Server 2012 Licensing & Virtual Machines

theboyrob · 2 Feb 2017 at 16:22

Need a little help with licensing if someone can help me!

I've bought a HP Server (Dual CPU) and a Windows Server 2012 R2 license, I intend to:

- Install Server 2012 R2 on the physical box, only to be used for managing;
- A virtual machine which will be used for RDS. (Up to 10 users, 5 concurrent)

My Server 2012 R2 license allows me to run up to 2 virtual machines on the physical install. Does this mean that my virtual machine already has a 2012 license and I just need to buy some RDS cals?

Any help would be appreciated!

Rob

neil_g · 2 Feb 2017 at 16:36

you're licenced to have 2 vm running on the host but normally you still need a licence for the vm os.

nutcase · 2 Feb 2017 at 19:39

As long as the host is ONLY used to run the VMs then you can run two VMs on a standard 2012 R2 licence. You will also need user/device CALs and RDS CALs.

Caged · 2 Feb 2017 at 20:40

Technically you will need as many RDS CALs as you have users (unless you do device CALs) that need to access the service, there is no concept of concurrent usage. This is in addition to Server CALs.

#Chri5# · 2 Feb 2017 at 20:53

Good guide with examples here: http://www.aidanfinn.com/?p=13090

nutcase · 3 Feb 2017 at 08:00

Caged said:
Technically you will need as many RDS CALs as you have users (unless you do device CALs) that need to access the service, there is no concept of concurrent usage. This is in addition to Server CALs.

3 microsoft audits would hint at otherwise - but I note the word Technically used.

theboyrob · 3 Feb 2017 at 08:50

Thanks for the replies

If the virtual server is only used for RDS do I still need user or device cals?

If so, and I 10 different users connecting, only 5 at any one time, would that equate to:

10 User cals and 10 RDS Cals

or

5 Device cals and 10 RDS cals?

nutcase · 3 Feb 2017 at 08:59

If you put a limit on the number of connections then you can buy that number of RDS cals.

If the users are using the server in any way (eg. fileserver) even if not specifically using it as an RDS then you will need a full qty of server CALs.

#Chri5# · 3 Feb 2017 at 11:28

theboyrob said:
Thanks for the replies

If the virtual server is only used for RDS do I still need user or device cals?

If so, and I 10 different users connecting, only 5 at any one time, would that equate to:

10 User cals and 10 RDS Cals

or

5 Device cals and 10 RDS cals?

MS licensing can be a minefield, but given your users will be authenticating against the Windows Server VM, they need a User or Device CAL, plus the RDS CAL

If the 10 users share 5 PCs (ie two sets of shift workers), then you could have 5 Device Windows CALs + 5 Device RDS CALs. If not, I would be buying 10 Windows User CALs + 10 User RDS CALs