Microsoft Windows Server 2016 License tracker

Question

I have a client who currently has 50 Windows 2016 datacenter virtual machines and 10 SQL 2017 installations licenced under the Service Provider Licence Agreement, each of which has a Per Core licence (SPLA). The virtual machines run on five hosts, each of which has two physical CPUs and 18 cores per socket for the virtual machines.

The question now is, does Windows come with a tool that I can use to track the licence utilisation (core-based licensing)?
Since I am required to provide this to my SPLA team on a monthly basis, I believe that automating this process is preferable to doing it manually.

Answer 1

MS Licensing is all done by "the honor system". There is not any enforcement or tracking of licensing built into any server licensing. It must always be tracked manually.

There are other products like SolarWinds which allow you to manually enter the number of licenses you have purchased, and inventories the network, and can "warn" if you exceed your licensing.

https://www.solarwinds.com/service-desk/use-cases/microsoft-audit

Answer 2

You have SQL Server licenses only on paper, but nowhere in the system.

Answer 3

Thank you for responding @Olaf Helper

My knowledge of Windows SQL and other Microsoft products is limited.
This information was obtained from the inventory of the SPLA team.

So, if SQL server licences aren't found in the system, this must be done manually?

Is it possible to track the Core-based licencing for Windows 2016 datacenter?
or should it be done manually because there is no way to automate it?

Answer 4

Hi @NikRamak ,

SQL Server dose not trace licensing.

Maybe you can try to retrieve the product key from registry by the Powershell script
https://social.msdn.microsoft.com/Forums/sqlserver/en-US/42b03abd-cc56-4236-8e70-158c1dfb3dab/how-to-check-the-sql-server-license-which-i-installed?forum=sqlsecurity

It is recommended that approach MS to get advice on licensing
please call 1-800-426-9400, Monday through Friday, 6:00 A.M. to 6:00 P.M. (Pacific Time) to speak directly to a Microsoft licensing specialist. For international customers, please use the https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/licensing/worldwide to find contact information in your locations. For Volume Licensing Service Support, please use the https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/licensing/contact-us to contact information for your country.

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Answer 5

Hello

Thank you for your question and reaching out. I can understand you are having issues related to Microsoft SPLA .

As you mentioned that you have Datacenter 2016 License , you can use AVMA keys

Track virtual machine usage and licenses from the virtualization host, without requiring any access rights on the virtualized systems
Service Provider License Agreement (SPLA) partners and other hosting providers do not have to share product keys with tenants or access a tenant's virtual machine to activate it. Virtual machine activation is transparent to the tenant when AVMA is used. Hosting providers can use the server logs to verify license compliance and to track client usage history.

https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-server/get-started/automatic-vm-activation

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