Microsoft Licensing Primer
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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.
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It would actually be 12, if you have 13 you have to buy the licenses for 14
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@brianlittlejohn said:
It would actually be 12, if you have 13 you have to buy the licenses for 14
Duh, of course. Late on a Friday, needing some beer here, I guess.
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@scottalanmiller Thats what I'm about to do, either craft beer or wine. My friends are having a make you own pasta night... so im leaning towards wine unless I see a beer I cant do without.
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I've got a single beer left in the fridge. Doubt that I am going to walk to the store for more, though.
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I have an almost full bottle of sake to tide me over tonight.
First snow is about to arrive in Chicagoland. The kids are excited.
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Went to the store and ended up with wine and beer...
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I should probably do that. I think that we've lost track of this thread now.
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That 12 VMs isn't just 12 on a single host for normal operations - if the plan is to move VMs around for failover, you're down to a max of 6 on each server before buying DC makes sense.
