Microsoft Licensing Primer
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What is DC again?
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I think I read either here (or elsewhere like in the below link) you can legally move the VL around once every 90 days.
So say I only have 1 license and my server dies, I can BMR to new hardware and move the license.
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@BRRABill said:
I think I read either here (or elsewhere like in the below link) you can legally move the VL around once every 90 days.
So say I only have 1 license and my server dies, I can BMR to new hardware and move the license.
Well you can move it once every 90 days, but you also have to have enough licenses on the target host.
For DR, this is not an issue. since you are replacing what you had. But when people move for load balancing, you have to make sure you have enough licenses one each host.
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Right. Like that link says if you run it for a second on another machine you need a license.
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@BRRABill said:
Right. Like that link says if you run it for a second on another machine you need a license.
Yup. Basically - don't move licensing around willy nilly. If you have to failover whole systems, you can do so (once every 90 days.) And if you want to have flexibility to do what you want, you buy DC licensing for each physical host and you are covered.
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@scottalanmiller said:
@BRRABill said:
Right. Like that link says if you run it for a second on another machine you need a license.
Yup. Basically - don't move licensing around willy nilly. If you have to failover whole systems, you can do so (once every 90 days.) And if you want to have flexibility to do what you want, you buy DC licensing for each physical host and you are covered.
That kinda depends on how many VMs he is running... DC certainly simpler, but you can do it buying multiple Standard Server Licenses as well.
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@brianlittlejohn said:
That kinda depends on how many VMs he is running... DC certainly simpler, but you can do it buying multiple Standard Server Licenses as well.
Not at any size where you want to move hardware around willy nilly.
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@brianlittlejohn said:
@scottalanmiller said:
@BRRABill said:
Right. Like that link says if you run it for a second on another machine you need a license.
Yup. Basically - don't move licensing around willy nilly. If you have to failover whole systems, you can do so (once every 90 days.) And if you want to have flexibility to do what you want, you buy DC licensing for each physical host and you are covered.
That kinda depends on how many VMs he is running... DC certainly simpler, but you can do it buying multiple Standard Server Licenses as well.
Yeah the math is pretty basic to work out. I have not quoted DC lately (was $5.5k last time i checked), but I know I just got a quote with Server 2012 R2 at $800. So if you have 4 VMs spread as 2 on 2 hosts, that means you only need 2 licenses totaling $1600. But if you want to move them around whenever you desire, then you need 4 licenses totaling $3200. Still much cheaper than DC x 2 coming in at $11000.
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I think that he wants to move the hardware that the license is tied to regularly. That's where it gets tough.
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My org, right now, the most I will ever run on each server is 8 (including all Disaster scenarios), so Standard Licensing still worked out cheaper, next time around I will most likely purchase DC so I can break things out more on my VMs.
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@brianlittlejohn said:
My org, right now, the most I will ever run on each server is 8 (including all Disaster scenarios), so Standard Licensing still worked out cheaper, next time around I will most likely purchase DC so I can break things out more on my VMs.
At eight it is still cheaper? I thought that the tipping point was seven, is it nine?
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@scottalanmiller You just have to do more planning out to make sure you are covered in every DR/Maintenance scenario.
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The ability to add more VMs whenever you want is big. When you get that close it is pretty common that you start being stingy with separating workloads to keep within your licensing. Get a DC license and often you suddenly jump from eight to a dozen VMs
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@scottalanmiller The dollar to dollar break even point is 14VMs or 7 Standard licenses... Like i said next time around I'll purchase the DC because it will give me more flexibility turning up VMs
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What are the prices?
Standard is about $830 and DC is about $5820?
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@scottalanmiller Something like that... I think I got my Standards for $750...
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That makes sense, that would be the 14 number. So if you know you can do 13, standard. But if you hit 14, DC for sure.
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@scottalanmiller I would say if you get to 10vms, it is worth the extra price. For the flexibility of adding a vm whenever needed.
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I would generally agree, but ignoring flexibility and soft benefits, the inflection point appears to currently be between 13 and 14 VMs per host.
