Windows Server Licensing Guide

Learn which licensing arrangement is best for you, and shop Windows Server operating systems and CALs with our team today!

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Standard
Recommended for businesses that require minimal virtualization & scalability

✅ Best Practices Analyzer
✅ Containers
✅ Direct Access
✅ Dynamic Memory
❌ Software-defined Networking
❌ Storage Spaces Direct
❌ Network Controller
❌ Host Guardian Hyper-V Support
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Datacenter
Recommended for businesses that have highly virtualized environments

✅ Best Practices Analyzer
✅ Containers
✅ Direct Access
✅ Dynamic Memory
✅ Software-defined Networking
✅ Storage Spaces Direct
✅ Network Controller
✅ Host Guardian Hyper-V Support
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Windows Server Licensing Model

Windows Server 2022 Datacenter and Standard utilize a core-based licensing model, meaning the number of core licenses needed depends on whether licensing is based on on-premise or cloud/hybrid environments.

Licensing is based on physical cores for on-premise environments. The number of core licenses required is equivalent to the number of physical cores on the server, with a minimum of 8 core licenses per physical processor and 16 core licenses per server.

Licensing for cloud/hybrid environments is based on virtual machines. The number of core licenses needed is equivalent to the number of virtual cores in the virtual machine, with a minimum of 8 core licenses per virtual machine. Subscription licenses or active Software Assurance are necessary for licensing by virtual machine on the cloud/hybrid environments.

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Standard CALs
✅ Grant local server access
✅ Available by user or device
Shop Standard CALs
Remote Desktop CALs
✅ Grant remote server access
✅ Available by user or device
Shop RDS CALs

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Frequently Asked Questions

If the minimum requirement is 16 cores, why is there a 2 core SKU available?

The 2 core SKU is intended as an additional SKU for cloud or hybrid environment licenses, which must total to meet the minimum requirements.

I only have a 4 core machine. Is it really necessary for me to purchase a 16 core license?

Yes, according to licensing guidelines for on-premise environments, a minimum 16 core license must be purchased.

Why is an OVL Datacenter license required for my ESXi environment?

Retail Licensing uses AVMA licenses to spin up your unlimited virtual machines which would need to be done through Hyper-V so that they can communicate with the host machine in order to activate. with ESXi, each container is ultimately independent of each other and there would be no way to ultimately communicate with the "Host". This would be why ESXi customers who are deploying their instances on separate containers would require the Open Value variation as it provides MAK or Mass Activation Key(s) which do not require communication with each other to activate. It simply requires an internet connection to ping to the Microsoft Servers.