Azure Hybrid Benefit when migrating VM's on prem to azure

Question

Hi all,

We are planing to migrate 5 VM's to azure and the question is about Azure Hybrid Benefit. All our Hyper-V VM's are licensed but I am wondering if that license (Windows Server 2022) is valid in azure when we replicate VM with Azure Migrate?

We have windows server licenses and SQL server license as well on prem.

Does this Azure Hybrid Benefit means that if we have licenses on-prem we don't need to pay extra for VM's in azure? Please do not send links, I hope that someone can explain this in few sentences?

Answer 1

Hello Troops

Thank you for reaching out to the Microsoft Q&A platform.

Azure Hybrid Benefit is a licensing benefit that lets you bring your on-premises core-based Windows Server and SQL Server licenses with active Software Assurance (or subscription) to Azure. If you have Windows Server licenses and SQL Server licenses on-prem, you can use them in Azure without paying extra for the virtual machines licensing costs.

You can verify the licensing type of your virtual machine by using the Azure portal, PowerShell, or Azure CLI. You can also monitor the assigned license utilization and assign more licenses if needed.

From portal VM blade, you can view the toggle for Azure Hybrid Benefit for Windows Server by selecting "Configuration" tab.
for details, you can see the following document https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/virtual-machines/windows/hybrid-use-benefit-licensing#how-to-verify-your-vm-is-utilizing-the-licensing-benefit

Please note that the usage above the number of assigned licenses will be billed at normal, pay-as-you-go price

Other sources: https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/pricing/hybrid-benefit/#overview

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Answer 2

Hi Troops,

Here are some rules for Hybrid Benefit

The Azure Hybrid Benefit allows customers to assign existing Windows Server licenses to on-premises or Azure virtual machines.

Eligibility

Customers with Windows Server Standard or Datacenter Core licenses with active Software Assurance acquired through a Volume Licensing agreement

Customers with Server Subscriptions for Windows Server Standard acquired through CSP

Azure Hybrid Benefit Using Windows Server licenses

• A minimum of 16 Core licenses must be assigned to Azure

• A minimum of 8 Core licenses must be assigned to each Azure virtual machine, and further groups of 8 Core licenses are assigned to larger virtual machines

• For example, a 2-core virtual machine would require 8 Core licenses, and a 16-core virtual machine would require 2 x 8 = 16 Core licenses

Dual use rights

• Windows Server Datacenter Core licenses may be applied to both on-premises virtual machines and ones running in Azure

• Windows Server Standard Core licenses may only be applied to both environments to support the migration of existing workloads to Azure for a period of up to 180 days

Here you can find a calculator based on how many licenses you have on prem, you can calculate the vm you can create in azure with hybrid benefit.

https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/pricing/hybrid-benefit/#features