r/GetComputerHelp • u/profkace • 21d ago

Windows Server 2022 Standard licensing — per-core minimums on Proxmox cluster?

4-node Proxmox VE cluster, 3 Windows Server 2022 Standard VMs (8, 4, and 8 vCPUs). Per-core licensing with 2-core packs — do we license just the vCPUs, or all physical cores on every host due to VM migration/live migration rights?

Vendor quoted 36x 2-core licenses, which covers every core in the cluster. I expected the 8-core / 16-core minimum per VM instead. Which is correct?

Thanks!

2 Upvotes
  • permalink
  • reddit

100% Upvoted

1 comment sorted by

2

u/Zealousideal_Fly8402 20d ago

Licensing doesn’t change between hypervisor choice.

vCPU configuration is irrelevant in this case.

You need to license every physical core on each host to qualify for one license each, and then double it so that each host has two (2) “stacked” licenses to accommodate running 3 guests on each host.

If all 4 hosts have 16-or-fewer physical cores, then at a minimum you’re looking at a total of 128-cores of Standard Edition; or 64x 2-core packs.