Windows Server 2019 Datacenter License - Product Activation

Question

Hi all,

Have Physical Server with 2 Processors. Each processor has 8 cores. This means I have 16 cores in total (physical). However, there is feature on server to activate virtual cores, when doing this, I get 32 cores.
Physical Cores = 16
Physical + virtual Cores = 32

Now if we consider the Windows Server activation for Windows Server 2019 Datacenter, I have valid product key for the DC which I used to activate the server. Should I need to consider take other actions to activate Processor cores in addition to Operating System activation? If yes, please advise how?

Answer 1

Hi,

You don't need to activate processor cores, just use the product key to activate the server that you can have the operating system activated.

Hope above information can help you.

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Answer 2

Only the physical cores should count. 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.
• AVMA keys can be used only when the host is DataCenter edition

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

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Answer 3

Hi and thanks for reply.

Could you please elaborate the "Core License"? is it different from the Server License?
I have following options under keys:

And following keys: I can't see something specific about the core license.

Answer 4

No, the licensing is the same for core installation.

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Answer 5

Some confusion left anyhow.

As per my screenshot, I have Windows Server 2019 Datacenter - Retail KEYs.

I am using this to activate the Server, once server is activated, all done? If yes, then why to get linked with number of physical cores and core licenses?