Windows Server Datacenter Licensing Guide

Windows server 2012 r2 will continue to have the same licensing model as windows server 2012 with two editions available in volume licensing.

Windows server datacenter licensing guide. For specific pricing contact your microsoft reseller. The transition from processor based to core based licensing was first introduced with windows server 2016. Editions are differentiated by virtualization rights only two oses for standard and unlimited oses for datacenter. 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.

Host specification since the windows server 2019 datacenter and standard editions are licensed by physical core this tool requires information about the number of servers hosts the number of cpus per server and the number of cores per cpu. Largely this calculator is identical to the windows server 2016 calculator with a few minor tweaks. To give you a more consistent licensing experience across multi cloud environments we transitioned from processor based licensing to core based licensing for windows server 2019 datacenter and standard editions. Windows server 2019 has been out for a while now and other than some early adopter issues it appears to be pretty stable now.

In addition to the base windows server cal or external connector license some functionalities will continue to require the purchase of an. I figured it was time to update the highly popular calculator to reflect the standard price increase. Windows server 2019 standard and windows server 2019 datacenter alternatively both follow core based licensing models where licensing requirements are determined based on the number of server cores instead of the number of processors.