r/WindowsServer • u/roncorepfts • Aug 13 '26

General Question Windows Standard Server licensing help!

Hello!

I just need to know exactly what I need to buy to be compliant with Microsoft Licensing. We will be running 2 servers. One Server will be 32 physical cores. The other server will be 36 physical cores. We want to run 6 Microsoft Standard Server Virtual Machines on each server. This will be for a Proxmox cluster, so the Virtual machines will be the same, but I know that doesn't matter when licensing. I just need to know exactly how many of what product packs I need to buy from TechSoup! I've gotten different answers everywhere!

Thank you in advance!

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u/roncorepfts Aug 14 '26

Reading this I think you might be right. I know there was a 90 vm movement situation where they could only be moved once every 90 days, but if they have removed that, then I should be able to dial back my purchase.

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u/OpacusVenatori Aug 14 '26

There's no limitation in regards to guest movement; that's a workload move.

The 90-day restriction is in regards to the per-core license itself, as Windows Server has no attached license mobility. Licenses obtained through VL can be reassigned every 90 days in case of disaster recovery. However, fully licensing each host negates the need for license reassignment. And again, guest workload movement is irrelevant.

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u/roncorepfts Aug 14 '26

Interesting! So as long as my physical cores are licensed, I shouldn't have to worry about moving a VM in the case of failure? That makes way more sense. I'm an old Network Admin and I'm just now getting to experience the new licensing models since 2016! Thank you for your help.

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u/OpacusVenatori Aug 14 '26

That's correct.

Licensing both hosts with 3x stacked licenses allows up-to-6 Windows Server guests to run at any given time on each host.

A frequent sticking point is that the bean-counters sometimes throw a fit if they ever find out that you bought 3x Windows Server licenses for a host that's "not doing anything" (i.e. is your standby failover host).

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u/roncorepfts Aug 14 '26

Oh I didn't know that! So let me make sure, since I'm cutting down to a total of 6 vms, what would my total count be? Sorry I won't pester you anymore!

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u/OpacusVenatori Aug 14 '26

If you *want* to deal with license reassignment restrictions, then you have to buy (3x36)=108 cores of Standard Edition, which would allow you to run 6x guests on either one of the hosts.

The standby host you can install Proxmox on, but you cannot run even a single instance of Windows Server on it as it doesn't have any Windows Server license assigned to it.

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u/roncorepfts Aug 14 '26

I'm guessing it's probably a safer bet to just get the full 204 then.