Microsoft Licensing Primer
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@BRRABill ah okay, once every 90 days then. I'm very surprised that it is only that often. We'd have to get some clarification on the usable snapshot process. What they are describing is a full scale "running from it" DR test which is quite a bit different than we are talking about here.
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I found the following on the Product Use document from November of 2015.
The backup Instance can run only during the following exception periods:
• For brief periods of disaster recovery testing within one week every 90 days;
• During a disaster, while the production Server being recovered is down; and
• Around the time of a disaster, for a brief period, to assist in the transfer between the primary production server and the disaster recovery Server.I can honestly admit I don't know what "within one week every 90 days" means.
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Here is the rest of it...
In order to use the software under disaster recovery rights, Customer must comply with the following terms:
• The OSE on the disaster recovery Server must not be running at any other times except as above.
• The OSE on the disaster recovery Server may not be in the same cluster as the production Server.
• Other than backup instances run on Microsoft Azure Services, Windows Server License is not required for the disaster recovery Server if the following conditions are met:
o The Hyper-V role within Windows Server is used to replicate Virtual OSEs from the production Server at a primary site to a disaster recovery Server.
o The disaster recovery Server may be used only to- run hardware virtualization software, such as Hyper-V,
- provide hardware virtualization services,
- run software agents to manage the hardware virtualization software,
- serve as a destination for replication,
- receive replicated Virtual OSEs, test failover,
- await failover of the Virtual OSEs, and
- run disaster recovery workloads as described above.
o The disaster recovery Server may not be used as a production Server.
• Use of the software backup Instance should comply with the License Terms for the software.
• Once the disaster recovery process is complete and the production Server is recovered, the backup Instance must not be running at any other times except those times allowed here.
• Maintain SA coverage for all CALs, External Connector licenses and Server Management Licenses under which it accesses the backup instance and manage the OSEs in which that software runs.
• Customer’s right to run the backup Instances ends when Customer’s Software Assurance coverage ends.
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Also, does this ...
Maintain SA coverage for all CALs, External Connector licenses and Server Management Licenses under which it accesses the backup instance and manage the OSEs in which that software runs.
Mean that you need SA on the CALs as well?
So say I have a Server 2012 VL with 20 2012 CALs to access it.
I need SA on both the server AND the CALs?
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Technically only on the CALs used during the DR test.
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@scottalanmiller said:
Technically only on the CALs used during the DR test.
But why would you need any CALs at all for that? Or maybe 1 if anything?
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@BRRABill said:
• For brief periods of disaster recovery testing within one week every 90 days;
And do you have a guess as to what
"• For brief periods of disaster recovery testing within one week every 90 days;"
means? -
@BRRABill said:
@BRRABill said:
• For brief periods of disaster recovery testing within one week every 90 days;
And do you have a guess as to what
"• For brief periods of disaster recovery testing within one week every 90 days;"
means?It means you can spin up your DR site to make sure everything works. for small amounts of time not to exceed a max of one week every 90 days.
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@JaredBusch said:
It means you can spin up your DR site to make sure everything works. for small amounts of time not to exceed a max of one week every 90 days.
So I could spin up for an hour every day for 90 days. That's less than 1 total week.
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@BRRABill said:
@JaredBusch said:
It means you can spin up your DR site to make sure everything works. for small amounts of time not to exceed a max of one week every 90 days.
So I could spin up for an hour every day for 90 days. That's less than 1 total week.
No.
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So you are saying my original theory was right? That I can spin it up only once (for less than a week in that instance) every 90 days?
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@BRRABill said:
So you are saying my original theory was right? That I can spin it up only once (for less than a week in that instance) every 90 days?
Yes. That is what it means.
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Since it is December and hopefully e-mails from ML are flowing again, let's see if we can get an official chime in from @Chris .
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@JaredBusch said:
@BRRABill said:
So you are saying my original theory was right? That I can spin it up only once (for less than a week in that instance) every 90 days?
Yes. That is what it means.
I called MS to confirm this today.
You were 100% right.
Once every 90 days, and only with SA.
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@BRRABill said:
@JaredBusch said:
@BRRABill said:
So you are saying my original theory was right? That I can spin it up only once (for less than a week in that instance) every 90 days?
Yes. That is what it means.
I called MS to confirm this today.
You were 100% right.
Once every 90 days, and only with SA.
No SA is required for this per our MS rep. Though all we do spin them up with no network connection and the shut them right back down. Once per quarter.
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@Jason said:
No SA is required for this per our MS rep. Though all we do spin them up with no network connection and the shut them right back down. Once per quarter.
You might want to check on that.
It's only allowed once every 90 days WITH SA.
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@BRRABill said:
@Jason said:
No SA is required for this per our MS rep. Though all we do spin them up with no network connection and the shut them right back down. Once per quarter.
You might want to check on that.
It's only allowed once every 90 days WITH SA.
That's not what our EA Rep says. We have checked on it many times.
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I believe you are referring to cold/standby licensed backup servers. Which is a right under SA's standby server rights but that is highly different then making sure a live backup boots and then turning it back off, there is no 90 day restriction either, if you have SA you can also use Standby servers.
Also if you have Azure for your DR site then you don't need anything. All windows base licensing is covered.
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@Jason said:
I believe you are referring to cold/standby licensed backup servers. Which is a right under SA's standby server rights but that is highly different then making sure a live backup boots and then turning it back off, there is no 90 day restriction either, if you have SA you can also use Standby servers.
Also if you have Azure for your DR site then you don't need anything. All windows base licensing is covered.
What do you mean a "live backup" ... if you boot a copy of server up for 1 second you need another license for it. MS has no disaster recivery rights.
With SA, you can boot it once every 90 days.
@scottalanmiller I am sure will chime in here to support this...
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A bit offtop:
Isn`t MS is the only company who has certification program for its licensing?
