Thursday, August 16, 2012

Windows Server 2012 temporary license grant oportunities


Bottom Line:  Entities can avoid licensing costs while migrating to Windows Server 2012 if they plan now for their future hardware and software needs and take advantage of the special temporary licensing grants that exist.

Starting in April of this year, Microsoft released a new version of their System Center product.  This was the first in what will be a series of new server products versions that Microsoft will release throughout this year and into next year.  Along with the release of the new server software, Microsoft has also been changing the licensing of each product released.  Those aware of the licensing grants being extended by Microsoft will find opportunities to avoid cost while gaining server software licensing.  Over the next few blog posts we will examine license grant opportunities that may be taken advantage of during the migration to Windows Server 2012, System Center 2012, and SQL Server 2012.  Windows Server 2012 will be the subject of this post followed by a post which will examine how the Windows Server 2012 feature and licensing changes will reduce the cost of hosting virtual desktops on the Windows Server Hyper-v platform.        

Windows Server 2008 R2 to Windows Server 2012 Licensing


Windows Server 2008 R2 is licensed under two models in the Volume License programs, the Server plus Client Access License (CAL) model, and the Processor plus CAL model.  The Datacenter and the Itanium editions are governed by the Processor plus CAL licensing, while the Enterprise and the Standard editions are governed by the Server plus CAL licensing.  Under the 2008 R2 Processor plus CAL licensing, each physical processor on a server must be licensed and the server can have no less than two processors.  With the 2008 R2 Server plus CAL licensing, each server must be assigned a license.  The Windows Server 2008 R2 Standard Edition is limited to managing four physical processors, while the2008 R2 Enterprise Edition Software can operate up to 8 processors.  

With the introduction of Windows Server 2012 there will be only two editions, Standard and Datacenter, both of which will operate under the Processor plus CAL based licensing.  Each Windows Server 2012 license will cover up to two processors on a server as opposed to one processor under the 2008 R2 processor licenses.  Unlike the editions from the 2008 R2 version, both 2012 editions will have the same features sets.  The difference in the editions will be with how many virtual machines may run as dictated by a given edition’s license.  A Windows Server 2012 Standard edition license will allow up to two virtual machines utilizing two processors while the Windows Server 2012 Processor edition license will allow an unlimited number of virtual machines to utilize two processors. 

Windows Server 2008 R2 to Windows Server 2012 Software Assurance migration rights


 Holders of Windows Server 2008 R2 licenses, which are covered by Software Assurance (SA), will be granted Windows Server 2012 licenses as follows (also see Windows Server 2008 R2 to Windows Server 2012 Software Assurance conversion table below).  Both of the server based editions, Enterprise and Standard, will migrate to processor based editions and will automatically translate as follows.  Windows Server 2008 R2 Standard edition licenses will convert to Windows Standard 2012 version on a one-to-one ratio, while the Windows Server 2008 R2 Enterprise edition will receive two Windows Server 2012 Standard edition licenses for each license covered by SA.  The Windows Server 2008 R2 Datacenter covered with SA will be migrated to Windows Server 2012 Datacenter but will require two Windows Server 2008 R2 Datacenter licenses for each Windows Server 2012 Datacenter license granted.  Windows Server Itanium Based edition will be discontinued with the introduction of Windows Server 2012.  Thus, Microsoft will grant the holders of the Windows Server 2008 R2 Itanium Based licenses a Windows Server 2012 Datacenter edition license for each Itanium license covered by SA.  During the transition of Standard and Enterprise editions from Server plus CAL to Processor plus CAL, Microsoft is providing customers with a grant for additional licenses if the previous mentioned grants do not adequately license their servers.    This means, for the Standard edition licenses, if the software exists on a four processors server, the license owner is entitled to an additional, no cost, Windows Server 2012 Standard license.  Any Windows Server 2008 R2 Enterprise Edition covered with SA that exists on an eight processor server may qualify for two additional, no cost, Standard Edition licenses.  In order for the licenses to qualify for the additional licenses, the customer must conduct a self-audit before the renewal the Volume License Agreement under which the licenses are maintained, using an inventory tool that records the processor count for the Windows Server installation.              

Windows Server 2008 R2 to Windows Server 2012 Software Assurance conversion table


WS 2008 R2 Server edition
WS 2012 Server edition
2008 R2 to 2012 license conversion ratio
Additional grant requirements
Standard
Standard
1:1

Enterprise
Standard
1:2

Datacenter
Datacenter
2:1

Itanium
Datacenter
1:1

Standard on a 4 processor server
Standard
1:2
Requires self-inventory of server hardware
Enterprise on an 8 processor server
Standard
1:4
Requires self-inventory of server hardware


Actions to be considered


The most of the previously discussed license migration paths automatically provide the customer with a specific number of licenses without any further action beyond having the Windows Server 2008 R2 license covered by SA.  As mentioned earlier, it is possible to qualify for more licenses for the Standard edition and Enterprise edition licenses if the automatic conversion will not cover the number of processors in the server.  In order to qualify for additional licenses a self-inventory must be done with Microsoft Assessment and Planning (MAP) Toolkit or different inventory tool that can report a time/date-stamped inventory of the number processors on the server with Windows Server installations.  The assessment must occur before the existing agreement is renewed; otherwise the conversion will default to the standard conversion ratio.  If an upgrade to new servers with more processors is being considered in the near future, the acquisition of the hardware before the renewal of the Volume License Agreement would allow the customer to take advantage of this license grant.  Otherwise, the same hardware purchase after the agreement renewal date would require the purchase of additional Windows Server Standard licenses. 

In the event that a customer owns Enterprise edition licenses and they do not want to have the Standard edition license that will routinely occur during the conversion between Windows Server 2008 R2 and Windows Server 2012, they can perform an edition step-up.  A step-up allows the owner of the license to upgrade an existing license covered by SA to the next edition level up by paying the difference in the price of the two editions.  In the case of this Enterprise to Datacenter edition step-up, it must occur before the release of Windows Server 2012.  After the release of Windows Server 2012, the Enterprise edition and the related step-up will no longer be on the Microsoft pricing sheet and therefore will not be permitted.

This final option for action is one that is not promoted by Microsoft, but could greatly benefit any organization that takes advantage the license grant.  In December 2010, after Microsoft had announced that they would discontinue the Windows Server Itanium edition, they posted that they would grant licenses covered with SA with a license of the next version of Datacenter.  Presently the Window Server 2008 R2 Itanium License may be acquired for the same price as the Windows Server 2008 R2 Datacenter license.  Two Windows Server 2008 R2 Datacenter edition license are required in order to migrate to the Windows Server 2012 Datacenter edition, but only one Windows Server Itanium edition license is needed for the conversion.  This means that until the release of Windows Server 2012, a Windows Server 2008 R2 Itanium license with SA may be purchased and one Windows Server 2012 Datacenter license will be granted.  In effect, for a short time, Windows Server 2012 Datacenter may be acquired for half price. 

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