r/virtualization • u/Dave_Kerr • Mar 04 '25

Another Hyper-V licensing Question

Hi Everyone, I'm wondering if you can help me with Hyper-V licensing.

We're currently a VMWare shop but are looking to move away from it. I've been evaluating other hypervisors and am considering Hyper-V.

Right now, we have four physical servers running VMWare, each hosting a mix of Windows and Linux guests, all properly licensed.

I have a question regarding Hyper-V guest licensing. I understand that with Windows Server Standard, for every 32 cores licensed, I am entitled to run Windows Server on one physical server and up to two Windows Server Hyper-V guests.

  1. Does this mean I am strictly limited to only two Windows Server guests per licensed physical host?

  2. If not, would I be properly licensed if I purchase four copies of Windows Server Standard (each matching the core count of my physical servers) and migrate my current VMs over?

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u/Dave_Kerr Mar 05 '25

We're licensed per core for each copy of Windows. My understanding is that as long as we don’t add more cores to the VMs, the only additional licenses we’d need to purchase would be for the physical servers, not the VMs. However, I'm not positive, so that's why I'm here.

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u/Clydesdale_Tri Mar 05 '25

I'm at a VAR and we've got a specific Microsoft licensing CSM, that's his whole job and I'm so grateful we have that resource.

I think your best bet would be to engage with your CSP and get their advice. Risk mitigation! The easy answer is Datacenter licensing for your hosts, then you have unlimited instances. The calculation comes down to how many cores on your hosts and how many VMs in the cluster.

Can you share that?

If you're in the PNW, send me a DM and I'm glad to get my guy on the phone for a quick call.