Windows Server R2 — Product Overview. It lets you optimize performance for your most important workloads and helps protect against service outages with robust recovery options. It reduces complexity and cost with comprehensive automation plus storage and networking virtualization solutions based on industry-standard hardware. It lets you build, run, and scale applications that can move between your datacenter and the cloud, and it allows you to provide your users with flexible remote access from virtually anywhere and any vree while helping protect corporate information.

Windows Server R2 — Edition Overview. The Windows Server R2 product is licensiing and simple, making it easy for customers to choose the edition that is right for their needs. Licensing Overview. The packaging and licensing structure for Windows Datacentter R2 editions remain unchanged. Some additional or advanced functionality will wiindows to require windows server 2012 datacenter licensing guide free purchase of an additive CAL.

Planning for Windows Server R2. Renewing Software Assurance is the best way to protect investments while gaining access to new versions, technical assistance, and Deployment Planning Services.

Find out how flexible payments can help you get the IT you need and stay on budget. Visit www. Edition Comparisons. Software Assurance Benefits. Microsoft Commercial Licensing customers with active Software Assurance get more out of their Microsoft software and services investments with access to a unique set of technologies, services, and license rights to help use Microsoft products efficiently.

In addition, unlimited email support is available for non-critical problems. For each instance of eligible server software you run in a physical or virtual OSE on a licensed server, you windows server 2012 datacenter licensing guide free temporarily run a backup instance in windows server 2012 datacenter licensing guide free physical or virtual OSE on either a servers dedicated to disaster recovery and to your use, or b for instances of eligible software other than Windows Server, windows server 2012 datacenter licensing guide free Microsoft Azure Services, provided the backup instance is managed by Azure Site Recovery to Gukde.

The license terms for the software and the following limitations apply to your use of the backup instance. Your specific Software Assurance benefit eligibility can vary by Commercial Licensing program such as an Enterprise Agreement or Open Value Agreement and product, as well as the number of qualifying licenses you have enrolled in Software Assurance.

Commercial Licensing customers with active Software Assurance coverage on Windows Server at the time of General Availability will receive an upgrade to the latest version based on their New Version Rights benefit. You must acquire Software Dztacenter within 90 days of your purchase see the Product Terms for details. Availability Through Commercial Datacwnter Programs. Volume Activation. With KMS, IT pros fre complete activations on their local network, eliminating the need for individual computers to connect to Microsoft for product activation.

KMS does not require fatacenter dedicated system, and it can be cohosted on a system that provides other services. By default, volume editions of Windows 8 or later editions and Windows Server or later editions connect to a system that hosts the KMS service to request activation. No action is required from the user. With Active Directory-based Activation, no additional host server is needed, and activation requests are processed during computer startup.

Any computers running Windows 8 or later editions and Windows Server or later editions with a Generic Volume License Key GVLK that are connected to the domain will activate ftee and transparently. They will stay activated as long as they remain members of the domain and maintain periodic contact with a domain controller.

Activation takes place after the licensing service starts. When this service starts, the computer running Windows 8 or later editions and Windows Server or later editions RD contacts AD DS automatically, receives the activation object, and activates without user intervention. Review this TechNet article for further details. All rights reserved. The information in this document represents the current view of Microsoft on the content.

You must be logged in to post a comment. Windows Server R2 — Edition Overview The Windows Server R2 product is streamlined and simple, making it easy for customers to choose the edition that is right for their needs. Licensing Overview The packaging and licensing structure for Windows Server R2 editions remain unchanged. Edition Comparison by Server Roles Software Assurance Benefits Microsoft Commercial Licensing customers with active Software Assurance get more out of their Microsoft software and services investments with access to a unique set of technologies, services, and license rights to help use Microsoft products efficiently.

Disaster Recovery Rights For each instance of eligible server software you run in a physical or virtual OSE on a licensed server, you may temporarily run a backup instance in a physical or virtual OSE on either a servers dedicated to disaster recovery and to windows server 2012 datacenter licensing guide free use, or b for instances of eligible software other than Windows Server, on Microsoft Azure Services, provided the backup instance is managed by Azure Site Recovery to Azure.

Windows Server R2 Standard and Datacenter editions will continue to have the same licensing model as Windows server 2012 datacenter licensing guide free Server Standard and Datacenter editions. A single license covers up to two physical processors. These include two editions: Standard and Datacenter. Client Access Licenses [CALs] will continue to be required for access to Windows Server R2 servers and management access licenses continue to be required for endpoints being managed by System Center.

Because there is feature parity between Windows Server R2 Standard and Datacenter editions, your decision will be based on your virtualization strategy; virtualization rights are the only differentiator between editions. If your strategy calls for a highly virtualized environment, Datacenter edition will provide you with optimum flexibility because datacenyer allows for unlimited virtualization.

This edition allows you the elasticity to add and move virtual OSEs across Datacenter licensed servers without needing to track the virtual OSE count on that server. If you do not plan on a highly virtualized environment, Standard edition is the right product for your needs. If you purchase Standard edition today but find you need to expand the virtualization capacity of your licensed server, you can do one of the following: Purchase windows server 2012 datacenter licensing guide free Standard edition licenses and assign them to the same physical server giving you the rights to run additional instances of Windows Server.

The server windows server 2012 datacenter licensing guide free have the appropriate number of licenses assigned to it to ensure coverage of all of the virtual OSEs that are running at any given time.

Purchase a Software Assurance Step-up license to Datacenter edition, changing the license to a higher edition that allows unlimited virtual OSEs. To use this benefit, your underlying license must have Software Assurance. With the Windows Server R2 Standard edition licensing model, you can windows server 2012 datacenter licensing guide free your virtualization environment by either buying a step-up license to Datacenter edition if you have Software Assurance, or by simply buying additional Standard edition licenses and assigning them to the same physical server.

For example, if you have a two-processor server and want to run a total of four VOSEs, you can purchase two Standard edition licenses and assign them to the same server. Additional examples are shown in the following table. How do I calculate the number of licenses I need for a server? The number of licenses you will need depends on the number of physical processors on the server and the number of server instances that you will be running.

Windows server 2012 datacenter licensing guide free larger of these two numbers determines the number of total licenses required. First, determine the number of physical processor licenses: Each license covers up to two physical processors, so to determine the number of licenses needed to fully license a physical server, just count windows server 2012 datacenter licensing guide free number of physical processors in the server and divide that number by two.

This tells you the number of licenses that you will need. Note: The number of cores on the physical processor is irrelevant. You will need one license to cover a two-processor server. You will need two licenses to cover a four-processor server. You will need four licenses to cover an eight-processor server. Second, determine the number of virtual instances running: You can either count 20122 number of VOSEs that are running and determine the number of Standard edition licenses one license covers windows server 2012 datacenter licensing guide free to two VOSEsor you can purchase Datacenter, which enables unlimited VOSEs on the server.

To determine the number of Windows Server Standard edition licenses you need, count the total number of total VOSEs that you will run on the server; divide that number by two, and round up to the nearest whole number. Remember that the server must have the appropriate number of licenses assigned to it to ensure coverage of all of the virtual OSEs that are running at any given time For example, if you are running three virtual machines VOSEs on a two-processor server, you will require two licenses to cover the three virtual machines.

If you windows server 2012 datacenter licensing guide free two Standard edition licenses to windows server 2012 datacenter licensing guide free single server, wnidows will be able to run a total of four VOSEs on that server.

If you add additional Standard edition licenses to that server, the number of allowed VOSEs on that particular server will increase by two for a total of six VOSEs on that server. Can I use one Standard license to cover a one-processor server? The Standard edition license will allow you to license up to two physical processors on a single server; however, it does not require the server to have two physical processors.

Can I split my Windows Server R2 license across multiple servers? Each license can be assigned only to a single physical server. Can I assign 202 Windows Server R2 license to a virtual machine? A license is assigned to the physical server. Each license will cover up to two physical processors. After assigning the license s to a physical server, you now have the rights to use the VOSE on that server. Can I mix Datacenter and Standard licenses on the same server?

All of the processors on a given server must be licensed with the same version and edition. You can run different editions or older versions of Windows Server software as guests within VOSEs, but you are not allowed to assign multiple licenses of different versions or editions to the same physical server to license the processors on the server.

If I want to use the software from an earlier Windows Server version or edition, what are datacentdr options? If you have Windows Server R2 Datacenter edition, you have the right to downgrade software bits to any 2102 version or lower edition. If you have Windows Server R2 Standard edition, you have the right to downgrade guice software to use any prior version of Enterprise, Standard, or Essentials editions. The ability to downgrade does not change the licensing or support terms in which you can use the product; the purchased product Windows Server R2 rights apply.

This means that the license will continue to cover dataceenter physical processors, and the virtualization rights do not change. In addition, the Client Access License CAL corresponding to the purchased version will apply, as an exception; if you are running a previous version of one of the eligible downgrades, you can use the corresponding Lifensing version windows server 2012 datacenter licensing guide free one exists.

Here are a few examples. If I have Software Assurance in place at the time that Windows Server R2 is generally available, will my grant be reflected in my licensing records? You will see your grant in the Volume Licensing Service Center VLSC in addition to immediately being able to use the new product and own the perpetual rights based on your underlying license to the edition of Windows Server R2 that you are entitled to receive.

What are my Software Assurance migration rights by Microsoft purchase program? Pricing levels vary. For your specific pricing, contact your Microsoft reseller. Microsoft does not windoww pricing or payment terms for licenses acquired through resellers. Microsoft takes pricing and licensing decisions very seriously.

All pricing decisions take into account changing product value, customer and partner feedback, and market conditions. Windows Server Datacenter edition is optimized for highly virtualized environments and includes unlimited virtualization rights. This provides flexibility to add and move virtual OSEs across licensed servers without needing to track the virtual OSE liceensing on your servers. Over the past few releases, Windows Server has added in a tremendous amount of new features and enhancements, as well as significant performance and capacity improvements, to support highly virtualized datacenter and cloud environments.