{"id":19340,"date":"2015-12-04T10:34:31","date_gmt":"2015-12-04T10:34:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/aidanfinn.com\/?p=19340"},"modified":"2015-12-04T11:09:24","modified_gmt":"2015-12-04T11:09:24","slug":"windows-server-2016-licensing-is-announced","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/aidanfinn.com\/?p=19340","title":{"rendered":"Windows Server 2016 Licensing is Announced"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><em>Some sales\/marketing\/channel type in Microsoft will get angry reading this. Good. I am an advocate of Microsoft tech, and I speak out when things are good, and I speak out when things are bad. Friends will criticise each other when one does something stupid. So don\u2019t take criticism personally and get angry, sending off emails to moan about me. Trying to censor me won\u2019t solve the problem. Hear the feedback. Fix the issue. <\/em><\/p>\n<p>We\u2019re still around many months away from the release of Windows Server 2016 (my guess: September, the week of Ignite 2016) but Microsoft has released the details of how licensing of WS2016 will be changing. Yes; changing; a lot.<\/p>\n<p>In 2011, I <a href=\"https:\/\/aidanfinn.com\/?p=11125\" target=\"_blank\">predicted<\/a> that the growth of cores per processor would trigger Microsoft to switching from per-socket licensing of Windows Server to per-core. Well, I was right. Wes Miller <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/getwired\" target=\"_blank\">(@getwired<\/a>) tweeted a link to a <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/fR2ybzibVx\" target=\"_blank\">licensing FAQ on WS2016<\/a> &#8211; this paper confirms that WS2016 and System Center 2016 will be out in Q3 2016.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/aidanfinn.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/image.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" title=\"image\" style=\"border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px; border-bottom: 0px; float: none; margin-left: auto; border-left: 0px; display: block; margin-right: auto\" border=\"0\" alt=\"image\" src=\"https:\/\/aidanfinn.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/image_thumb.png\" width=\"300\" height=\"59\" \/><\/a> <\/p>\n<p>There are two significant changes:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Switch to per-core licensing<\/li>\n<li>Standard and Datacenter editions are not the same anymore<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2>Per-Core Licensing<\/h2>\n<p>The days when processors got more powerful by becoming faster are over. We are in a virtualized multi-threaded world where capacity is more important than horsepower &#8211; plus the laws of physics kicked in. Processors now grow by adding cores. <\/p>\n<p>The <a href=\"http:\/\/www.cnet.com\/news\/intels-60-core-chip-ships-elites-like-hawking-get-it-first\/\" target=\"_blank\">largest processor that I\u2019ve heard of from Intel<\/a> (not claiming that it\u2019s the largest ever) has 60 (SIXTY!) cores!!! Imaging you deploy a host with 2 of those Xeon Phi processors \u2026 you can license a huge amount of VMs with just 2 copies of WS2012 R2 Datacenter (no matter what virtualization you use). Microsoft is losing money in the upper end of the market because of the scale-out of core counts, so a change was needed. <\/p>\n<p>I hoped that Microsoft would preserve the price for normal customers &#8211; it looks like they have, for many customers, but probably not all.<\/p>\n<p>Note &#8211; this is per PHYSICAL CORE licensing, not virtual core, not logical processor, not hyperthread.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/aidanfinn.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/image1.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" title=\"image\" style=\"border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px; border-bottom: 0px; float: none; margin-left: auto; border-left: 0px; display: block; margin-right: auto\" border=\"0\" alt=\"image\" src=\"https:\/\/aidanfinn.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/image_thumb1.png\" width=\"600\" height=\"98\" \/><\/a> <\/p>\n<p>Yes, the language of this document is horrendous. The FAQ needs a FAQ. <\/p>\n<p>It reads like you must purchase a minimum of 8 cores per physical proc, and then purchase incremental counts of 2 cores to meet your physical core count. The customer that is hurt most is the one with a small server, such as a micro-server &#8211; you must purchase a minimum of 16 cores.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/aidanfinn.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/image2.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" title=\"image\" style=\"border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px; border-bottom: 0px; float: none; margin-left: auto; border-left: 0px; display: block; margin-right: auto\" border=\"0\" alt=\"image\" src=\"https:\/\/aidanfinn.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/image_thumb2.png\" width=\"600\" height=\"118\" \/><\/a> <\/p>\n<p>One of the marketing lines on this is that on-premises licensing will align with cloud licensing &#8211; anyone deploying Windows Server in Azure or any other hosting company is used to the core model. A software assurance benefit was allegedly announced in October on the very noisy Azure blog (I can\u2019t find it). You can move your Windows Server (with SA) license to the cloud, and deploy it with a blank VM minus the OS charge. I have no further details &#8211; it doesn\u2019t appear on the <a href=\"http:\/\/download.microsoft.com\/download\/0\/0\/3\/0039F316-45CF-4083-AA6E-C35DA9D25C1B\/SA_InteractiveBenefitsChart.pdf\" target=\"_blank\">benefits chart<\/a> either. More details in Q1 2016.<\/p>\n<h2>CALs<\/h2>\n<p>The switch to core-focused licensing does not do away with CALs. You still need to buy CALs for privately owned licenses &#8211; we don\u2019t need Windows Server CALs in hosting, e.g. Azure.<\/p>\n<h2>System Center<\/h2>\n<p>You\u2019re switching to per-core licensing too.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/aidanfinn.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/image3.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" title=\"image\" style=\"border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px; border-bottom: 0px; float: none; margin-left: auto; border-left: 0px; display: block; margin-right: auto\" border=\"0\" alt=\"image\" src=\"https:\/\/aidanfinn.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/image_thumb3.png\" width=\"600\" height=\"110\" \/><\/a> <\/p>\n<\/p>\n<h2>Nano?<\/h2>\n<p>This is just an installation type and is not affected by licensing or editions.<\/p>\n<h2>Editions?<\/h2>\n<p>We know about the \u201ccore\u201d editions of WS2016: Standard and Datacenter &#8211; more later in this post.<\/p>\n<p>As for Azure Stack, Essentails, Storage Server, etc, we\u2019re told to wait until Q1 2016 when someone somewhere in Redmond is going to have to eat some wormy crow. Why? Keep reading.<\/p>\n<h2>Standard is not the same as Datacenter<\/h2>\n<p>I found out about the licensing announcement after getting an email from Windows Server User Voice to tell me that my following feedback was rejected:<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/aidanfinn.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/image4.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" title=\"image\" style=\"border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px; border-bottom: 0px; float: none; margin-left: auto; border-left: 0px; display: block; margin-right: auto\" border=\"0\" alt=\"image\" src=\"https:\/\/aidanfinn.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/image_thumb4.png\" width=\"600\" height=\"298\" \/><\/a> <\/p>\n<p>I knew that some stuff was probably going to end up in Datacenter edition only. Many of us gave feedback: \u201cyour solutions for reducing infrastructure costs make no sense if they are in Datacenter only because then your solution will be more expensive than the more mature and market-accepted original solution\u201d.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/aidanfinn.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/image5.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" title=\"image\" style=\"border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px; border-bottom: 0px; float: none; margin-left: auto; border-left: 0px; display: block; margin-right: auto\" border=\"0\" alt=\"image\" src=\"https:\/\/aidanfinn.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/image_thumb5.png\" width=\"500\" height=\"649\" \/><\/a> <\/p>\n<p>The following are Datacenter Edition only:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Storage Spaces Direct<\/li>\n<li>Storage Replica<\/li>\n<li>Shielded Virtual Machines<\/li>\n<li>Host Guardian Service<\/li>\n<li>Network Fabric<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>I don\u2019t mind the cloud stuff being Datacenter only &#8211; that\u2019s all for densely populated virtualization hosts that Datacenter should be used on. But it\u2019s freaking stupid to put the storage stuff only in this SKU. Let\u2019s imagine a 12 node S2D cluster. Each node has:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>2 * 800 GB flash<\/li>\n<li>8 * 8 TB SATA<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>That\u2019s 65 TB of raw capacity per node. We have roughly 786 TB raw capacity in the cluster, and we\u2019ll guestimate 314 TB of usable capacity. If each node costs $6155 then the licensing cost alone (forget RDMA network switches, NICs, servers, and flash\/HDD) will be $73,860. Licensing for storage will be $73,860. Licensing. How much will that SAN cost you? Where was the cost benefit in going with commodity hardware there, may I ask? <\/p>\n<p>This is almost as bad a cock-up as VMware charging for vRAM.<\/p>\n<p>As for Storage Replica, I have a hard time believing that licensing 4 storage controllers for synch replication will cost more than licensing every host\/application server for Storage Replica.<\/p>\n<p>S2D is <em>dead<\/em>. Storage Replica is <em>irrelevant<\/em>. How are techs that are viewed with suspicion by customers going to gain any traction if they cannot compete with the incumbent? It\u2019s a pity that some marketing bod can\u2019t use Excel, because the storage team did what looks like an incredible engineering job.<\/p>\n<p>If you agree that this decision was stupid then VOTE <a href=\"https:\/\/windowsserver.uservoice.com\/forums\/295056-storage\/suggestions\/10963656-storage-replica-and-storage-spaces-direct-were-kil\" target=\"_blank\">here<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/windowsserver.uservoice.com\/forums\/295056-storage\/suggestions\/10963656-storage-replica-and-storage-spaces-direct-were-kil\" target=\"_blank\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" title=\"image\" style=\"border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px; border-bottom: 0px; float: none; margin-left: auto; border-left: 0px; display: block; margin-right: auto\" border=\"0\" alt=\"image\" src=\"https:\/\/aidanfinn.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/image6.png\" width=\"600\" height=\"178\" \/><\/a> <\/p>\n<div id=\"scid:0767317B-992E-4b12-91E0-4F059A8CECA8:8f769b76-671a-4b7d-9478-58568281ddf3\" class=\"wlWriterEditableSmartContent\" style=\"float: none; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-left: 0px; margin: 0px; display: inline; padding-right: 0px\">Technorati Tags: <a href=\"http:\/\/technorati.com\/tags\/Windows+Server+2016\" rel=\"tag\">Windows Server 2016<\/a>,<a href=\"http:\/\/technorati.com\/tags\/Licensing\" rel=\"tag\">Licensing<\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Some sales\/marketing\/channel type in Microsoft will get angry reading this. Good. I am an advocate of Microsoft tech, and I speak out when things are good, and I speak out when things are bad. Friends will criticise each other when one does something stupid. So don\u2019t take criticism personally and get angry, sending off emails &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/aidanfinn.com\/?p=19340\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &#8220;Windows Server 2016 Licensing is Announced&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":19342,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[52],"tags":[183,137],"class_list":["post-19340","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-windows-server","tag-licensing","tag-windows-server-2016"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/aidanfinn.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/4478655355_aec3bae1cb_z_d1.jpg","amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/aidanfinn.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19340","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/aidanfinn.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/aidanfinn.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/aidanfinn.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/aidanfinn.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=19340"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/aidanfinn.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19340\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":19348,"href":"https:\/\/aidanfinn.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19340\/revisions\/19348"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/aidanfinn.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/19342"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/aidanfinn.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=19340"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/aidanfinn.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=19340"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/aidanfinn.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=19340"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}