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Is it possible to create unlimited VMs on VMWare ESXi with Windows Server 2022 Datacenter licenses downgraded to Windows Server 2019

Anonymous
2024-02-22T17:32:09+00:00

We are planning to deploy a Virtualization environment with Windows VMs. We have planned to do this with VMWare ESXi.

Windows Server Datacenter licensing guide mentions unlimited VMs can be created with Hyper-V. But it is silent about the same opportunity with any other Hypervisor model.

The Windows VMs we shall configure will be running on Windows 10 and Windows Server 2019, as our application software is not yet released for newer Windows versions. for this we have planned to downgrade the currently available Datacenter 2022 license to Datacenter 2019.

Kindly confirm if it possible to create unlimited VMWare ESXi VMs using Windows Server Datacenter 2019 license.

Windows for business | Windows Server | Devices and deployment | Licensing and activation

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  2. Anonymous
    2024-06-13T16:20:44+00:00

    @iamrkp are you a Service Provider? Under the SPLA usage rights, my company hosts unlimited Virtual Machines with ESXi that are licensed as Datacenter Core packs. We are audited every 3 years and just completed an audit. So, I am confident in this answer.

    However, licensing desktops (Win10 or 11) is not covered in a mixed environment. Those hosts must be licensed separately and the cluster/host resources must be dedicated to desktops. You cannot have servers on those hosts. I don't recall if this was a Microsoft EULA issue or VMware EULA issue.

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