Whether you are a customer or a reseller, it is important to understand the ins windows server 2016 datacenter cal license free sfrver of Windows Server Client Access Licenses CALs to ensure license compliance is met. Starting with Windows Server Standard edition and Datacenter edition, Microsoft introduced a new licensing model. This new model is based on the cores in the server, where as previous Windows Server licensing models were based on processors.

Although the licensing model has changed, one thing has stayed consistent… the need for CALs! Want to learn more about Core-Based Licensing?

However, the Windows Server OS license does not give them the legal right for users or devices to connect to the server… that is where CALs come in! This two-component license models provides a low entry price and a way to pay for licejse used: the more devices or users accessing the server software, the greater the license fees or price.

This model therefore offers license affordability to organizations of all sizes. What are the different types of CALs? Does the organization have roaming employees who need to access the corporate network from several devices?

In this case, User CALs make the most economical and administrative sense. Does the organization have multiple users for one device, such as shift workers using a kiosk-style workstation? In this case, Device CALs make the most economical and administrative sense. Windows Server CALs must be the same version as—or higher than—the server software they are accessing.

If you are a reseller, now is a great time to check in with your clients to ensure their CAL needs are filled! If you're a customer, now is a great time to wwindows your server environments to ensure you're in compliance!

We encourage you to share your comments on this post. Comments are moderated and will be reviewed and posted as promptly as possible during regular business hours To ensure your comment is published, be sure to follow the Community Guidelines.

Click here to learn more. Resources Announcements Windows server 2016 datacenter cal license free us Feedback. Log In. New Article. Today, we will explain CALs: what they are, the different types, and why they are important! Labels: Coffee Coaching. Leave a Comment We encourage you to share your comments windows server 2016 datacenter cal license free this post. Be sure to winddows a unique name. You can't reuse a name that's already in use. Be sure to enter a unique email address.

You can't reuse an email address that's already in use. Website optional. Preview Exit Preview. Latest Comments. HPE Webinars. Find out about the latest live broadcasts and on-demand webinars. Online Expert Days.

The opinions expressed above datacener the personal opinions of the authors, not of Hewlett Packard Enterprise. By using this site, you accept the Terms of Use and Rules of Participation. End of content United States. Hewlett Packard Enterprise International.

Microsoft offers free Windows Server licenses to VMware switchers | ZDNet.

This article describes the new Windows Server Licensing model per-core licensing Microsoft has implemented for its new server-based operating system. In addition to these changes many would be surprised to know that there is now a minimum number of Per-Core licenses required per physical CPU and Server :.

Thankfully not much. Microsoft has adjusted its per-Core license pricing in such a way so that a small deployment of up to cores per physical server will be the same pricing as a Windows server 2-CPU License. Get an award-winning backup solution for Free! Download Now!

The price difference becomes apparent for larger customers with a server deployed that exceeds 8-cores per CPU and cores per server. These customers will end up paying additional money for their licenses.

Installing a Windows server Standard server means that the initial license will cover up to 16 out of the 48 cores and the customer will need to purchase additional licenses to cover the 32 extra cores! The following table explains where additional licenses are required depending on the number of CPUs processors and cores per CPU.

Figure 1. Microsoft offers its Windows Server in 6 different editions. Windows Server Datacenter : This edition targets highly virtualized datacenter and cloud environments. Windows Server Standard : Used for physical servers or environments with minimal virtualized requirements.

It serves as a critical security component in protecting the transport key, and works in conjunction with other Windows Server components to ensure high security levels for Shielded VMs. Figure 2. Windows Server Essentials : Ideal for small businesses with no more than users and 50 devices. This edition is also a great replacement for businesses running Windows Server Foundation as the same edition is not available for Windows Server Windows Server MultiPoint Premium Server : Allows multiple users to share a single computer while having their own applications and Windows experience and is suitable for academic environments.

Windows Storage Server : Suitable for dedicated storage solutions. This is a stand-alone product that runs directly on the bare-metal server and is built using the same technology as the Hyper-V role on a Windows Server Readers can also download here the Free Microsoft Windows Server Licensing Datasheet that provides additional useful information.

The table below shows the licensing model adopted by each Windows Server edition:. Licensing Model. CAL Requirements. Windows Server Datacenter.

Windows Server Standard. Windows Server Essentials. Windows Server MultiPoint Premium. Windows Storage Server Table 1. Windows Server Editions and Licensing Models. The new Windows Server core-based licensing can be slightly tricky so make sure you know your hardware and license theory well!

Back to Windows Server Section. Tags: Licensing Windows server per-Core per-processor datacenter standard essentials multipoint storage server hyper-v cost calculate. Deal with bandwidth spikes Free Download. Web Vulnerability Scanner Free Download. Network Security Scan Download Now. In addition to these changes many would be surprised to know that there is now a minimum number of Per-Core licenses required per physical CPU and Server : A minimum of 8 core licenses is required for each physical CPU.

A minimum of 16 core licenses is required for each server. A 2-core license pack is the minimum amount of core licenses you can purchase. Host Guardian Service helps ensure high security levels for Shielded VMs Windows Server Essentials : Ideal for small businesses with no more than users and 50 devices.

Articles To Read Next:. Windows Server CAL. No CAL Required. Hyper-V Server

Windows server 2016 datacenter cal license free

Windows Server is an operating system that is widely used on physical servers and virtual machines including Microsoft virtualized servers in organizations. Windows Server licensing became more complicated with the release of Windows Server compared to Windows Server Customers are confused with the new licensing model when trying to estimate Windows server licensing costs and buy the correct license.

This blog post covers Datacentrr Server licensing including Microsoft virtualized server licensing to help you estimate Windows Server cost for a physical server and virtual machines.

The licensing datacentef of Windows Server is windows server 2016 datacenter cal license free to Windows Server There are two types of licenses for Windows Server — server licenses and client access licenses CALs. Server licenses are core-based licenses. The number of server licenses needed depends on the number of processors and processor cores. The number of client access licenses needed depends on the number of users or devices that will be connected to a server. Remote Desktop Protocol RDP is used to provide access to remote desktop services on the server for remote users.

Note: This blog post provides an overview of licensing to familiarize you with Windows Server licensing. Licensing rules can change or be updated for newer product versions. Refer to the Microsoft website and contact Microsoft sales managers before you buy licenses in order to avoid mistakes such as inadvertently violating the license agreement. Windows Server uses a per-core licensing model for servers, which reflects the trend of windows server 2016 datacenter cal license free powerful multi-core processors with a high number of Fre cores and the lkcense of cores per processor increased significantly.

Server windows server 2016 datacenter cal license free are not increasing the number of processors in serrver servers, but are installing processors with more cores. The fatacenter rules that are applied to each physical server running Windows Server on a physical server as a host operating system or on virtual machines on this server are listed below.

The price datacenrer 8 dual-core licenses is the same as the price for a single core license. A license for 16 cores is the windows server 2016 datacenter cal license free license you can buy. Similarly, if a motherboard on a server has two sockets, but only one processor is installed, you only need to license all the cores of the installed processor.

OSE is the operating system environment. This is a term that defines one instance of Windows Server running 22016 a physical server or a virtual machine.

The virtual OSE term is used when Windows Server is running as a guest operating system Microsoft virtualized server on a virtual machine residing on a physical server. Licensed servers are the servers to which licenses are assigned.

Note: The costs for one Windows Server R2 license for two processors equals the price for 8 dual-core licenses for Windows Server Windows Server cost is often a determining factor when choosing an edition. Windows Server Essentials is the light edition suitable for small organizations and is licensed per server.

There are many limitations in this edition. Windows Server Essentials does not support virtualization. Client access licenses are not required. Windows Server Essentials is well-integrated with Office hosted services. In other words, you can install Windows Server Standard on a host machine and run two virtual machines with Windows Server Cree as a guest OS. Windows Server Standard running on a host used for virtualization as a hypervisor can be used only to install Hyper-V to winrows VMs.

Using the host OS as a full-featured server with two virtual servers is not allowed. You cannot use three full-featured servers one physical and two virtual if you have the Standard license that covers two VMs and one physical server. The licensed Datacenter edition covers Windows Server installed on a host and allows you to run an unlimited number of virtual machines with Licemse Server installed as a guest OS. A Windows Server Essentials vs Standard comparison is outside the scope of this blog post.

CAL licenses are required for both Standard and Datacenter editions. For example, if you have licensed Windows Server Standard for all processor cores of a physical server and install Windows Server Standard on a host with the Hyper-V role enabled, then you can run two VMs with Windows Server Standard. Frfe you need vatacenter run 4 virtual machines on a server, then you need to buy one more license a datacenher of two-core licenses to cover all cores for this server the total number of VMs is four and Windows Server Standard datacdnter used in this picense.

One Standard license covers two virtual machines. If you need to run 4 VMs on a physical server that has two 8-core processors, you must buy 16 dual-core Standard licenses for Windows Server Windoww license sets cover all cores twice and allow you to run 4 VMs. If you need to run an odd number of VMs on a host, you need servet buy licenses for the next even number of VMs.

If you need to run 4 VMs on the same physical server that has two 8-core processors windows server 2016 datacenter cal license free with the Windows Server Datacenter license, sserver need to buy 8 dual-core Datacenter licenses for Windows Server VM licensing order: Windows server 2016 datacenter cal license free cores must be licensed first and only after that virtual machines must be licensed.

Taking into account the current price for Windows Server dataceenter, it may be better to buy Windows Server Windows server 2016 datacenter cal license free licenses if you are going to run up to 12 virtual machines on a single physical server.

If you need to run 14 VMs or more, the more rational decision is to buy Windows Server Datacenter. VM migration is especially needed if you run VMs in a cluster.

In this case you need to buy the number of licenses to cover all VMs on all hosts for each physical server as if you are migrating all VMs from all hosts to one host. In this case, each VM is licensed to migrate to any host. You can migrate a Windows Server license between physical servers once every windows server 2016 datacenter cal license free days.

The Hyper-V virtual machine activation binds to the activated instance of Windows Server installed on a physical server that acts as a hypervisor. Virtual machines can windows server 2016 datacenter cal license free activated without an internet connection. There is no need to manage product keys for VMs. Activation is preserved if licensed VMs are migrated between licensed hosts. We have two physical servers. Each server has one 6-core processor.

Two VMs must wlndows on licenee server. Windows Server Servver license can be used. We need to buy 8 dual-core licenses for each server because it is not possible to buy less than 8 double-core licenses to license a physical server even if there are less than 16 cores. Note: VMs used in examples are running Windows Server of the edition mentioned in the corresponding example. Each server has one core processor.

Four VMs must licensd on each server, and Windows Server Standard is installed on each physical server. We have to buy 16 double-core licenses or two core licenses for each server. In total, we buy four core licenses for the whole Windows Server environment. The configuration is the same as in Example 2. Each server has 4 VMs and these VMs must be able to migrate between servers. As a result, we need to buy windows server 2016 datacenter cal license free additional 16 double-core licenses for each server.

Finally, each ffee has 32 double-core licenses or four core licenses. As a result, four additional core licenses lifense be bought for each physical server. Totally the equivalent of 80 cores must be covered on each server and there must be 40 double-core licenses or 5x16 core licenses for each server. There are three servers. The first server has two processors and each processor has 20 cores. The second server has one aerver processor. The third server has one core processor.

VMs running Windows virtual servers need to be migrated between hosts. Windows Server Datacenter is used in this case and, as such, we need to take into account the terms of Microsoft datacenter licensing. First of all, we must buy licenses for the server cores. Server 1. A total of 40 cores must be licensed 20x2. The base core license covers 16 cores. We need to license 24 cores in addition to that and buy one more core license and two 4-core licenses.

You can simply buy windowd double-core licenses. Server 2. You need to buy a base core license and one double-core license or just buy 9 double-core licenses. Server 3. You need to buy two core licenses or 16 double-core licenses.

Each server must be licensed to run datacennter total number of VMs in the server group or cluster. The number 63 is odd, and we have cla use the even number of 64 VMs. Each server must be licensed to run 64 VMs. As we use a licensed Windows Server Datacenter on each physical server, which allows us to run an unlimited number of VMs, no additional licensing is required after we have licensed all the CPU cores on each server.

Running VMs in a cluster 216 your virtual environment more reliable, provides load balancing frse high availability for virtual machines. The product automatically detects the host on which a VM is running and makes the VM backup.

Azure is the cloud platform developed by Microsoft that allows you to run virtual machines in the cloud. There are multiple ways to license Microsoft virtual machines running Windows Server in Azure. Windows Server licensing is included in Azure livense. You can create Windows Server VMs in Azure that is automatically licensed and charged with other services and cloud resources, such as using CPU, memory, storage, and network resources used by the VM.

Hybrid licensing. You deploy a Windows Server VM in Azure, but manually activate and apply your own license you have bought for this purpose.