The virtual OSE term is used when Windows Server is running as a guest operating system Microsoft virtualized server on a virtual machine residing on a physical server. License migration allows you to migrate the Windows Server license once per 90 days as with on-premises environments.
 
 

Microsoft offers free Windows Server licenses to VMware switchers | ZDNet

Windows Server licensing is licensed per-core. Because processors always have an even number of cores, licenses are sold in two-core packs. To run Windows Server , you need to purchase licenses for a minimum of 16 cores, per two physical processors. This translates to you needing to purchase a minimum of 8x two-core packs for every two physical processors in your server. This is the equivalent of a regular standard Windows Server R2 license. If you have more than 8 cores per processor, then all you do is purchase 1x two-core license pack for every two cores past the 16 minimum.

Example: You have a server with two processors. Each processor has 10 cores. You have 20 cores total. You purchase the minimum 8x two-core packs, which covers 16 of your cores.

You need to purchase an additional 2x two-core license packs to cover the extra 4 cores you have. Question: So what if my server has two processors, but each processor only has 6 cores each?

You would still need to purchase the minimum 8x two-core packs , licensing you for a total of 16 cores, even though you only have 12 total cores. Then you would need to purchase twice the minimum… 16x two-core license packs. Then you buy 1x two-core license pack for every two cores you have after the minimum combined cores. Virtualization rights with Windows Server Standard are, relatively speaking, the same as they are with Windows Server R2 Standard.

Note 1: As a general rule, you should never or rarely install the Standard edition of Windows Server on a physical server if you are using it as a Hyper-V host. You can run two virtual machines for every 8x two-core license packs you purchase. You can have any unlimited number of Linux VMs running on any version of Windows, providing your hardware can handle the load.

The exact cutoff is 14 virtual machines, but because each minimum 8x two-core license packs license gives you 2 VMs, 13 is the same cost as Purchasing 7 Standard edition licenses to run 13 virtual machines on a single host costs the same amount of money as a Datacenter edition license. Note 3: Datacenter edition has features that Standard edition does not, such as Storage Spaces Direct and Storage Replica… among quite a few others. You can lower the number of physical node licensing by preventing VMs from running on specific nodes.

Failover Cluster Manager — Possible Owners setting. If you purchased SA with your server license, you have some additional interesting benefits. Licensing can and does change! This means that in anticipation of a fail-over event, you may run passive fail-over on another qualifying shared server NODE2. Microsoft Volume Licensing direct. Windows Server Licensing: Windows Server. In my example, I have a server with 4 physical CPUs of 16 cores each for a total of 64 physical cores.

Would I need 32 2-core licenses for this server? Yes, you need a 16core datacenter license for each host for unlimited vms. I have two question.

So if we have 2 VMs on a 1 proc, 4 core server, 16 core needs to be purchased 3 times. Is this correct? Secondly, for enterprise, does the above logic holds true? What about if I have 16 VMs on the same configuration? I have to purchase 16 x 16 cores per server. You need to license a minimum of 16 cores per server, period.

If the host is doing other stuff as well, like file server, AD, etc. For every two VMs you have running on Standard edition, you need to license a minimum of 16 cores. After about 13 VMs, Enterprise edition makes sense. What do you think? If all your windows servers are licensed as you say, then you do no need to build a new cluster for SQL, there is no relationship between the licensing.

You need to purchase enough 2-core packs to cover all of your CPU cores, and must license a minimum of 8 cores per CPU. This means that in a server that has two CPUs, you must license a minimum of 16 cores, meaning you need to purchase at least 8 2-core license packs. This comes out to about the same price as prior Windows Server licensing.

Now in your situation, you have more than 16 total cores, but something seems to be off here. Is that 22 cores for each CPU?

Was it supposed to be 2x core CPUs for a total of 20 cores? So i have 2 extra core license, now questions are: 1 Should I use my windows standard edition product key to activate 2 windows server VMs same key for both VMS?

Linux VMs do not need Microsoft Windows licenses. Windows VMs and Windows hosts do, however. If your physical servers nodes are running Windows Server, the hardware needs licensed. If your physical servers hosts are running Hyper-V Server not Windows Server , then they do not need licensed.

Yes, you can in fact add the Failover Cluster feature to the free Hyper-V Server , and add it to your cluster. Your email address will not be published. Save my name, email, and site URL in my browser for next time I post a comment. I feel there has been a lot of unnecessary confusion around Windows Server licensing. My goal with this post is to alleviate this confusion by showing you how simple it actually is.

Hernan 11 February, at Scott 5 March, at Prasenjeet 18 December, at Hi, I have two question. I have to purchase 16 x 16 cores per server Reply. Timothy Gruber 19 December, at Dani 13 December, at Hi Timothy, congrats to your blog. BR, Dani Reply. Jun 19 November, at Questions: 1 do I have enough license for these 2 VMs?

Thank you -jun Reply. Timothy Gruber 19 November, at GEM 30 November, at Chad Miller 6 February, at Timothy Gruber 8 February, at And if you have docs for confirmation please send Reply. Timothy Gruber 24 July, at Jacob 5 January, at Timothy Gruber 18 January, at Emil 29 May, at Leave a Reply Cancel reply Your email address will not be published.

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