Category: Licensing

Interesting Article On Perpetual Versus Subscription Microsoft Licensing

It’s not often that you come across a Microsoft licensing article that is written in plain English where non-constitutional lawyers can understand complete sentences of the text.  But this one (admittedly a guest post by Amy Konary of IDC) does a very nice job of explaining the differences between Microsoft licenses that you can buy outright and licenses that you can lease.

I didn’t like the idea of the lease model when I first heard about it back in 2002 or thereabouts.  I wondered why you’d want to do it.  But I’ve seen it in the real world, why it’s important, and how it can offer very valuable benefits to customers.

SPLA is a lease model for hosting companies.  Customers have a 1 month commitment to the license, paying for what they use, when they use it.  It’s perfect for the very fluid hosting model, and enables upgrades when new SKUs are available.  SPLA is very specialised licensing and even has it’s own dedicated product usage rights document.

I see a lot of SMEs and service providers to that market who love the Open Value Subscription (OVS) scheme.  There is a low entry cost, enabling the SME to keep cash for business operations.  It’s flexible, enabling the business to true-up or true-down to reflect headcounts.  It builds in Software Assurance giving the customer all the benefits such as Windows Enterprise for the client, free upgrades, and so forth.  And it gives the business peace of mind that they’re probably compliant. 

An example: a company has 100 employees this year and licenses Windows 7 and Office 2010 for them under OVS.  They are entitled to use Windows 7 Enterprise with BitLocker for disk encryption and DirectAccess for a VPN alternative.  In a few weeks when MSVL is updated, they’ll have rights to upgrade to Windows 8 Enterprise, with a simpler/better DirectAccess and Windows-To-Go to enable employees to work from home with company Windows builds booting from a USB 3.0 stick.  Give it another couple of months and they can upgrade to Office 2013 with all it’s new information consumption and touch features.  In the meantime, the company grows to 150 employees and doesn’t have to buy new licensing until their annual report when they true up.  Maybe in a year they hit hard times and shrink to 80 staff.  At the next annual report, they true-down to 80 seats instead of being stuck with 150 perpetual licenses on the books where 70 of them are wasted.  They also have SA so they’re entitled to support calls, MUI, Office roaming rights, TechNet for trial/lab, training vouchers, etc.

For the MSFT partner or service provider, it also means that there’s a reason to talk to the customer on an annual basis, and the customer already has a lot of licensing that can solve problems with some consulting days/hours.

I try to steer clear of the education side of licensing because it is complex.  But there is an OVS in that space which is very cool.  Microsoft licensing in education is already highly discounted.  However, schools under this scheme only have to license full time equivalent employees for the licensing and this covers all the students too.  Imagine a school of 1,000 students with 50 teachers and 20 admin staff (not including cleaners, etc that don’t use PCs).  That school, under this scheme, could license all 1,070 users based on the 70 employees that are full time equivalents and use PCs.  That’s a pretty nice deal! 

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Interesting Bits of Windows Server 2012 Essentials Information For SBS Customers

The goal of the product is to give an economic server OS for small businesses, with the flexibility to choose between on-premises (such as Exchange) and cloud (such as Office365) solutions.

SBS 2011 Essentials becomes Windows Server 2012 Essentials, a similar product that scales up to 25 users and 50 devices.  A small percentage of SBS customers had more than 25 users.

The question is: will you migrate your customers to Office 365, another cloud, or find an alternative to Exchange?

Available Roles and Features

Out of the box, the following roles/features are available in WS2012 Essentials:

  • AD Certificate Services (installed/configured)
  • AD Domain Services (installed/configured)
  • AD Lightweight Directory Services
  • AD RMS (requires RMS CALs)
  • Application (installed/configured)
  • DHCP Server
  • DNS Server
  • Fax Server
  • File Services (installed/configured)
  • Network Policy and Access Services (installed/configured)
  • Print and Doc Services
  • Remote Desktop Services (installed/configured and requires RDS CALs)
  • UDDI Services
  • Web Services (installed/configured)
  • Windows Deploy Services
  • WSUS

Normally WS2012 Essentials does not require CALs.  The only exceptions are if you choose to use Remote Desktop Services (RDS – widely used) or Rights Management Services (RMS – rarely used).

Features described in the FAQ

Here are some features of Windows Server 2012 Essentials from the WS2012 Essentials FAQ:

  • Windows Phone App: Remote Web Access provides a stream-lined, touch-friendly browser experience for accessing applications and data from virtually anywhere they have an Internet connection using almost any device. Windows Server 2012 Essentials also provides an updated Windows Phone app and a new Metro app for Windows 8 clients, allowing users to intuitively connect to, search across, and access files and folders on the server.
  • VPN: Windows Server 2012 Essentials turns setting up virtual private networking (VPN) into a painless wizard-driven process of just a few clicks, and simplifies the management of VPN access for users. Client computers can leverage a VPN connection to remotely join the Essentials environment without the need to come into the office.
  • Choose our email solution: customers can take advantage of the same integrated management experience whether they choose to run an on-premises copy of Exchange Server, subscribe to a hosted Exchange service, or subscribe to Office 365.
  • Storage Spaces: [this] feature allows customers to aggregate the physical storage capacity of disparate hard drives, dynamically add hard drives, and to create volumes with specified levels of resilience.
  • Improved Backup: Windows Server 2012 Essentials can perform complete system backups and bare-metal restores of the server itself as well as the client computers connected to the network – now with support for volumes larger than 2 terabytes [thank VHDX for that!].
  • Windows Online Backup: The Microsoft Online Backup Service can be used to protect files and folders in a cloud-based storage service that is managed by Microsoft.
  • Windows 8 File History: Essentials also centrally manages and configures the new File History feature of Windows 8 clients, helping users to recover from accidently deleted or overwritten files without requiring administrator assistance.

Some Upgrade Paths from SBS with Software Assurance

  • If you have Software Assurance on Small Business Server 2011 Essentials, you will receive one Windows Server 2012 Essentials license.
  • If you have Software Assurance on Small Business Server 2011 Standard edition, you will receive one Windows Server 2012 Standard edition license and one Exchange Server Standard 2010 license.
  • If you have Software Assurance on Small Business Server 2011 Premium Add-on edition, you will receive one Windows Server 2012 Standard edition license and one SQL Server 2012 Standard edition license.

I’m no SBS expert, but it seems to me that existing customers with SA will retain the same functionality through the upgrade.  But I can envision there being a price jump if they are on annuity licensing for SBS Standard/Premium (we’ll have to see the price lists to judge it).  They will have to choose between existing on-premises product and cloud-based product.

Opinions of the SBS Community?

It’s the MSFT partners that are this community.  Based on the online comments, let’s just say they aren’t too pleased.  It’s early days so I’ve yet to hear from local partners.

Windows Server 2012 & 2012 R2 Virtualisation Licensing Scenarios

I am not answering any more questions on this post – to be honest, there have been too many for me to have the time to deal with them. Don’t bother asking – I’ll ignore/delete it.  My recommendations are:

  1. Re-read this post if you do not understand it after the first or second reads. To be honest, most of the questions have been from people who are just trying to make things complicated. Just license the hosts for the maximum number of Windows Server VMs that can ever run on that host, even for 1 second. It is that simple!
  2. Ask your LAR/distributor/reseller – that’s their job and that’s why you pay them

This post follows my dissertation on Windows Server 2012 licensing, which is essential reading before proceeding with this post.

[Edit] The below is unchanged with WS2012 R2. The only difference is that WS2012 R2 Datacenter edition (only) includes Automatic Virtual Machine Activation.

I’m putting Hyper-V aside for just a few minutes to talk about how you will license virtualisation of Windows Server 2012 in virtual machines no matter what virtualisation you use, be it vSphere, Hyper-V, XenServer, or whatever tickles your fancy.  BTW, the counting here also applies to:

  • System Center 2012
  • Core Infrastructure Suite (CIS)
  • Enrolment for Core Infrastructure (ECI – minimum of 25 hosts)

Please read this post s-l-o-w-l-y and let it sink in.  Then read it again.  If you have been eating bowls full of VMware FUD then read it a third time – slowly.

FAQ

  • VOSE or virtual operating system environment is a licensing term for virtual machine (VM).  It is used when talking about licensing a VM for Windows Server.
  • When you buy a license for virtualisation you legally buy and assign it to hardware, not to VMs.  The virtualisation rights of Windows Server licenses the VMs on the licensed host for Windows Server.
  • There is no mobility with OEM.
  • You can move a volume license and it’s virtualisation rights once every 90 days.  If you want to use HA (clustering), Live Migration/vMotion, DRS/Dynamic Optimization/PRO, then you need sufficient virtualisation rights on each host to support the maximum number of VMs that is possible on that host, even for 1 second.
  • You cannot split a license or it’s virtualisation rights across hosts.
  • Virtualisation rights are 2 VOSEs for a host licensed by Windows Server 2012 Standard and unlimited VOSEs for a host licensed for Windows Server 2012 Datacenter.
  • Virtualisation rights covers the host for the assigned edition of Windows Server 2012 and lower versions/editions of Windows Server.  It does not include Windows 8/7/Vista.
  • You can assign more than 1 license to a host

In other words, you license a host for the maximum number of Windows Server VMs that it could host.

1 Host, 1 CPU, 2 VMs

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Here you want to run a single host that has 1 CPU.  The host will run 2 Windows Server virtual machines.  You will assign a single Windows Server 2012 license to this host.  The license covers 2 CPUs (there is only 1) and provides virtualisation rights for 2 virtual operating system environments (VOSEs).  In other words, you get rights to install Windows Server 2012 Standard (or previous versions) in 2 VMs on this host.

1 Host, 2 CPUs, 4 VMs

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The Standard edition covers 2 VOSEs, but the customer wants 4 VMs running Windows Server Standard 2008 R2.  A single copy of WS2012 Standard will not suffice.  2 copies are bought to provide the 4 (2 * 2 VOSEs) VMs with licensing.

1 Host, 2 CPUs, 10 VMs

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There are two options; do you go with the Standard or Datacenter editions of Windows Server 2012?

The Standard edition covers 2 VOSEs, but the customer wants 10 VMs running Windows Server Standard 2008 R2. A single copy of WS2012 Standard will not suffice. 5 copies are bought to provide the 10 (5 * 2 VOSEs) VMs with licensing.  Based on USA Open NL pricing the licensing of these VMs will cost $882 * 5 = $4,410.

The Datacenter edition of WS2012 gives unlimited VOSEs and covers 2 CPUs in the host.  This solution will require a single Windows Server 2012 Datacenter license which will cost $4,809.

Decision: If you will not go over 10 VMs on this host then Windows Server 2012 Standard edition is the way to go.  If you estimate that there is a good chance of the VM numbers growing then spend an extra $399 and pick up the easier to account-for Windows Server 2012 Datacenter with it’s unlimited VOSE rights.

10 is the magic number using USA Open NL pricing. Once you reach 10 VOSEs on a 1 or 2 CPU host, you need to consider the Datacenter edition because it is cheaper once you hit 11 VOSEs.

1 Host, 4 CPUs, 4 VMs

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It’s an unusual configuration but a valid one for the demonstration.  The WS2012 Standard/Datacenter SKUs cover 2 CPUs each.  In this case there are 4 CPUs.  This will require 2 copies of Windows Server 2012 Standard, which also covers the 4 VMs.

Let’s pretend that 300 VMs will run on this host with 4 physical CPUs.  Then we would assign 2 copies of Windows Server Datacenter on it.  2 copies will cover 2 CPUs each (4 CPUs) and unlimited VOSEs.

That Host with 320 Logical Processors – 10 CPUs with 16 Cores with Hyperthreading

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The maximum specification for Windows Server 2012 Hyper-V is 320 logical processors in the host.  That could be 10 Intel CPUs, each with 16 cores, with Hyperthreading enabled.  We don’t count cores or logical processors when we license.  We count CPUs, sockets, or plain old processors – pick the term you prefer.  There are 10 CPUs/sockets/processors in this server.  That requires 5 copies of either Windows Server 2012 Standard or Datacenter, depending on the required number of VOSEs.

Clusters

Let’s move on to the clusters, where people usually get things wrong because they don’t understand (or don’t want to understand) the mobility rights.  VOSEs licensed by OEM cannot move.  VOSEs licensed by VL can move once every 90 days.  The correct solution is to license each host for the maximum number of VOSEs that it can have for even one second.  And when I say “correct” I mean legal.  Software Asset Management professionals (auditors) are not stupid and the “tricks” I hear people proposing are neither original or unknown to these auditors.

Reminder: This applies even to you non-Hyper-V folks.

2 Hosts, 1 CPU each, 4 VMs

 

 

 

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Don’t get fooled!  This is not one host with 3 VMs and 1 host with 1 VM.  This is 2 hosts, each of which can have up to 4 VMs.  In the past we would have used Enterprise edition on each host.  That has been replaced by Windows Server 2012 Standard edition, that now has all the features and scalability of the Datacenter edition.

Take each host and size it for 4 VOSEs.  That means we need to assign 2 copies of Windows Server 2012 Standard edition to each host.  That’s 4 copies of WS2012 Standard.

2 Hosts, 2 CPUs each, 10 VMs

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10 VMs with 2 hosts means that it is possible to have all 10 VMs on a single host.  You have two options to license each host for up to 10 VOSEs.

Firstly you could license each of the hosts with 5 copies of Windows Server 2012 Standard.  That will give you 10 (5 * 2) VOSEs.  This requires 10 (5 * 2 hosts ) copies of Standard at a cost of $8,820 using USA Open NL.

Alternatively you could license each host with 1 copy of Windows Server 2012 Datacenter, at a cost of $9,618.  The extra $798 will allow you to burst beyond 10 VOSEs to unlimited VOSEs.  Switching to licensing hosts using the Datacenter edition means we don’t have to count VOSEs and we have unrestricted mobility between hosts.

2 Hosts, 2 CPUs each, 20 VMs

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We have exceed the magic number of 10, and now it is cheaper to license with the Datacenter edition with it’s unlimited VOSEs per host.  Each host has 2 CPUs, so each host requires 1 copy of Datacenter.  There are 2 hosts so we require 2 copies of Windows Server 2012 Datacenter.

You could add more hosts to this cluster and each could have unlimited VMs.  As long as the hosts have 1 or 2 CPUs each, each additional host requires only 1 copy of Windows Server 2012 Datacenter to license it for unlimited installs of Windows Server for the VMs on that host.

Lots of Hosts, Lots of VMs, 4 CPUs per Host

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The magic number of 10 VOSEs is a dot in the rear view mirror.  We now have lots of hosts with lots of VMs flying all over the place.  Each host has 4 CPUs.  To license the VOSEs on each host, we will require licensing for 4 CPUs.  This will require 2 copies of Windows Server 2012 Datacenter per host, each covering 2 CPUs.

Live Migration Outside the Cluster

And new for WS2012 thanks to Live Migration living outside the cluster: you must ensure that the destination host is adequately licensed for VOSEs to accommodate the new VM. If this is an infrequent move then you could avail of the VL 90 day mobility right to reassign a license, ensuring the the old host is sufficiently licensed for remaining VOSEs and physical CPUs.

Hyper-V Server 2012

Hyper-V Server has no virtualisation rights and includes no free licensing for VOSEs.  Therefore it is irrelevant in this conversation.

Economically Speaking – Why Hyper-V Makes Sense

If you buy Windows Server licensing for a host to license your VMs, then you are a tickbox (or PowerShell cmdlet) and a reboot away from having Hyper-V.  Buying another product is just more money spent.  And let’s be honest, Windows Server 2012 Hyper-V is not what you might have used/looked at before.

Core Infrastructure Suite (CIS) License for Windows Server & System Center

I’ve just been told that Microsoft are launching a new license bundle that includes Windows Server and System Center, with built-in Software Assurance.  You can think of it as a replacement for ECI which was limited to large purchases of at least 25 licenses (25 * 2 CPU hosts) through Large Account Reseller (LAR) and SPLA license agreements.

This new simple bundle, is the perfect way to license Windows in virtualisation (Hyper-V of course, and even VMware/XenServer) and System Center.

There are 2 SKUs for CIS:

SKU Licensed Physical CPUs Licensed
VMs (OSEs)		 System Center Included Windows Server Included
Standard 2 2 Standard Standard or Enterprise
Datacenter 2 Unlimited Datacenter Datacenter

Each CIS covers 2 CPUs in the physical machine. The SKU licenses the host and all the VMs on the licensed host for Windows Server and System Center.  And don’t forget that:

  • Hyper-V is free, with no charge for a vTax
  • Endpoint Protection antivirus is included in System Center so why pay an avTax too?

Licensing purchase/counting is simple.  Got a pair of dual CPU hosts with 20 VMs each?  Buy 2 CIS Datacenter licenses.   Putting in a quad socket host?  Buy 2 CIS Datacenter licenses.

The bundle will also be cheaper than buying Windows and System Center separately.  Expect to see pricing and availability in the near future.  This is a heck of a bargain: Windows Server, monitoring, asset management, automation, security, and much more, all in one bundle.

Oh, this SKU does include upgrade rights.  So if you buy it this Summer and Windows Server 8 comes along, you’ll have rights to “upgrade” your hosts to the new license.

Software Assurance: Protect Your Investment & More

This is one of those subjects that can create great debate: is Software Assurance (SA) for Microsoft licensing a real benefit that is worth the expense?  Those who bought it during the XP days may feel like they got burned.  They went a very long time without any upgrades for their desktop OS, and when Vista came along, they decided to wait for Windows 7.  In their opinion, it was money down the toilet.  On the face of it, it’s hard to argue with that point.

However, SA is more than just upgrade rights (even if that is the big reason) and after XP, Microsoft did add more value to SA.  If upgrade rights is the feature you’re most interested in then pay attention.

We happen to be in one of those sweet spots when paying for SA (some software programs such as Open Value Subscription or System Center Management Suite include it automatically)  is of most value.  We know for certain that a whole new family of System Center 2012 is a few month away, and Windows 8 isn’t all that far off in 2012.  Office, Exchange, SharePoint and Lync “Wave 15” will probably go into beta this year meaning new versions in late 2012 or 2013, all within that window.  SQL 2012 is on the way too.  Pretty much anything you buy right now has a new version on the way. 

If you are spending on MSFT licensing now to solve meet business need, then protect that investment by ensuring that you can avail of the features of the newer versions.  And if you’re selling, explain that to your customer (plus the other stuff I’ll cover) and you’ll not only protect their best interests, but you may find yourself selling more services days to do upgrade projects.

Server Virtualisation & Software Assurance

As I’m partial towards virtualisation, let’s have a look at why SA is critical here.  Let’s start off with not caring what virtualisation you use; you should be licensing your Windows Server VMs by the host using Enterprise (less likely – maximum of 4 per host, even for 1 second) or Datacenter (more likely – unlimited rights per host) of Windows Server. 

With SA attached to your per-host licensing, you have rights to upgrade the OS’s of any of the VM guest OSs as and when you need.  You also can deploy 1 or more new VMs with the new version of the Windows Server OS.  Consider the alternative: you don’t attach SA to the host licensing.  You need to do one upgrade or you need to deploy 1 new VM with a new Windows Server OS version.  What can you do?

  • Buy a copy of Windows Server Standard New Version: I have news for you – you have limited mobility rights with that license.  It can move once every 90 days if it’s a volume license and never if it’s OEM.  That’s why we license per host, to cover the maximum number of VMs that can ever be on that host.  It means we don’t need to buy individual licenses per host.
  • Upgrade the Host OS version: There are no upgrade licenses.  To deploy that single VM with a new version of Windows Server, you’d have to re-buy all the per-host licensing if you didn’t buy SA.
  • Be clever & attach SA: With SA attached to the per host licensing of Windows Server, all current and new VMs have rights to whatever is the newest Windows Server version + downgrade rights.  It’s quite simply, the most cost efficient way of licensing Windows Server in a virtualised world, not matter what virtualisation you use.

For you Hyper-V customers, you really want the rights to upgrade your hypervisor because Windows Server 8 Hyper-V is an upgrade you won’t want to miss out on.  It’s is something special, and that applies to the small business and the big enterprise.

Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI)

You cannot legally just install any old license of Windows XP or Windows 7 in virtual machines for VDI.  You have two choices:

  • VDA: For dumb terminals or those without SA on the desktop, you can buy this special license to license the VDI VMs for Windows.
  • Desktop OS + SA: One of the benefits of SA on the desktop is rights to deploy a Windows instance in VDI.  Some medium-large organisations use VDI as a piece of the puzzle for application availability/collaboration, rather than as a replacement for the PC.  This license is of benefit to them.

Hidden Value

Things like application whitelisting, disk encryption, removable device encryption, and VPN are typically bought as point solutions.  Each must be separately purchased, deployed, and managed, and offer no integration.   Wouldn’t it be amazing if their was one product that did all of that stuff?  Wouldn’t it make life easier for purchasing (vendor consolidation) and for systems management?

*Ahem* Windows 7 Enterprise (and Ultimate, to be honest) can do all of that stuff.  You have rights to deploy and use Windows 7 Enterprise on your PCs/laptops when you license their desktop OS with SA.  Not only do you get upgrade rights, but you get to consolidate all of those point solutions into one OS integrated package.  This model looks set to continue with Windows 8; Windows-To-Go looks like it will be an Ultimate/Enterprise only feature.

The money you would have spent on point solutions instead goes into SA, which offers all the functionality you need plus all the other SA benefits.  As a customer, that’s a blessing.  As a reseller, that means you become the consultant for all of those systems and therefore lock in that customer and limit opportunity for your rivals.

All The Other Benefits

There’s lots more to SA than just what I’ve covered so far, as can be seen in this chart:

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  • Step-Up Licensing: Be able to move from a lower edition to a higher one for a limited upgrade cost instead of a complete re-purchase
  • MDOP: Only SA customers can buy the Microsoft Desktop Optimization Pack
  • Planning Services: Get free consulting (paid for my MSFT) from a certified MSFT partner to plan some project, e.g. Windows deployment
  • License Mobility: I’m not so sure on this one, but I believe OEM that has SA attached can get mobility like volume licensing.  Talk to a licensing specialist.
  • Windows Thin PC: This is a cut down version of the desktop OS that you can use to turn PCs into RDP terminals
  • Office Roaming Use Rights: You can remotely access a virtual desktop and use Office/Project/Visio at no extra cost
  • TechNet: For trial and lab work
  • Microsoft Office Multi-Language Pack: Add extra languages to Office
  • Training Vouchers: The more SA you buy, the more free MOC training rights you get
  • E-Learning: Free online learning for your employees on MSFT software
  • Home Use Program: Using HUP, employees can buy software for use at home at a discount cost, including download rights
  • 24 * 7 Support: Get support calls.  This used to convert into support hours when you also bought a MS Premier support contract
  • Extended Hotfix Support: Get specific hotfix support from MSFT, beyond the norm
  • Spread Payments: Spread the cost of licensing over a number of years

Comparing the Core CAL and Enterprise CAL Suites

With Windows Server products, you typically have to buy server licensing (SharePoint) and user/device client access licensing (CAL) for each user/device connecting to the server.  One could buy each of these CALs one at a time.  But there are more efficient ways (accounting and cost) to buy them if you’re using several of those products.  You can buy a CAL suite.  There is a Core CAL suite that includes Standard edition CALs (e.g. Exchange Standard and SharePoint Standard), and an Enterprise CAL Suite (e.g. Exchange Enterprise and SharePoint Enterprise).  They include a bunch of products.  From a customer’s point of view, they’re cheaper and easier to account for.  From a resellers point of view, there’s potentially more work there if a customer has CALs for unused solutions.

The documents on this site compare and contrast the two suites and the features that they support.

Core CAL Suite:

  • Windows Server 2008 R2 CAL
  • Exchange Server 2010 Standard CAL
  • Lync Server 2010 Standard CAL
  • SharePoint Server 2010 Standard CAL
  • System Center Configuration Manager 2012 client ML (Interesting that it’s listed as “2012”)
  • Forefront Endpoint Protection

Enterprise CAL Suite:

  • Everything in the Core CAL Suite
  • Exchange Server 2010 Enterprise CAL
  • Lync Server 2010 Enterprise CAL
  • SharePoint Server 2010 Enterprise CAL
  • System Center Operations Manager 2007 R2 client ML
  • System Center Service Manager 2010 client ML
  • System Center Data Protection Manager 2010 client ML
  • System Center Opalis client ML
  • Forefront Protection Suite (Forefront Protection 2010 for Exchange Server, Forefront Protection 2010 for SharePoint, Forefront Security for Office Communications Server, Forefront Online Protection for Exchange(formerly Exchange Hosted Filtering), Forefront Threat Management Gateway Web Protection Service)
  • Forefront Unified Access Gateway
  • Microsoft Windows Rights Management Services

Why I Recommend Software Assurance For Hyper-V Licensing

If you’re in a non-subscription licensing program with Microsoft, then I recommend that you purchase Software Assurance with your Hyper-V licensing (this is the Enterprise or Datacenter licenses that covers your host OS and VM guest OS requirements).

There’s 3 reasons:

Hyper-V Upgrades

Every new release of Windows Server brings new features.  We went from Windows Server 2008 with Quick Migration, to Windows Server 2008 R2 with Live Migration, CSV, and Dynamic Memory.  That was nothing compared to what’s coming next year in Windows Server 8 (2012).  And who knows what’ll come with Windows Server 8 (2012) R2!?!?  You will want those upgrades … because we always have wanted them so far.

Guest OS Availability

Maybe you’re happy with Windows Server 2003/R2 for most of your P2Vd VMs for the next 900 or so days of remaining extended support.  But at some point in the future:

  • You will want to start deploying new VMs with the newest version of Windows Server that hasn’t been released yet
  • You will want to upgrade/replace those legacy OS VMs

You could fall into the trap of thinking you can buy a few copies of Windows Server 8 Standard Edition for those few VMs on your Windows Server 2008 R2 cluster.  Yes – but it wouldn’t be legal.  That’s because you can only Live Migrate or Failover those VMs with the one-off licenses between different pieces of hardware once every 90 days.  Those once-off licenses are assigned to hardware, not to VMs.

To be able to deploy a new version of Windows Server than you bought for the cluster, you need to upgrade the licensing for the entire cluster.  You could go and re-spend all that money all over again.  But you would save a lot of money by buying Software Assurance.

Partner Opportunity

For those of you who sell software as a part of system integration/consulting services: you’d be a moron not to try to sell SA so you have a future upgrade project with your customer, and make available future opportunities to implement the newest features of the next version of Windows that could solve some problem the customer is having.

Windows Server 8 Hyper-V Replica, Veeam, Etc With Hosting Companies

If you replicate a VM from your licensed hosts to a hosting company of some sort using Hyper-V Replica (Windows Server 8) or one of the plethora of 3rd party alternatives, then you need to license the installation of Windows that is in each replica VM … even if it is powered off or locked in a replicating state.  Don’t bother with any of the usual “it’s not being used” or “it’s only being replicated” arguments … it needs a license so that’s that.

A benefit of Software Assurance is Cold Back-ups for Disaster Recovery.  This means that if you license your hosts (and thus your guest OSs if correctly licensed with Enterprise/Datacenter editions) with SA, then you get a benefit of licensing for the cold backup copy.  The alternative is to not buy SA for the host/guests and have to buy full licenses for the offline replicas.  This benefit allows your primary site to go offline and to power up the replicas during a catastrophic event.   You can do this without doing anything to activate the benefit or without communicating with Microsoft.

Conclusion

Long time readers know I’ve been critical of SA in the past.  There are times I recommend it, e.g. a customer wants Windows desktops and is considering looking at 3rd party encryption technology – Windows 7 Enterprise!  I believe that it makes sense to purchase SA with Windows Server when licensing for Hyper-V because of the real benefits of host/guest upgrade and offline replica rights.

Activating Lots of Windows Virtual Machines in a Cloud with KMS

You know, few of us ever think about the practical sides of Windows/Office licensing when it comes to deploying lots of machines.  It’s one thing to identify, buy, and deploy the licenses – but we never seem to think about activating the damned things until it’s a bit late (been there, took photos, and bought the t-shirt).

The challenge is that when we use automated techniques to deploy software (imaging for Windows, software distribution for Office) then we need a way to activate the software without us admins/engineers/consultants being actively involved.  End users won’t click on the activate prompts for MAK product key activation … and that leads us to help desk calls and outages.

If you have volume licensing then you are entitled to use Key Management Service (KMS) licensing.  KMS is kind of similar to RDS or TermSvcs licensing – you set up a local KMS on a machine that you activate, and then your local product installations contact it to activate.  This is all done using a KMS product key instead of a MAK product key.

This is ideal in the cloud.  Now you can allow end users to deploy Windows servers and activation will be handled automatically, or you can enable a VDI broker/architecture to deploy VMs automatically and Windows/Office will be activated automatically from a local service.

Note that it requires a minimum number of products to work:

  • Windows Server 2008 and Windows Server 2008 R2 you must have at least five (5) computers to activate.
  • Windows Vista or Windows 7 you must have at least twenty-five (25) computers to activate. These thresholds can be a mix of server and client machines to make up the threshold number.
  • Office 2010, Project 2010 and Visio 2010 you must have at least five (5) computers to activate. If you have deployed Microsoft Office 2010 products, including Project 2010 and Visio 2010, you must have at least five (5) computers running Office 2010, Project 2010 or Visio 2010.

Rather than me recreating the wheel, here are some useful links:

The half day of effort that you’ll put into this is a worthwhile investment.  Once you’re set up, the activations of machines (virtual or physical) Windows and Office installations will happen automatically, taking care of that last step of the deployment that we never think of until the helpdesk calls start coming in.

Do You Buy/Sell Hyper-V and/or System Center?

If you’re a service provider (engineering/consulting/etc) and you’re involved in Hyper-V and/or System Center, or if you’re a customer that is currently buying those technologies, then pay attention.  2011/2012 is a time of interesting change and there are opportunities for customers and for service providers.

System Center

Everything in the System Center circle (a graphic used by MSFT in just about every System Center presentation) is going through an upgrade during the next 12 months:

If you’re doing a deployment of any of these products in the coming months then you really want to make sure that you or your customer will have the rights to do an upgrade next year.  Do you wait until the RTM of the new products?  Probably not; the reason you’re installing now is that there are technical or business issues that need solutions.  For the business’s sake, you solve that issue now, and upgrade later. 

Each of these new versions includes a bunch of new features or improves functionality.  That means there are more gains for the customer, and more service opportunities for the consultant.

Note that some licensing actually includes upgrade rights, e.g. OVS or OV, and System Center Management Suite.  Don’t forget that the SQL database on the back of these servers may also need an upgrade to 2008 R2 or even “Denali”, so protect them too.  And don’t forget the management licenses or CALs.

Hyper-V

If you are licensing Windows Server VMs on any virtualisation (Hyper-V, VMware, Xen) correctly then you are licensing the hosts with Enterprise or Datacenter edition, and availing of the free license benefits for VMs on those licensed hosts.  That alone can save you a fortune.  Bundle in Software Assurance for those host OSs and the saving growth is exponential.  Why would you want to do this?  Windows 8 of course!!!

Yes, you will find yourself needing/wanting to deploy Windows 8 Server virtual machines next year after the RTM.  You’ll need to license your hosts with Windows 8 to do that.  Software Assurance or upgrade rights (OVS) on your existing hosts will cover you for that.

We already know of 2 Hyper-V features that will bring technology and business benefits to the business:

  • More vCPUs: We’re getting support for at least 16 virtual CPUs per virtual machine.  That’s 16 threads of execution, meaning more powerful scale-up VMs, meaning more of the server farm can be virtualised.
  • Hyper-V Replica: Small-Medium Businesses (SMBs) struggle with implementing disaster recovery (DR) or business continuity.  This is an example of where technology and budget have an impact on business.  Get it right, and the business gains – I’m told insurance costs can go down.  Get it wrong, and the business … well … you may need to update your CV/résumé.  For a service provider, there is likely going to be a fantastic service opportunity to implement scheduled, asynchronous DR for customers in the SMB space, with modest bandwidth, and without expensive third party software or crazy costing storage solutions.

We’ll probably learn much more about Windows 8 Server at/after the Build conference in September (13-16).

Don’t forget the CALs either!  Something like the Core CAL Suite under OVS covers the end machine/user for a lot of products with Software Assurance.

Recommendation

My recommendations are:

  • Don’t “wait for 8”
  • Look at what Windows 8 and System Center can bring to you business next year, and figure out if you want that to solve your or your customers’ technology or business issues.  If so, make sure your licensing sales/purchases include rights to upgrade.

Software Benefits as a Microsoft Partner

Another common question that is popping up in my day job so I reckon it’s another subject that I need to blog about.

Microsoft partners are consumers of the technology too.  They face all the same challenges as their customers: money is tight and software can be expensive.  Good news: you can get it either cheap or even free.  What you get, and how much you get all depends on what type of partner you are and what grade and type of competency you have as a Microsoft partner company.

Piracy

A lot of Microsoft partners are using Microsoft software illegally.  That is a fact, and I suspect that it is quite common in the smaller/medium sized partner companies.  They can get a certain allocation of software, but often it is not enough. 

What is it that they are doing to be illegal?  They get their MSDN or TechNet subscription for a handful of users and start using it to deploy production desktops, applications, and servers all over the shop.  MSDN and TechNet have explicit usage rights, and they do not include widespread production usage, e.g your domain controller, file server, everyone’s PC/Office, etc.  The directors may not know this is happening, they may turn a blind eye to it (sticking fingers in ears and repeatedly shouting LAH-LAH-LAH-LAH when the sys-admin tells them the truth – been there), or they may even instruct it to happen (been there too, many years ago).

So how can you, as a Microsoft partner company, get a chunk of software legally for next to nothing?

Microsoft Partner Action Pack

This is an excellent bundle for small companies that are even at the most basic level in the Microsoft Partner Network: a registered partner.  In fact, you cannot have a silver or gold competency and subscribe to this pack!  The eligibility requirements are online.  The Irish rate (per year) is €289 and that includes a big list of software, really for that partner with up to 10 users.  Highlights include:

  • Office Professional Plus (10) + Project (5) + Visio Professional (10)
  • Exchange Standard: 1 servers + 10 CALs
  • SQL Enterprise: 1 server + 10 CALs
  • Window Server: Enterprise (1), CALs (10), Storage Server Essentials (1), SBS Standard (1), SBS CALs (10)
  • Windows 7: Pro (10), Ultimate (1)

A handful of Office on OVS will cost more than all that!

Silver and Gold Competency Holders

These folks tend to be bigger companies and are not suitable for the Partner Action Pack, nor are the elligible.  But don’t worry if you’re here, you get a much bigger allocation of software.  If you qualify for a competency, then you get an allocation of software that you are free to download and use.  What you get will depend on:

  • The competency: developers will get more relevant stuff for them, and systems management people will get more relevant stuff for them.
  • The grade: The gold competency rewards you more software than the silver one.

Microsoft could have published a nasty matrix.  Instead there, is a simple graphical calculator that allows you to punch in the competencies that your company has, as well as the grades, and it tells you what you are eligible to download and use.

For example, a company with Silver Systems Management and Silver Virtualisation competencies gets stuff including:

  • 2 Exchange Enterprise + 25 CALs + 25 ForeFront for Exchange (and SharePoint)
  • 25 Windows 7 Enterprise + 25 AD RMS + 25 Office Professional Plus
  • 2 Windows Server Datacenter + 4 Windows Server Standard/Enterprise
  • 15 Visio Professional + 5 Project Professional
  • All the System Center stuff
  • And LOTS more

Go Gold with those competencies and you get 100 copies of Office Pro Plus and Windows 7 Enterprise.  There is work to become a partner but you can see there is money to be saved.

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