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We have a server with 4 physical processors (individual chips) installed and have installed and activatded Win2012 Standard edition on it..on bare metal i.e. no virtualization. When I look at the task manager, it only shows two physical processors in the 'Cores' field (# of cores/processor X # of procs seen).

I do understand that ONE Win 2012 Standard license only supports upto 2 physical processors as mentinoed here http://download.microsoft.com/download/4/D/B/4DB352D1-C610-466A-9AAF-EEF4F4CFFF27/WS2012_Licensing-Pricing_FAQ.pdf

What i want to know is- how can I make the same installation (same instance of Win 2012 Std) see, recognize, utilize all 4 processors? Is it even possible? Does it mean adding another license key to the installation? If so, how can I do that?

swellcode
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  • possible duplicate of [Can you help me with my software licensing issue?](http://serverfault.com/questions/215405/can-you-help-me-with-my-software-licensing-issue) – Rex Oct 03 '14 at 20:42
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    why the down vote? This question is about how to apply the license, not about how much it costs et al. – swellcode Oct 04 '14 at 06:36

2 Answers2

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If the standard edition is limited to two physical sockets, to use more you need a higher end license, simple as that. The higher version, I suppose, will be Datacenter edition.

EDIT: looks like there's an option to stack STD licenses:

enter image description here

No reference on CPU support to be found anywhere, only VM numbers

dyasny
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  • Its not as simple as that. The docs say if you have > 2 processors, you 'apply' more licenses to user those additional processors. My confusion is how do we 'apply'? – swellcode Oct 03 '14 at 20:19
  • please see edit – dyasny Oct 03 '14 at 20:30
  • That seems strange- I am currently running 3 VMs on a single license.. and it didnt complain even once. But the issue here is not the VM restriction but the physical processor restriction. – swellcode Oct 03 '14 at 20:34
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You don't do anything. The licensing requirement is a contractual one, but not a technical one.

If you aren't seeing the processors, check that your BIOS configuration is correct (they are enabled; hyperthreading is enabled, etc.) and that the processors are working. Consider calling your vendor's support.

Falcon Momot
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