{"id":13090,"date":"2012-07-05T21:48:31","date_gmt":"2012-07-05T20:48:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/aidanfinn.com\/?p=13090"},"modified":"2015-10-09T12:47:38","modified_gmt":"2015-10-09T11:47:38","slug":"windows-server-2012-virtualisation-licensing-scenarios","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/aidanfinn.com\/?p=13090","title":{"rendered":"Windows Server 2012 &#038; 2012 R2 Virtualisation Licensing Scenarios"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><em>I am not answering any more questions on this post\u00a0&#8211; to be honest, there have been too many for me to have the time to deal with them. Don&#8217;t bother asking &#8211; I&#8217;ll ignore\/delete it.\u00a0 My recommendations are:<\/em><\/p>\n<ol>\n<li><em>Re-read this post if you do not understand it after the first or second reads. To be honest, most of the questions have been from people who are just trying to make things complicated. Just license the hosts for the maximum number of Windows Server VMs that can <span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">ever<\/span> run on that host, even for 1 second. It is that simple!<\/em><\/li>\n<li><em>Ask your LAR\/distributor\/reseller &#8211; that&#8217;s their job and that&#8217;s why you pay them<\/em><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p>This post follows my dissertation on <a href=\"https:\/\/aidanfinn.com\/?p=13042\" target=\"_blank\">Windows Server 2012 licensing<\/a>, which is essential reading before proceeding with this post.<\/p>\n<p>[Edit] The below is unchanged with WS2012 R2. The only difference is that WS2012 R2 Datacenter edition (only) includes Automatic Virtual Machine Activation.<\/p>\n<p>I\u2019m putting Hyper-V aside for just a <em>few<\/em> minutes to talk about how you will license virtualisation of Windows Server 2012 <em>in virtual machines<\/em> no matter what virtualisation you use, be it vSphere, Hyper-V, XenServer, or whatever tickles your fancy.\u00a0 BTW, the counting here also applies to:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>System Center 2012<\/li>\n<li>Core Infrastructure Suite (CIS)<\/li>\n<li>Enrolment for Core Infrastructure (ECI \u2013 minimum of 25 hosts)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Please read this post <em>s-l-o-w-l-y <\/em>and let it sink in.\u00a0 Then read it again.\u00a0 If you have been eating bowls full of VMware FUD then read it a third time \u2013 slowly.<\/p>\n<p><strong><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">FAQ<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>VOSE or virtual operating system environment is a licensing term for virtual machine (VM).\u00a0 It is used when talking about licensing a VM for Windows Server.<\/li>\n<li>When you buy a license for virtualisation you legally buy and assign it to hardware, not to VMs.\u00a0 The virtualisation rights of Windows Server licenses the VMs on the licensed host for Windows Server.<\/li>\n<li>There is no mobility with OEM.<\/li>\n<li>You can move a volume license and it\u2019s virtualisation rights once every 90 days.\u00a0 If you want to use HA (clustering), Live Migration\/vMotion, DRS\/Dynamic Optimization\/PRO, then you need sufficient virtualisation rights on each host to support the maximum number of VMs that is possible on that host, even for 1 second.<\/li>\n<li>You cannot split a license or it\u2019s virtualisation rights across hosts.<\/li>\n<li>Virtualisation rights are 2 VOSEs for a host licensed by Windows Server 2012 Standard and unlimited VOSEs for a host licensed for Windows Server 2012 Datacenter.<\/li>\n<li>Virtualisation rights covers the host for the assigned edition of Windows Server 2012 and lower versions\/editions of Windows Server.\u00a0 It does not include Windows 8\/7\/Vista.<\/li>\n<li>You can assign more than 1 license to a host<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>In other words, you license a host for the maximum number of Windows Server VMs that it could host.<\/p>\n<p><strong><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">1 Host, 1 CPU, 2 VMs<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/aidanfinn.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/07\/image6.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" style=\"background-image: none; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; display: block; float: none; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; padding-top: 0px; border-width: 0px;\" title=\"image\" src=\"https:\/\/aidanfinn.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/07\/image_thumb5.png\" alt=\"image\" width=\"204\" height=\"188\" border=\"0\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Here you want to run a single host that has 1 CPU.\u00a0 The host will run 2 Windows Server virtual machines.\u00a0 You will assign a single Windows Server 2012 license to this host.\u00a0 The license covers 2 CPUs (there is only 1) and provides virtualisation rights for 2 virtual operating system environments (VOSEs).\u00a0 In other words, you get rights to install Windows Server 2012 Standard (or previous versions) in 2 VMs <em>on this <\/em>host.<\/p>\n<p><strong><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">1 Host, 2 CPUs, 4 VMs<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/aidanfinn.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/07\/image7.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" style=\"background-image: none; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; display: block; float: none; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; padding-top: 0px; border-width: 0px;\" title=\"image\" src=\"https:\/\/aidanfinn.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/07\/image_thumb6.png\" alt=\"image\" width=\"209\" height=\"244\" border=\"0\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>The Standard edition covers 2 VOSEs, but the customer wants 4 VMs running Windows Server Standard 2008 R2.\u00a0 A single copy of WS2012 Standard will not suffice.\u00a0 2 copies are bought to provide the 4 (2 * 2 VOSEs) VMs with licensing.<\/p>\n<p><strong><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">1 Host, 2 CPUs, 10 VMs<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/aidanfinn.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/07\/image8.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" style=\"background-image: none; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; display: block; float: none; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; padding-top: 0px; border-width: 0px;\" title=\"image\" src=\"https:\/\/aidanfinn.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/07\/image_thumb7.png\" alt=\"image\" width=\"204\" height=\"391\" border=\"0\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>There are two options; do you go with the Standard or Datacenter editions of Windows Server 2012?<\/p>\n<p>The Standard edition covers 2 VOSEs, but the customer wants 10 VMs running Windows Server Standard 2008 R2. A single copy of WS2012 Standard will not suffice. 5 copies are bought to provide the 10 (5 * 2 VOSEs) VMs with licensing.\u00a0 Based on USA Open NL pricing the licensing of these VMs will cost $882 * 5 = $4,410.<\/p>\n<p>The Datacenter edition of WS2012 gives unlimited VOSEs and covers 2 CPUs in the host.\u00a0 This solution will require a single Windows Server 2012 Datacenter license which will cost $4,809.<\/p>\n<p>Decision: If you will not go over 10 VMs on this host then Windows Server 2012 Standard edition is the way to go.\u00a0 If you estimate that there is a good chance of the VM numbers growing then spend an extra $399 and pick up the easier to account-for Windows Server 2012 Datacenter with it\u2019s unlimited VOSE rights.<\/p>\n<p>10 is the magic number using USA Open NL pricing. Once you reach 10 VOSEs on a 1 or 2 CPU host, you need to consider the Datacenter edition because it is cheaper once you hit 11 VOSEs.<\/p>\n<p><strong><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">1 Host, 4 CPUs, 4 VMs<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/aidanfinn.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/07\/image9.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" style=\"background-image: none; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; display: block; float: none; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; padding-top: 0px; border-width: 0px;\" title=\"image\" src=\"https:\/\/aidanfinn.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/07\/image_thumb8.png\" alt=\"image\" width=\"204\" height=\"238\" border=\"0\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s an unusual configuration but a valid one for the demonstration.\u00a0 The WS2012 Standard\/Datacenter SKUs cover 2 CPUs each.\u00a0 In this case there are 4 CPUs.\u00a0 This will require 2 copies of Windows Server 2012 Standard, which also covers the 4 VMs.<\/p>\n<p>Let\u2019s pretend that 300 VMs will run on this host with 4 physical CPUs.\u00a0 Then we would assign 2 copies of Windows Server Datacenter on it.\u00a0 2 copies will cover 2 CPUs each (4 CPUs) and unlimited VOSEs.<\/p>\n<p><strong><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">That Host with 320 Logical Processors \u2013 10 CPUs with 16 Cores with Hyperthreading<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/aidanfinn.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/07\/image10.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" style=\"background-image: none; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; display: block; float: none; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; padding-top: 0px; border-width: 0px;\" title=\"image\" src=\"https:\/\/aidanfinn.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/07\/image_thumb9.png\" alt=\"image\" width=\"204\" height=\"290\" border=\"0\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>The maximum specification for Windows Server 2012 Hyper-V is 320 logical processors in the host.\u00a0 That could be 10 Intel CPUs, each with 16 cores, with Hyperthreading enabled.\u00a0 We don\u2019t count cores or logical processors when we license.\u00a0 We count CPUs, sockets, or plain old processors \u2013 pick the term you prefer.\u00a0 There are 10 CPUs\/sockets\/processors in this server.\u00a0 That requires 5 copies of either Windows Server 2012 Standard or Datacenter, depending on the required number of VOSEs.<\/p>\n<p><strong><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">Clusters<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Let\u2019s move on to the clusters, where people usually get things wrong because they don\u2019t understand (or don\u2019t want to understand) the mobility rights.\u00a0 VOSEs licensed by OEM cannot move.\u00a0 VOSEs licensed by VL can move once every 90 days.\u00a0 The correct solution is to license each host for the maximum number of VOSEs that it can have for even one second.\u00a0 And when I say \u201ccorrect\u201d I mean legal.\u00a0 Software Asset Management professionals (auditors) are not stupid and the \u201ctricks\u201d I hear people proposing are neither original or unknown to these auditors.<\/p>\n<p>Reminder: This applies <em>even<\/em> to you non-Hyper-V folks.<\/p>\n<p><strong><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">2 Hosts, 1 CPU each, 4 VMs<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/aidanfinn.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/07\/image11.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" style=\"background-image: none; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; display: block; float: none; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; padding-top: 0px; border-width: 0px;\" title=\"image\" src=\"https:\/\/aidanfinn.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/07\/image_thumb10.png\" alt=\"image\" width=\"404\" height=\"199\" border=\"0\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Don\u2019t get fooled!\u00a0 This is not one host with 3 VMs and 1 host with 1 VM.\u00a0 This is 2 hosts, each of which can have up to 4 VMs.\u00a0 In the past we would have used Enterprise edition on each host.\u00a0 That has been replaced by Windows Server 2012 Standard edition, that now has all the features and scalability of the Datacenter edition.<\/p>\n<p>Take each host and size it for 4 VOSEs.\u00a0 That means we need to assign 2 copies of Windows Server 2012 Standard edition to <em>each<\/em> host.\u00a0 That\u2019s 4 copies of WS2012 Standard.<\/p>\n<p><strong><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">2 Hosts, 2 CPUs each, 10 VMs<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/aidanfinn.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/07\/image12.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" style=\"background-image: none; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; display: block; float: none; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; padding-top: 0px; border-width: 0px;\" title=\"image\" src=\"https:\/\/aidanfinn.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/07\/image_thumb11.png\" alt=\"image\" width=\"404\" height=\"261\" border=\"0\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>10 VMs with 2 hosts means that it is possible to have all 10 VMs on a single host.\u00a0 You have two options to license each host for up to 10 VOSEs.<\/p>\n<p>Firstly you could license each of the hosts with 5 copies of Windows Server 2012 Standard.\u00a0 That will give you 10 (5 * 2) VOSEs.\u00a0 This requires 10 (5 * 2 hosts ) copies of Standard at a cost of $8,820 using USA Open NL.<\/p>\n<p>Alternatively you could license each host with 1 copy of Windows Server 2012 Datacenter, at a cost of $9,618.\u00a0 The extra $798 will allow you to burst beyond 10 VOSEs to unlimited VOSEs.\u00a0 Switching to licensing hosts using the Datacenter edition means we don\u2019t have to count VOSEs and we have unrestricted mobility between hosts.<\/p>\n<p><strong><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">2 Hosts, 2 CPUs each, 20 VMs<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/aidanfinn.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/07\/image13.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" style=\"background-image: none; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; display: block; float: none; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; padding-top: 0px; border-width: 0px;\" title=\"image\" src=\"https:\/\/aidanfinn.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/07\/image_thumb12.png\" alt=\"image\" width=\"404\" height=\"376\" border=\"0\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>We have exceed the magic number of 10, and now it is cheaper to license with the Datacenter edition with it\u2019s unlimited VOSEs per host.\u00a0 Each host has 2 CPUs, so each host requires 1 copy of Datacenter.\u00a0 There are 2 hosts so we require 2 copies of Windows Server 2012 Datacenter.<\/p>\n<p>You could add more hosts to this cluster and each could have unlimited VMs.\u00a0 As long as the hosts have 1 or 2 CPUs each, each additional host requires only 1 copy of Windows Server 2012 Datacenter to license it for unlimited installs of Windows Server for the VMs on that host.<\/p>\n<p><strong><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">Lots of Hosts, <em>Lots<\/em> of VMs, 4 CPUs per Host<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/aidanfinn.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/07\/image14.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" style=\"background-image: none; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; display: block; float: none; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; padding-top: 0px; border-width: 0px;\" title=\"image\" src=\"https:\/\/aidanfinn.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/07\/image_thumb13.png\" alt=\"image\" width=\"504\" height=\"306\" border=\"0\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>The magic number of 10 VOSEs is a dot in the rear view mirror.\u00a0 We now have lots of hosts with lots of VMs flying all over the place.\u00a0 Each host has 4 CPUs.\u00a0 To license the VOSEs on each host, we will require licensing for 4 CPUs.\u00a0 This will require 2 copies of Windows Server 2012 Datacenter per host, each covering 2 CPUs.<\/p>\n<p><strong><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">Live Migration Outside the Cluster<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>And new for WS2012 thanks to Live Migration living outside the cluster: you must ensure that the destination host is adequately licensed for VOSEs to accommodate the new VM. If this is an infrequent move then you could avail of the VL 90 day mobility right to reassign a license, ensuring the the old host is sufficiently licensed for remaining VOSEs and physical CPUs.<\/p>\n<p><strong><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">Hyper-V Server 2012<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Hyper-V Server has no virtualisation rights and includes no free licensing for VOSEs.\u00a0 Therefore it is irrelevant in this conversation.<\/p>\n<p><strong><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">Economically Speaking \u2013 Why Hyper-V Makes Sense<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>If you buy Windows Server licensing for a host to license your VMs, then you are a tickbox (or PowerShell cmdlet) and a reboot away from having Hyper-V.\u00a0 Buying another product is just more money spent.\u00a0 And let\u2019s be honest, <a href=\"https:\/\/aidanfinn.com\/?p=11979\" target=\"_blank\">Windows Server 2012 Hyper-V is not what you might have used\/looked at before<\/a>.<\/p>\n<div id=\"scid:0767317B-992E-4b12-91E0-4F059A8CECA8:592ef32d-7004-4572-8f70-635e2feb4957\" class=\"wlWriterSmartContent\" style=\"margin: 0px; display: inline; float: none; padding: 0px;\">Technorati Tags: <a href=\"http:\/\/technorati.com\/tags\/Windows+Server+2012\" rel=\"tag\">Windows Server 2012<\/a>,<a href=\"http:\/\/technorati.com\/tags\/Virtualisation\" rel=\"tag\">Virtualisation<\/a>,<a href=\"http:\/\/technorati.com\/tags\/Licensing\" rel=\"tag\">Licensing<\/a>,<a href=\"http:\/\/technorati.com\/tags\/Hyper-V\" rel=\"tag\">Hyper-V<\/a>,<a href=\"http:\/\/technorati.com\/tags\/Xen\" rel=\"tag\">Xen<\/a>,<a href=\"http:\/\/technorati.com\/tags\/VMware\" rel=\"tag\">VMware<\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I am not answering any more questions on this post\u00a0&#8211; to be honest, there have been too many for me to have the time to deal with them. Don&#8217;t bother asking &#8211; I&#8217;ll ignore\/delete it.\u00a0 My recommendations are: Re-read this post if you do not understand it after the first or second reads. To be &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/aidanfinn.com\/?p=13090\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &#8220;Windows Server 2012 &#038; 2012 R2 Virtualisation Licensing Scenarios&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":19252,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"_wpcom_ai_launchpad_first_post":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[181,183,195,103,118,127],"class_list":["post-13090","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-licensing","tag-hyper-v","tag-licensing","tag-virtualisation","tag-vmware","tag-windows-server-2012","tag-xen"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t<!-- All in One SEO 5.0.2 - aioseo.com -->\n\t<meta name=\"description\" content=\"This post describes how to license virtual machines that are running Windows Server 2012 or Windows Server 2012 R2.\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"max-image-preview:large\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"author\" content=\"AFinn\"\/>\n\t<meta name=\"google-site-verification\" content=\"TDKjbi2McB2eLIfL6KwPB3aQqv5E-mbcb2QYIcovGaI\" \/>\n\t<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/aidanfinn.com\/?p=13090\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"generator\" content=\"All in One SEO (AIOSEO) 5.0.2\" \/>\n\t\t<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_GB\" \/>\n\t\t<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Aidan Finn, IT Pro - A blog covering Azure, Hyper-V, Windows Server, desktop, systems management, deployment, and so on ...\" \/>\n\t\t<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"activity\" \/>\n\t\t<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Virtualisation Licensing for WS2012 &amp; 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