Windows Server 2016 Standard Grants 2 VMs, Are The Licences Included?

Question

From what I understand Server Standard 2016 grants "2VMs":

Does this only apply to VMs running Server 2016 as the guest OS, what about linux?

Do I have to pay for additional server 2016 licences to install on the guest VMs, or is the licence shared by the host and the guest?

If the licences are shared, and I wanted to run a 3rd VM with Server 2016 installed do I have to purchase the datacenter version, or can I just purchase and additional Server 2016 licence?

Answer 1

On your Windows Server 2016 Server, you can add two Windows Server 2016 Standard VMs at no additional cost. I dont know about 2016, but in previous versions it was legal to downgrade to an earlier version of server for a VM. You can run Linux as a guest OS in Hyper-V, however not all Linux distros are officially supported. If you wanted another 2016 Server VM, you would have purchase a license for it.

I would suggest you talk to a MS rep, they are very good at explaining the licensing.

Answer 2

Does this only apply to VMs running Server 2016 as the guest OS, what about linux?

Do I have to pay for additional server 2016 licences to install on the guest VMs, or is the licence shared by the host and the guest?

As far as I know, Hyper-V does not have any special per-VM licensing. That is, you don't need licenses for the VM itself, only for the OS running inside each VM.

The guests aren't really "sharing" the host's license – the "2 VM" grant gives you two extra licenses for Windows Server 2016, with the condition that they're used by VMs on that same host.

If you need a third or 4th VM with Server 2016, you can just buy a regular license for it. (Though if you need dozens of VMs, a Datacenter license will end up being cheaper...)

Meanwhile, creating a VM with Linux or *BSD doesn't require any additional licensing.