Hyper-V Server 2016 as Bare Metal Virtual Machines Version Upgrade

Question

I have a Server with a Hyper-V Bare metal installed; and have six (6) virtual machines created on it. At first I used the Evaluation version of Windows Server 2016 on each VM, and now I want to improve to Windows Server 2016 Standard Version on each machine. The physical server have two CPU's with 10 cores each one, for a total of 20 cores. I have the following questions:

1. Should i buy a 20 cores license for each machine?
2. Once I have the licenses for each machine; how I can upgrade a these machines from the Windows Server 2016 Evaluation Version to the Standard Version?

Thanks,

JZ

Answer 1

Licensing is per host machine so assuming six 2016 Standard virtual machine guests you'll need to license all 20 cores with a Server 2016 Standard license three times.

Some general info

• 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

http://download.microsoft.com/download/7/2/9/7290EA05-DC56-4BED-9400-138C5701F174/WS2016LicensingDatasheet.pdf

to convert the evaluation to retail you can from an elevated cmd.exe
Dism /online /Set-Edition:ServerStandard /AcceptEula /ProductKey:12345-67890-12345-67890-12345

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Answer 2

Any progress or updates?

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