenses. Each server must be licensed to run the total number of VMs in the server group or cluster. The number 63 is odd, and we have to use the even number of 64 VMs. Each server must be licensed to run 64 VMs.

As we use a licensed Windows Server Datacenter on each physical server, which allows us to run an unlimited number of VMs, no additional licensing is required after we have licensed all the CPU cores on each server. Running VMs in a cluster makes your virtual environment more reliable, provides load balancing and high availability for virtual machines. The product automatically detects the host on which a VM is running and makes the VM backup.

Azure is the cloud platform developed by Microsoft that allows you to run virtual machines in the cloud. There are multiple ways to license Microsoft virtual machines running Windows Server in Azure.

Windows Server licensing is included in Azure payments. You can create Windows Server VMs in Azure that is automatically licensed and charged with other services and cloud resources, such as using CPU, memory, storage, and network resources used by the VM. Hybrid licensing. Starting from Windows Server , Microsoft has changed and simplified the licensing model of its server platform. Now it meets the modern tendencies to extensive use of virtualization technologies.

In most cases, when considering the Windows Server licensing model, it is advisable to consider the Standard and Datacenter Windows Server editions. The features of the Standard and Datacenter editions of Windows Server R2 is almost identical except for the license rights to run virtual machines.

It means that you choose the edition depending only on the number of virtual machines on the physical host instead the availability of the required features. In fact, when choosing Windows Server R2 Edition you need to decide whether you will use virtualization or not.

Windows Server and Datacenter support a number of new technologies that are useful in a virtualization and the Azure cloud environment. For example, the Windows Server Datacenter supports:. One license of Windows Server R2 allows you to run the OS on one single- or dual-processor server. You cannot split one license for two single-processor servers in this case you will have to purchase two Windows Server licenses.

If a physical server has more than two processors, you will have to buy one license for each pair of processors. For example, for a 4-processor server you will need 2 Windows Server R2 licenses. Microsoft switched from the licensing model of physical processors to the core licensing model Core-based in Windows Server and Windows Server Note the main points of Windows Server and licensing model:.

If you plan to use your physical server as a hypervisor on which several VMs with the Windows Server are running, you need to choose the OS edition depending on the number of VMs that will be running on your server. For example, you have a dual processor server with total 16 cores. If you purchased 8 licenses of Windows Server Standard and licensed all the physical server cores, you are allowed to run up to 2 VMs with a Windows Server on a licensed physical host. The Datacenter license allows you to run an unlimited number of virtual OSs on a licensed host.

What if you need to run more than two virtual machines on a server with a Standard license? You will have to buy the required number of licenses based on the following consideration: one Standard license allows you to run 2 virtual machines. For example, you want to license a dual-processor 8 cores per CPU server with four virtual machines. According to the Windows Server Standard licensing model, you need to buy 16 dual-core Window Server Standard licenses 2 sets of licenses closing all physical cores or 8 dual-core Datacenter licenses you can upgrade Windows Server edition without reinstalling.

Note that the licensing procedure is as follows: first the physical cores are covered, and then the virtual machine instances. According to the current Microsoft prices, it is worth to buy the Windows Server Datacenter edition if you are going to run 14 or more virtual machines on one physical host.

If you use virtualization on your physical server with Windows Server , you can use the host OS only to maintain and manage the Hyper-V role and virtual machines. You cannot install Windows Server on a physical server, run two VMs on it and get three full-fledged Windows server instances for your tasks.

Software Assurance SA provides the right to transfer the product license between physical hosts for most Microsoft server products. But Windows Server is an exception to this rule. According to the licensing agreement, the license can be migrated between the hosts once in 90 days. How to license a virtualization farm, in which VMs can move between hypervisors host OSs? In this scenario, you will have to buy that number of licenses for each physical server covering the maximum number of virtual machines that can be run on it at any time including the high availability scenarios when all virtual machines of the farm are moved to the one of the hosts.

In the case of the Datacenter edition, one set of licenses will be sufficient for each physical host, covering all cores in the minimum configuration, 8 Datacenter dual-core licenses.

Since this license allows you to run an unlimited number of VMs. Therefore, you should choose the Windows Server license depending on the maximum number of VMs on a single host. Below are some examples of calculating Windows Server licenses for physical hosts when using virtualization. Example 1. There is a Hyper-V cluster of 5 hosts. Each server has 2 processors with 20 cores. Each will run 10 virtual machines. Because 5 servers are united into HA Hyper-V cluster, which means that up to 50 virtual machines can be running potentially on each host during VM migration failover.

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People also read – Windows server 2012 datacenter edition licensing vmware free

The user limit of this server edition is 25 and device limit is This means that a maximum of 25 users amongst 50 computers can access the Windows Server Essentials edition. For example, you have 20 users rotating randomly amongst 25 computers accessing the Server Essentials edition, without any problem. A common question at this point is what if the organization expands and increases its users and computers? In these cases Microsoft provides an upgrade path allowing organizations to upgrade to the Windows Server Standard or Datacenter edition license and perform an in-place license transition.

Once the transition is complete, the user limitation, and other features are unlocked without requiring migration or reinstallation of the server. Companies upgrading to a higher edition of Windows Server should keep in mind that it will be necessary to purchase the required amount of CALs or DALs according to their users or devices.

Administrators will be happy to know that it is also possible to downgrade the Standard edition of Server to the Essentials edition. For example, it is possible to run Essential edition of Server as virtual machine utilizing one of two available virtual instances in Standard edition as shown in the figure below. This eliminates the needs to purchase Essential edition of Server Download Now!

Unlike Windows Server Essentials non-R2 , you can now run a single instance of a virtual machine. The server licensing rights have been expanded, allowing you to install an instance of Essentials on your physical server to run the Hyper-V role with none of the other roles and features of the Essentials Experience installed , and a second instance of Essentials as a virtual machine VM on that same server with all the Essentials Experience roles and features.

Definition of a socket is a CPU or physical processor. Logical cores are not counted as sockets. A single license of Standard and Datacenter edition covers up to two physical processors per physical server. Standard edition allows up to 2 virtual instances while the Datacenter edition allows unlimited number of virtual instances. For example, a Windows Server R2 Standard edition installed on a physical server with one socket CPU can support up to two instances of virtual machines.

These virtual machines can be Server R2 Standard or Essentials edition. Similarly, if you install a Windows Server R2 Datacenter edition , then you can install an unlimited number of virtual machines. Scenario 2 : Install Server Standard Edition on a physical server with 1 physical processor, running 8 instances of virtual machines.

A total of 50 users will be accessing the server. Remember that a single Standard edition license covers up to two physical processors and up to two instances of virtual machines. Since the requirement is to run 8 instances of virtual machines, we need four Standard edition licenses.

If we decided to use the Datacenter edition in this scenario, a single license with 50 CAL would be enough to cover our needs, because the Datacenter edition license supports an unlimited number of virtual instances and up to two physical processors.

Back to Windows Server Section. Read more. Deal with bandwidth spikes Free Download. Licensing Model. Processor Chip Limit. Memory Limit. User Limit. File Services limits. For example, the Windows Server Datacenter supports:. One license of Windows Server R2 allows you to run the OS on one single- or dual-processor server. You cannot split one license for two single-processor servers in this case you will have to purchase two Windows Server licenses. If a physical server has more than two processors, you will have to buy one license for each pair of processors.

For example, for a 4-processor server you will need 2 Windows Server R2 licenses. Microsoft switched from the licensing model of physical processors to the core licensing model Core-based in Windows Server and Windows Server Note the main points of Windows Server and licensing model:.

If you plan to use your physical server as a hypervisor on which several VMs with the Windows Server are running, you need to choose the OS edition depending on the number of VMs that will be running on your server.

For example, you have a dual processor server with total 16 cores. If you purchased 8 licenses of Windows Server Standard and licensed all the physical server cores, you are allowed to run up to 2 VMs with a Windows Server on a licensed physical host.

The Datacenter license allows you to run an unlimited number of virtual OSs on a licensed host. What if you need to run more than two virtual machines on a server with a Standard license?

You will have to buy the required number of licenses based on the following consideration: one Standard license allows you to run 2 virtual machines. For example, you want to license a dual-processor 8 cores per CPU server with four virtual machines. According to the Windows Server Standard licensing model, you need to buy 16 dual-core Window Server Standard licenses 2 sets of licenses closing all physical cores or 8 dual-core Datacenter licenses you can upgrade Windows Server edition without reinstalling.

Note that the licensing procedure is as follows: first the physical cores are covered, and then the virtual machine instances. According to the current Microsoft prices, it is worth to buy the Windows Server Datacenter edition if you are going to run 14 or more virtual machines on one physical host. If you use virtualization on your physical server with Windows Server , you can use the host OS only to maintain and manage the Hyper-V role and virtual machines.

You cannot install Windows Server on a physical server, run two VMs on it and get three full-fledged Windows server instances for your tasks. Software Assurance SA provides the right to transfer the product license between physical hosts for most Microsoft server products.

But Windows Server is an exception to this rule. According to the licensing agreement, the license can be migrated between the hosts once in 90 days.

How to license a virtualization farm, in which VMs can move between hypervisors host OSs? In this scenario, you will have to buy that number of licenses for each physical server covering the maximum number of virtual machines that can be run on it at any time including the high availability scenarios when all virtual machines of the farm are moved to the one of the hosts.

In the case of the Datacenter edition, one set of licenses will be sufficient for each physical host, covering all cores in the minimum configuration, 8 Datacenter dual-core licenses. Since this license allows you to run an unlimited number of VMs. Therefore, you should choose the Windows Server license depending on the maximum number of VMs on a single host. Below are some examples of calculating Windows Server licenses for physical hosts when using virtualization.

Example 1. There is a Hyper-V cluster of 5 hosts. Each server has 2 processors with 20 cores. Each will run 10 virtual machines. Because 5 servers are united into HA Hyper-V cluster, which means that up to 50 virtual machines can be running potentially on each host during VM migration failover. Accordingly, it is more profitable to purchase the Datacenter licenses. Example 2. The branch office has 1 server with 2 sockets with 4 cores each, on which 4 virtual machines are running.

How many Windows Server licenses do I need to purchase? The server has 8 cores. Under the terms of licensing — you need to cover at least 16 cores. This will allow you to run 2 VMs.

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Windows server 2012 datacenter edition licensing vmware free.Per-Socket Licensing in Windows Server 2012 R2

 
I’m also assuming that there are at least 2 physical hosts. It’s better explained with an image. Finally, each server has 32 double-core licenses or four core licenses. I do have a question for you though: Hyper-V replica.❿
 
 

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