Licensing my Hyper-V cluster to host 20 VM with Windows Server 2019 or 2022

Strat-Richard 21 Reputation points
2021-10-18T12:11:15.677+00:00

Hello,

I'm about to buy 2 servers in order to create an Hyper-V cluster (failover & load balancing) to host 20 VMs.

Each server will have 2 processors with 8 cores.

How can I licensing those serveur and their VMs if I want to do it with Windows server 2019 standard?

As I need to move VMs to one server while I'm doing the maintenance on the other, I'm wondering if I need to get licence for 20 VMs on both servers so 40 VMs or can I get just 10 licences for VMs on each server?

I know that I can buy 2 Windows server 2019 Datacenter 16core pack but I just want to see how mutch it will cost me if I do it with Windows server 2019 standard.

Last question: Will Windows serveur 2022 have the same licencing method?

Many thx for your answers!
Rich

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  1. Dave Patrick 425.7K Reputation points MVP
    2021-10-18T12:58:32.267+00:00

    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.

    So if you could have all 40 on one host or the other even for one minute then each host will need to be licensed to cover 40 VMs. Seems you'll probably want DataCenter licenses. As far as I know they haven't released a Server 2022 licensing datasheet but the general licensing hasn't changed.

    https://download.microsoft.com/download/7/C/E/7CED6910-C7B2-4196-8C55-208EE0B427E2/Windows_Server_2019_licensing_datasheet_EN_US.pdf
    http://download.microsoft.com/download/3/D/4/3D42BDC2-6725-4B29-B75A-A5B04179958B/WindowsServer2016VirtualTech_VLBrief.pdf

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

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  1. Strat-Richard 21 Reputation points
    2021-10-18T14:16:35.89+00:00

    Thx DSPatrick for this answer and for your links !

    I need to go with a DataCentre licence then.

    I understand that licence is only relater to a physical host and not on VMs.... Too bad!

    regards,
    Rich