2

So I'm trying to figure out how best to keep our active (legitimate) Windows Server 2016 Licence when migrating from ESXi to Proxmox.

I have done a quick n dirty migration and it all seems to work pretty well, except for the fact that windows will immediately become unlicensed as soon as I boot it on proxmox.

I understand if the underlying hardware changes enough this usually invalidates the licence, but on a VM thats almost impossible to guarantee / control. Of course I have the same # of vCPUs and RAM, etc. but the "motherboard" and such can't be "kept the same" between Hypervisors.

Any idea how best to deal with something like this? Or will we just have to pony up the couple hundred € for a new Windows Server 2016 Standard Licence?

Thanks!

ndom91
  • 133
  • 1
  • 9
  • 1
    Retail licenses are transferrable, but you will need to call Microsoft if reactivation is required. – Greg Askew Jan 05 '19 at 15:15
  • I agree with @GregAskew and I will add a note, don’t forget the host configuration has an impact, it must look the same, as it’s per core it’s for the host, not on the VM side. So if the hypervisor got more core, that can change your licensing need. – yagmoth555 Jan 05 '19 at 15:50
  • Okay so in terms of the vm - i tried to keep everything the same, however the host has indeed gained a few more cores. Our old host was 2x12 core and our new host is 2x16 core. The Windows Server 2016 Licencing is relatively complex, so just to confirm, it is per core on the Host CPU. So in our case we have to increase our licence from 24 cores to 36 cores, correct? And then what if we have a second node in a cluster where this VM could potentially be replicated to. What does that look like in terms of windows licensing? – ndom91 Jan 06 '19 at 11:52

1 Answers1

5

  1. A virtual machine is NEVER licensed. A license is ALWAYS assigned to the physical host. You use a license key to activate a VM but that does not mean that the license is assigned to the VM. It is not. It is assigned to the physical host on which the VM is running.

  2. The Windows VM is NOT being "de-licensed", it is being deactivated. It needs to be reactivated. You can use the same license key you originally activated it with to reactivate it if you are reassigning the license from the original physical host to the new physical host... meaning you are transferring the original license from the original physical host to the new physical host and are using that license key to activate the virtual machines on the new physical host.

  3. You may transfer a license from one physical host to another physical host once every 90 days. In your case, if this migration of VM's is permanent and you are decommissioning the original physical host then you can transfer the original license to the new physical host and use that license key to activate your virtual machines.

  4. OEM licenses are non-transferable. If the license for the original physical host is an OEM license then you must purchase the appropriate license for the new physical host.

joeqwerty
  • 109,901
  • 6
  • 81
  • 172
  • Ah okay great. Yes so we are decommisioning the original host. I will have to dig up the original Licence and try to activate it on the new VM / new host. Is there anything you have to do to decommision the old host / remove the licence from that machine? Or will it simply become deactivated once you activate the new one? – ndom91 Jan 06 '19 at 07:20
  • There's nothing that has to be done with the old physical host. Licenses aren't physical objects and license compliance is really an "honor system" kind of thing. You purchase the appropriate licenses and use them in accordance with the license terms. If you don't then you risk being fined by the Business Software Alliance if they were to ever audit your business, not to mention any penalties Microsoft might impose. – joeqwerty Jan 06 '19 at 18:20