Reconciliation of Windows Server Licensing of VMs on ESX Hosts

[mikewhalley1]

What is the best approach for addressing use cases where there are ESX hosts running Windows Server VMs? It seems that because. during compliance calculations, the VMs are looking for a Windows Server or Hyper-V physical host (not ESX, where Windows Server cannot be installed) to calculate consumption that they drop out of license calculations as "unlicensed"

Do I need to allocate the Windows Datacenter/Standard licenses to the ESX host so that VM consumption is rolled up? Obviously, there is no evidence of Windows Server attributed to the host, so I'm assuming allocation will allow for consumption. 

Anyone else encountered this challenge?

[ryanw-t]

Hi Mike, attached is some detail on Windows Server licensing for virtual clusters if helps.

[mikewhalley1]

Thanks, Ryan. Whilst this paper provides some really insightful information about Windows Server licensing, it doesn't provide any details about my ESX Host->Windows Server VM use case.

[amandatran · Accepted solution]

Hi Mike, we've recently ran into this as well. We allocated to the VM cluster that the ESX host is a member of to the Windows Server Datacenter license (Per Core with CAL). Important note is you have to allocate the total number of cores for the entire cluster and not just the cores for the single host. Hope this helps...

[Srinivas Ramanu]

We can allocate licenses to Individual Hosts (ESX machines) or Clusters for Windows Server. However, even before performing allocations we would suggest the following :Please make use of automated optimisations , which we have introduced for Windows Server licensing in Quebec:

https://docs.servicenow.com/bundle/rome-it-asset-management/page/product/software-asset-management2/...

Using this feature , ServiceNow SAM automatically determines which license is more optimal and cheaper to apply on a cluster whether it is Data Centre or Standard. This is driven by the virtualisation density determined by SAM. If virtualisation density is high then WS Data Centre licenses are applied otherwise WS Standard are applied.

Once optimisations are applied automatically, thereby the customer can determine if they require allocations.

These are required usually for 2 use cases: 

1. For Prioritising license allocations: When perform license compliance calculations, ServiceNow SAM uses the best possible license assignment strategy; however organisations may have different needs. Hence, they can perform allocations to the cluster or to the Host.                                                              One efficient mechanism to do that is to look at the - Potential Savings by optimising Licenses chart to determine which Cluster would they want to prioritise while licensing based on the recommended license shown on the chart

      2. Locking License assignment : If the customer, is deterministic on the license assignment performed by ServiceNow SAM, they can click on " Create Allocations" remediation option and allocate licenses to the cluster or Host. This will essentially " lock" the license assignment for those resources. This is a good way to ensure that always license assignment happens in the order as performed by ServiceNow SAM.

Please note:

       a. For Windows Server one can perform allocation at the Cluster only ; to perform allocations at the host please ensure that the host is not part of a cluster.

       b. This requirement will not be required going from San Diego release as we would allow allocations partially at the Host level.