@DustinB3403 said:

OK Chris Up Vote this if it's right. 🙂

If the user of the Windows VM is at the hardware device that is running the VM. Generally a type 2 hypervisor, such as VirtualBox, a retail key is acceptable. but so is SA and VDA.

If the users are remotely accessing the VM, then SA or VDA are required. (one or the other)

There are *caveats to this statement. But generally correct.
*You can license Windows VDA for a device to run the VM locally, but only if that device has a Windows 7 Pro version or better. Otherwise, yes you can use a full retail license of Windows to run locally on the device OR Windows SA.

@Jason said:

@scottalanmiller said:

Not crazy that it is not enforced. Lots of licensing depends on trust.

I meant crazy that a CCIE guy at a reseller would say that on record.

It's crazy that he gave that advice on record. Or at all.

@Dashrender said:

@scottalanmiller said:

@Dashrender said:

I can see doing RAID 6 if you can afford the performance penalty.

Which you would assume that you can if you can wait for a distant node to write as well.

By distant, you mean local, as in the same rack?

Yes, distant meaning outside of the chassis connected over a slow Ethernet link.

OK that's just weird!

There was a contact us email address in VLSC. I wrote them, included my license key and business information. They wrote back today indicating that they would create my key and I would receive it in a separate email. Additionally it would be added to my VLSC account.

I actually received the email with the KMS key before this email, and sure enough, the KMS key is now in my VLSC account.

How did they end up with a limitation like that? That seems crazy.

Exactly dashrender. the original OS that came with it was Windows 8.1. Single Language. I upgraded to Pro pack for the domain and have that key but it won't accept it as need the original OS first.

@GregoryHall said:

This write up is what I point people to when they have these questions (*the one my MS rep from SW said is gospel)
http://www.microsoft.com/OEM/en/licensing/sblicensing/Pages/downgrade_rights.aspx#fbid=D7zcRxMWVLN

Yeah but that says nothing about this specific case in regards to VOSE rights.

So the service is nothing but the GUI, as expected. 🙂 Thanks for verifying. Nice to know for sure I'm not crazy from time to time.

@Nic said:

No, that's our direct sales guy - email is [email protected]

Sweet. I emailed him about renewal, so I could gather info, and so his email would be saved in my Gmail...LOL

Great article - covers all the bases. Separating the pricing from the model is key too. The only benefit I can still see to ownership is that you can eek out more time on old software if the business is going through lean times, whereas in the subscription model you'd get cut off. Similar to owning an old car and keeping it running with duct tape and baling wire.

That's insane. Luckily Oracle DB is rare in the SMB.

@Carnival-Boy said:

But it's totally unmanageable for anything other than tiny environments. To the degree that I would say the low cost version is no longer available.

Yeah, If only that were true, that's it no longer available. The powers that be know they exist because they see it in the store 'Office Home Business Edition'

@alexntg that's how I always understood it.

@NetworkNerd said:

@alexntg said:

@NetworkNerd said:

I'm about to create a VM for our Estimating department to use to access a particular software. The company only wanted to get one seat, and as most know, a single seat tied to a specific computer is cheaper than network licensing most of the time. Basically this VM will run Windows 7 / 8.1 and allow one user at a time to login and use the program via RDP. We don't use VDI in any way. Other than the fact that this will be a VM, it is literally no different than having a desktop computer that is always online.

My CDW rep is telling me I need a license of Windows 8.1 Enterprise rather than Pro so I can leverage the VDA usage rights. I thought I just needed a license of 8.1 Pro (open license, not retail) to cover the requirements here. Can someone straighten this out for me?

Correct. You'll either need to pick up a VDA license (recurring annual) for the desktop VM instance or put the computers that will be accessing it under SA (recurring annual), which would also grant them Windows 8 Enterprise. Otherwise, running a Windows desktop OS in a virtual environment would be out of licensing compliance.

And if I get a VDA license for the VM, does that then entitle me to a full install of Windows 7 / 8 / 8..1 on that VM even though through open licensing I am being sold an upgrade license? Or must I have a fully-licensed underlying desktop OS from which I am "upgrading"?

The full OS. VDA is designed for use with non-qualified accessing devices such as thin clients.

Correct, no cons once you get it working and surpass the minimum count.