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I'm working as a consultant and would like to keep each client in a completely separate windows 10 VM (will use linux for some clients, but due to requirements in some of the clients toolchains / service structure I will need X amount of windows VMs)
I can't seem to find any good information on how many licenses per VM I'd need. Will I need 1 license per VM or could multiple VMs be on a single license?
Unkan
Posted 2017-10-04T10:48:42.930
Reputation: 41
1
If you're working for a company, you can consider volume licensing for multiple virtual machines with same Windows version (depending on applied scenario, see "Licensing Windows desktop operating system for use with virtual machines" part).
Based from reference above, one of the scenario which I think likely fit to your issue probably like this:
Scenario: Local Windows Virtual Machines
Description:
An organization has a group of developers who need to test an application across multiple Windows images running in local virtual machine on PCs running Windows 10 Pro.
Licensing Solution:
The PC or the primary user of the PC needs active Windows Software Assurance, which permits running up to four virtual machines concurrently.
Normally with retail version a standalone VM treated as single machine and requires separate retail license, but in case of volume licensing for companies you can use WSA/VDA subscription to permit access with installed Windows in virtual machines.
NB: If you're not sure that how virtual machines treated in volume licensing mechanism, read Product Keys FAQ for details.
Similar issues (written for previous Windows versions, but may still apply for nowadays):
How does Windows 7 licensing work for running the OS as Virtual Machines?
Windows Activation FAQ: How do language, version, 64-bit or 32-bit, and source affect ability to install and transfer Windows licenses? (see Multiple Installations part)
Tetsuya Yamamoto
Posted 2017-10-04T10:48:42.930
Reputation: 190
2I don't have a source to point to, but I'm pretty sure each VM will need its own license if you want to use them in production. – Eric Renouf – 2017-10-04T11:44:42.567
See this answer: https://superuser.com/a/1228938/726810
– Biswapriyo – 2017-10-05T03:55:16.410@Biswa that doesn't answer my question – Unkan – 2017-10-05T05:55:32.770
There is an exact answer to your question on that thread. – fixer1234 – 2017-10-05T19:03:03.080
The MSDN Operating Systems subscription, which costs ~$699 a year, includes access to the latest versions of Windows and Windows Server, "for development and testing purposes."
These downloads are must be installed manually (on physical hardware or in a new virtual machine), but unlike evaluation editions they have no expiration date. You're expected to stop using any software acquired through this subscription if the term ends and you don't renew, but there's no time bomb in the software itself. – VoteCoffee – 2019-01-24T13:52:26.980
To the folks that marked this as a duplicate... it absolutely is not. Did anyone even read the question you flagged this as a duplicate of? – Brad – 2019-02-23T19:47:39.577
@Brad I read the question. Snipping the text from the bottom row of the table in the answer: «A volume license can be copied into up to four VMs; other license types cannot, except maybe MSDN licenses.» The answer below has more words, but I’m not sure it really has any more information. – Scott – 2019-02-23T20:27:23.617
@Scott It doesn't matter what the answer says... just because an answer to an unrelated question may answer this question doesn't make this one a duplicate question. Somewhere on meta, there is discussion that clarifies this. By all means though, everyone is welcome to link to other answers in the comments if they apply. – Brad – 2019-02-23T22:42:35.973
@Brad: And, by the same token, I encourage you to find and link to the meta discussion that clarifies what qualifies a ”duplicate”, as it seems to be a gray area. But I note that the (upper) pink box doesn’t say “This is an exact duplicate of this other question”; it says “This question already has an answer here”. And the lower pink box says “If those answers do not fully address your question, please ask a new question.” And while I believe that that is badly worded bad advice, it seems to support a broader interpretation of what qualifies a ”duplicate”. – Scott – 2019-02-23T22:58:42.960
@Scott This question itself doesn't have an answer to what is linked... it just happens to be that a different question has a reference that matches what is being asked for here. If I asked what 5+5 is, and you asked what 4+6 is, those are different questions with the same answer. This isn't even grey area (and, there are plenty of grey area questions)... this question is unambiguously, positively, completely different than what was asked on the other question. – Brad – 2019-02-23T23:03:55.203
@Brad: (1) “This question itself doesn’t have an answer to what is linked.” I’m not sure I understand what you’re saying. If you’re saying that this page doesn’t contain an answer to the other question, so what? (2) “If I asked what 5+5 is, and you asked what 4+6 is, those are different questions with the same answer.” I guess I agree. “This isn't even grey area … this question is unambiguously, positively, completely different than what was asked on the other question.” That’s your opinion. I disagree. We each get a vote. – Scott – 2019-02-23T23:16:54.963
The duplicate is a canonical question that aims to answer a wide range of Windows licensing questions. Pretty much the whole purpose of a post like that is to have one reference point to which you can close all related Windows licensing questions as duplicates of that one canonical question. That's exactly what happened here. Therefore, I voted to leave this question closed. – n8te – 2019-02-24T07:28:35.503