Windows Server 2016 Pricing
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@wrx7m said in Windows Server 2016 Pricing:
@JaredBusch said in Windows Server 2016 Pricing:
@wrx7m said in Windows Server 2016 Pricing:
@JaredBusch said in Windows Server 2016 Pricing:
@zuphzuph said in Windows Server 2016 Pricing:
@Dashrender said in Windows Server 2016 Pricing:
@zuphzuph said in Windows Server 2016 Pricing:
@scottalanmiller Thanks for the clarification. Makes sense, but man is that aggressive... I take it licensing some heavy hitting hypervisors is gonna cost a small fortune if you choose to use Hyper-V...
Hyper-V is free regardless of the number of cores.
Good to know!
The MS Server 2016 licensing applies no matter what hypervisor you are running.
VMWare, Hyper-V, XS, or KVM. If you want to install Server 2016 Standard as a VM on your hypervisor, then you have to buy a license that covers the number of cores the system actually has. Irregardless of the number of cores you assign to the VM.
Is that part different than Server 2012 R2? I don't remember the physical CPU count mattering when running ESXi with Server 2012 R2 VMs. That could just be because I don't have that many cores so it didn't apply to me.
Server 2012 R2 Was 2 proc's per license. Standard or DataCenter.
So if I had 4 physical CPUs running ESXi with 1 Server 2012 R2 VM with 1 vCPU, would I need 2 Server 2012 R2 licenses?
Edit: Would I need 2 Server 2012 R2 Standard Licenses?
Yes, it's the number of CPUs that is the factor. There are four. So four means a minimum of two Standard licenses to use that platform. Mentioning the number of VMs and vCPUs are red herrings, they are not part of the decision matrix. It's number of CPUs and number of resulting licenses in 2012. With 2016 we have to additionally count cores. So your numbers might get higher. But under no conditions does the VM count or the vCPU count matter to let you have fewer licenses.
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@wrx7m said in Windows Server 2016 Pricing:
@JaredBusch said in Windows Server 2016 Pricing:
@zuphzuph said in Windows Server 2016 Pricing:
@Dashrender said in Windows Server 2016 Pricing:
@zuphzuph said in Windows Server 2016 Pricing:
@scottalanmiller Thanks for the clarification. Makes sense, but man is that aggressive... I take it licensing some heavy hitting hypervisors is gonna cost a small fortune if you choose to use Hyper-V...
Hyper-V is free regardless of the number of cores.
Good to know!
The MS Server 2016 licensing applies no matter what hypervisor you are running.
VMWare, Hyper-V, XS, or KVM. If you want to install Server 2016 Standard as a VM on your hypervisor, then you have to buy a license that covers the number of cores the system actually has. Irregardless of the number of cores you assign to the VM.
Is that part different than Server 2012 R2? I don't remember the physical CPU count mattering when running ESXi with Server 2012 R2 VMs. That could just be because I don't have that many cores so it didn't apply to me.
It's not core based, it's CPU based. It's always been there.
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@scottalanmiller But you get to run 2 Server 2012 R2 VMs per server 2012 R2 standard license.
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@wrx7m said in Windows Server 2016 Pricing:
@scottalanmiller But you get to run 2 Server 2012 R2 VMs per server 2012 R2 standard license.
But only if you have no more than two CPUs.
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@scottalanmiller So if you had a 4 CPU host and 3 Server 2012 R2 standard licenses, would you only be able to run 2 Server 2012 R2 VMs or would you be able to run 6?
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@wrx7m said in Windows Server 2016 Pricing:
@scottalanmiller So if you had a 4 CPU host and 3 Server 2012 R2 standard licenses, would you only be able to run 2 Server 2012 R2 VMs or would you be able to run 6?
Correct, you would only be able to run 2 VMs. One Standard license per two processors, and you have to license for everything in the box. So you want two VMs, you need two licenses, if you want 4 VMs, you need 4 licenses.
It really bends you mind when you think of an 8 processor chassis.
In this case you would need 4 licenses to just be allowed to run two VMs, you would need 8 licenses to run four VMs, etc. -
@wrx7m said in Windows Server 2016 Pricing:
@scottalanmiller So if you had a 4 CPU host and 3 Server 2012 R2 standard licenses, would you only be able to run 2 Server 2012 R2 VMs or would you be able to run 6?
Just two.
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Just when you think you have MS licensing down. Why the hell do they make this so complicated?
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One more license and you'd be able to run four. Basically going to 4 CPUs cuts your licensing in half.
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@wrx7m said in Windows Server 2016 Pricing:
Just when you think you have MS licensing down. Why the hell do they make this so complicated?
It's always been that way. It's to keep you from gaming the system and putting insanely large instances onto a single VM without paying more for it.
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@Dashrender said in Windows Server 2016 Pricing:
It really bends you mind when you think of an 8 processor chassis.
In this case you would need 4 licenses to just be allowed to run two VMs, you would need 8 licenses to run four VMs, etc.Like an HPE Integrity.
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Imagine what it was like on HP Superdomes with IA64 architecture. You could have one Windows instance on over 128 CPUs!!
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@scottalanmiller said in Windows Server 2016 Pricing:
Imagine what it was like on HP Superdomes with IA64 architecture. You could have one Windows instance on over 128 CPUs!!
Did MS have special licensing agreements with HP for those?
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@scottalanmiller OK for the sake of my own sanity-
In my environment, I have 3 hosts, each with 2 CPUs. All are running ESXi. If I have eight Windows Server 2012 R2 licenses, how many VMs can I run with Server 2012 R2?
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@wrx7m said in Windows Server 2016 Pricing:
@scottalanmiller OK for the sake of my own sanity-
In my environment, I have 3 hosts, each with 2 CPUs. All are running ESXi. If I have eight Windows Server 2012 R2 licenses, how many VMs can I run with Server 2012 R2?
This totally depends on how you split the licenses over the hosts. You can't move licenses between hosts more than once every 90 days.
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Let's assume the most evenly split load
VM host 1 : 3 licenses = six VMs
VM host 2 : 3 licenses = six VMs
VM host 3 : 2 licenses = four VMs -
@Dashrender OK - Good. That is what I thought. That is how it is setup currently.
I guess, once you get beyond 2 CPU, is when you need extra licenses to cover the additional CPUs?
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@Dashrender said in Windows Server 2016 Pricing:
@scottalanmiller said in Windows Server 2016 Pricing:
Imagine what it was like on HP Superdomes with IA64 architecture. You could have one Windows instance on over 128 CPUs!!
Did MS have special licensing agreements with HP for those?
No
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@wrx7m said in Windows Server 2016 Pricing:
@Dashrender OK - Good. That is what I thought. That is how it is setup currently.
I guess, once you get beyond 2 CPU, is when you need extra licenses to cover the additional CPUs?
Correct, each Standard License covers up to TWO VMs, on TWO CPUs.
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OK. I was getting worried because that was my understanding and I am almost done filling out the MS audit spreadsheet. I haven't had more than 2 CPUs on any host, so that part hasn't applied to me. That is interesting (and annoyingly convoluted), though.
