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Can you help me with my software licensing issue?

How does the licensing model of Windows Server Data Center Edition work?

According to this Microsoft page a copy of Windows Server DCE is $4,809 and as far as I can tell I can run as many Windows virtual machines on top of this. I have been reading through the site and I am completely confused;

  • Is this any version of Windows, so I could spin up 50 Windows 7 virtuals, or is it DCE only?

  • There is usually a limitation somewhere but I can't find it; I am suspecting there is a limit on the number of CPUs per physical server or the number of cores per CPU. Is this true here?

Thank you.

Community
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jwbensley
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1 Answers1

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Windows Server 2012 Datacenter Edition is licensed per-socket. A single DCE 2012 license is good for 2 sockets and will entitle you to run as many VMs of any Windows Server OS on a single piece of physical hardware that has all of the physical sockets licensed.

You don't even have to run them on a DCE host. You can even have 50 Windows VMs on a VMWare ESXi host as long as you have DCE licenses that cover all physical CPUs in that ESXi host.

Of course, like all licensing questions on this site - you're best off contacting a reseller that specialized in licensing. After all, we're sysadmins, not VARs and licensing partners.

MDMarra
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  • your last stencens is not true. I am MS licensing partner (SPLA) and sometiems VAR ;) – TomTom Nov 01 '12 at 14:18
  • Well, maybe you should have javano contact you for specifics :) – MDMarra Nov 01 '12 at 14:20
  • @TomTom Can you explain what is wrong about the last sentence please? :) – jwbensley Nov 01 '12 at 14:23
  • @javano He was saying that he's a VAR/licensing partner. Generally we don't deal with licensing questions here. He was just making a joke - the information pertaining to the actual answer is accurate. – MDMarra Nov 01 '12 at 14:24
  • @MDMarra Ah!I thought he meant the last line of actual content, above the horizontal rule :) – jwbensley Nov 01 '12 at 14:28
  • @MDMarra Can you clarify for my simply brain please; when you say "is licensed per-processor. A single DCE 2012 license is good for 2 sockets" what do you mean here 1 processor but 2 sockets? – jwbensley Nov 01 '12 at 14:29
  • Licensing is complicated (especially with MS in many cases). You're really best off talking to a reseller that is trained in Microsoft licensing rather than turning to sources on the Internet. As for the processor/socket thing, they're interchangeable terms. Each license is good for 2 sockets/processors. If you had a host with 4 CPUs, you'd need 2 DCE licenses to use it on that host. I've clarified the post a bit. – MDMarra Nov 01 '12 at 14:29
  • @MDMarra Yes I agree ^ I'm not taking this as concrete just trying to get an idea :) – jwbensley Nov 01 '12 at 14:30
  • It also is not only complicated but sometimes confusing and depending on locality and contract form. For example MY Server OS are MOSTLY rented per month from Microsoft under SPLA. Rights, Obligations are totally different from purchased. Thigns ARE complicatd - sometimes you ened to sit down and plan alternatives. – TomTom Nov 02 '12 at 06:14