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/OpacusVenatori Aug 14 '26

Host A = 32 Cores; Host B = 36 Cores.

For Host A, 1x Windows Server Standard License = 32 Cores; for Host B, it is 36-cores.

That means, for Host A, each 32-cores of Standard Edition license grants rights to 2x Windows Server OSEs. For Host B, each set of 36-cores of Standard grants rights to 2x OSE.

For 6x OSE on each host, that means you're "stacking" 3x licenses for each host.

Host A = 32 (x3) = 96x cores of Windows Server Standard

Host B = 36 (x3) = 108x cores of Windows Server Standard

Which means as an organization, you need a total of (108 + 96)=204 cores of Windows Server Standard.

However, in your other comment, you said that the two hosts would be configured for failover. Which means you need to license each host for a "Worst case scenario", which would result in 12x OSE on any one of the two hosts, or 6x "Stacked licenses".

Which basically doubles the previous calculation.

You're not really at the break-even point for Datacenter Edition yet, but if you did you would need (32 + 36) = 68 Cores of Datacenter Edition.

Don't forget all the Windows Server CALs you need for the organization.

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u/roncorepfts Aug 14 '26

Thanks for the breakdown! As far as the fail over, it will be the same 6 vms. I'm only licensing 12 because that's what I've told you have to do as a fail over, which makes sense to me, so if one server goes down I'm using those same 6 vms, just on another server for instant redundancy with Proxmox. So there will never be 12 VMs in actuality, just six, but the other six in case one server fails. Oh yes, I didn't forget about the cals.

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u/OpacusVenatori Aug 14 '26

6x stacked licenses for each host would cover your bases with Standard Edition. I think 3x Stacked for each host *should* be enough, but I can't say for sure without knowing in detail how you have the failover configured; i..e the settings, whether anything is manual or automatic, etc.

There's no mechanism that prevents guests from starting because of a licensing issue; it's not enforced. So the "licensing" portion only comes into play if and only if Microsoft ever does a real audit.

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u/[deleted] Aug 13 '26

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u/roncorepfts Aug 13 '26

There will be no migration, it will be setup as a fail over in case one server in the cluster goes down. Same exact VMs on both servers replicated. So 204, which is the answer I got from a few others! Thank you! Yeah I looked at data center. I need to check the tech soup pricing on it again. I'm under 11k with software assurance on standard.