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Looking at the licensing options for Windows Server 2012, the standard edition allows me to have two hyper-v instances. Does that mean that I can install Windows Server 2012 on them too?

Since one no longer can run a domain server (AD) and Remote Desktop Services inside the same system (not a good idea to begin with, anyway), I was thinking of running RDS inside hyper-v. The question is do I need to purchase an additional license or does the standard edition allow me to run two virtual Windows Server 2012 instances for free?

user555
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The license allows you to run two VM on the same hardware without purchasing any other server license. However, in this case, you will not be allowed to run anything on the host OS (the one running on the hardware) than the hypervisor itself: you'll have to run AD, RDS and all other windows services in the VMs.

Stephane
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  • Thank you for the answer. Just to clarify each additional user connection to the RDS requires a CAL? – user555 Apr 30 '13 at 09:11
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    RDS licensing is a different beast. Yes: each user will require a different RDS CAL (there are several licensing mode for RDS: per processor, per user or per device) and they will also need a Windows user CAL – Stephane Apr 30 '13 at 09:29