Licensing and Hyper-V VM Guests

JohnD 21 Reputation points
2020-11-28T10:34:11.953+00:00

Hi!

I have a project where we will have a server (2x Intel Xeon Silver 4208 = 2x 8 cores) with Windows 2019 Standard Server. The client wants to install all of the services in a VM guest.

The server seller told us that with Windows 2019 Standard Server we can have 2 virtual machines for free. The virtual guest will also run Windows 2019 Standard.

Is the VM guest license also covered? or should we purchase one more Windows 2019 Standard Server license?

Thank you in advance!

Windows Server
Windows Server
A family of Microsoft server operating systems that support enterprise-level management, data storage, applications, and communications.
12,117 questions
Hyper-V
Hyper-V
A Windows technology providing a hypervisor-based virtualization solution enabling customers to consolidate workloads onto a single server.
2,536 questions
Accepted answer
  1. Dave Patrick 426.1K Reputation points MVP
    2020-11-28T12:42:06.79+00:00

    Shouldn't be a problem, some general info

    • Each host needs to be licensed.
    • A minimum of 8 core licenses is required for each physical processor and a minimum of 16 core licenses is required for each server.
    • Core licenses are sold in packs of two.
    • Standard Edition provides rights for up to 2 Operating System Environments or Windows Servers containers with Hyper-V isolation when all physical cores in the server are licensed. For each additional 1 or 2 VMs, all the physical cores in the server must be licensed again.
    • DataCenter Edition provides rights for unlimited Operating System Environments or Windows Servers containers with Hyper-V isolation when all physical cores in the server are licensed.

    https://download.microsoft.com/download/7/C/E/7CED6910-C7B2-4196-8C55-208EE0B427E2/Windows_Server_2019_licensing_datasheet_EN_US.pdf

    --please don't forget to Accept as answer if the reply is helpful--

    1 person found this answer helpful.

4 additional answers

Sort by: Most helpful
Most helpful Newest Oldest
  1. Evgenij Smirnov 541 Reputation points
    2020-11-28T14:14:19.67+00:00

    ...and in case it isn't 100% clear by now: With your first Standard lincense, you only get two VMs if the OS that is installed on the host does not run any workloads other than Hyper-V and management agents like monitoring, backup or AV. If any user or device has a reason to connect to tha host (other than to manage said host), the first license is consumed by that and you can only run ONE VM until you add another Standard license for every physical core.

    0 comments
  2. JohnD 21 Reputation points
    2020-12-01T10:54:47.24+00:00

    Thank you all for the quick response!

    I ony need 1 VM guest (OSE?). That guest will use all of the CPU cores with a constant workload of about 50%-60% for video processing.

    That software has a client - server architecture. Multiple clients may connect to the video server.

    So if I understand correctly it's covered by the physical host's license. Please correct me if I'm wrong.

    One more question that just occurred to me is what key should I use in the VM?

    Please, forgive my ignorance about MS terminology I'm returning from the Windows 2012 era! :D

    0 comments
  3. Dave Patrick 426.1K Reputation points MVP
    2020-12-01T14:24:29.563+00:00

    So if I understand correctly it's covered by the physical host's license.

    Yes, that's correct.

    One more question that just occurred to me is what key should I use in the VM?

    Use the same key as used on host.

    0 comments
  4. reuvygroovy 776 Reputation points
    2021-11-18T13:09:18.81+00:00

    If your host machine is running DataCenter, and fully licensed, can you also run Guests with DataCenter and have them covered by the parent?

    0 comments