Windows Server Licensing Guide 2016

Windows server standard and datacenter editions continue to require windows server cals for every user or device accessing a server see the product terms for exceptions or windows server external connector licenses for servers accessed by external users.

Windows server licensing guide 2016. For example a windows server 2016 rds license server can host licenses from all previous versions of rds while a windows server 2012 r2 rds license server can only host licenses up to windows server 2012 r2. Specialty servers server license no cal required. The following table shows which rds cal and license server versions are compatible with each other. Windows server 2016 licensing datasheet and licensing guide windows server 2016 is the cloud ready operating system that supports customer workloads while introducing new technologies that make it easy for customers to transition to cloud computing when they are ready.

The guide has been updated to be valid in 2018 and is available to download for free using the link below. It delivers powerful new layers of. Small businesses with up to 25 users and 50 devices. I decided to add a calculator to demonstrate the licensing components of the per core windows server 2016 licensing model.

Microsoft volume licensing reference guide for windows server 2016 may 2017 4 product overview windows server 2016 is the cloud ready operating system that supports current workloads while introducing new technologies that make it easy to transition to cloud computing when a customer is ready. Physical or minimally virtualized environments. Host specification since the windows server 2016 licensing model is core based this tool requires information about the number of servers hosts the number of cpus per server and the number of cores per cpu. To complement this article we have released a second edition of our existing ebook on this subject to give a much clearer all round guide to licensing windows server 2016.

For every two additional vms all the cores in the server have to be licensed again. To run windows server 2016 you need to purchase licenses for a minimum of 16 cores per two physical processors. Total of required oses the total number of operating system environments oses to be run on the server s. Because processors always have an even number of cores licenses are sold in two core packs.

The price of 16 core licenses of windows server 2016 datacenter and standard edition will be the same price as the 2 processor license of the corresponding editions of the windows server 2012 r2 version. Windows server 2016 licensing is licensed per core. In addition to the base windows server cal or external connector license some functionalities will continue to require the purchase of an.