info about licensing windows server migrating vMotion

[l0r3]

Hi everyone,

I have a question related to activating VMs with Windows Server. I virtualized some physical servers (all previously activated) with different editions of windows server standard OEM (most were 2019). Everything works perfectly at this moment.

Soon I'll setup an HA environment (1 cluster, 2 hosts) without DRS/FT, shared datastore. This setup, of course, could eventually migrate the VMs with vMotion automatically.

My question in this regard is the following: having to calculate the various additional licenses for the second host, after the purchase, how can I add the license keys to the windows server VM? I can't understand this. Will I have to wait for a reactivation request after migrating the VM to the second host? This is not clear to me. Thank you

[pcgeek2009]

How many VM's? Based on my knowledge when renewing our EA with Microsoft. If you are running Windows VM's in a virtual environment, they pretty much expect you to have a copy of datacenter edition for each host. This allows for unlimited Windows VM's on each hosts, avoiding potential licensing violations. If you use standard, you need to have enough licensing for the max number of VM's that can be hosted and any time. I believe they do this trying to push organizations for the datacenter edition. 

[a_p_]

I recommend reading Windows Server for use with virtualization technologies | Licensing Brief  which should answer your questions.

You can find this and other links at https://www.microsoft.com/licensing/docs/view/Windows-Server

André

 

[ThompsG]

Hi ,

 

Windows licensing is quite interesting to decipher, and a great link has been provided by  to get you started. I highly suggest reading it through.

 

To answer about activation, there isn't a requirement to 'reactivate' the VM per say on the new host once you VMotion it across. The hardware hasn't changed so the activation prompt isn't triggered. It's as simple as that. However, licensing the second host... well that is a completely different story because technically when you move the VM to the new host there is a license reassignment done. According to the EULA, this is only allowed once in 90 days without SA otherwise you are in breach. DataCenter licensing blurs this line a little because it has unlimited licenses for VM so technically, you just 'relicense' when on the new host. Not sure what licensing auditors would say to this, however. 

 

Kind regards.