Windows Server 2019 has been out for a while now and other than some early adopter issues, it appears to be pretty stable now. I figured it was time to update the highly popular calculator to reflect the Standard price increase. Largely this calculator is identical to the Windows Server 2016 Calculator with a few minor tweaks. If you’re new to the licensing changes in Windows Server 2016 or Windows Server 2019 check out my detailed article on the subject. It’s Windows Server 2016 focused but the licensing concepts are the same for Windows Server 2019.
There are many changes to Windows Server 2019 that I won’t go over here but if you’re interested here’s a feature comparison guide for the last 4 versions of Windows Server. You should also check out the Pricing and licensing for Windows Server 2019 page to see the differences between Standard and Datacenter. Finally you can also check out this nice datasheet I found that details Windows Server 2019 volume licensing. Thanks for reading!
Disclaimer: The pricing reflected here is based on MSRP. Actual pricing may vary. This is not a quote. This is an educated guess at what pricing and core pack licensing is, based on the MSRP pricing available at the time. You should contact your Reseller or LSP to get actual pricing or quotes. The Software Assurance costs are based on 2 years Open License or 3 Years Open Value and it’s ~25% per year. I’m using the higher cost User CALs for this calculator at ~$43 per CAL and I believe the cost has increased but I’ve been unable to verify that as yet. I’ll update the calculator when I get confirmation.
This calculator is incorrect as it does not allow you to calculate the license requirement for a single processor server.
Thanks for commenting! I don’t agree that it’s incorrect. I might say it’s not comprehensive though. When I built the original calculator I made some assumptions around virtualization best practices dictating multiple processors. Things have changed a little with both Intel and AMD having processors now that can support an amazing amount of addressable memory while having a boatload of cores. I will look into adding a single processor option to the calculator. Thanks for reading!
Thank you very much for this!
I’m missing something. Why does the Datacenter calculator care about the number of VMs? Don’t I license each physical box by number of cores (minimum 8 per socket, minimum 16 per server) and then I’m done?
For that matter, why is there a VM _and_ an OSE slider for Standard? Wouldn’t I simply pick the number of VMs per server (or cluster of servers) and have to buy half that amount x number of servers x number of cores (minimum 16)?
Thanks!
Hey Chris, thanks for commenting! I think you might take another look at the calculator. I believe you may be misreading the items on each of the calculators. It’s asking for Virtual Host Count, not Virtual Machine Count. To calculate the licensing costs on Standard you need the number of CPU’s, Cores per CPU, number of Virtual Hosts and OSEs. On Datacenter you need everything except the OSE’s since Datacenter allows for unlimited OSEs. I hope that helps clarify and thanks for reading!
Hi,
If I buy Windows Server Data Center 2016 license
Then
1. Can I host unlimited VMs on that physical host ?
2. Do I need to buy separate licenses and Product keys for that each VM also? If VM OS is Windows 10 Pro, Windows 2008 , Windows 2012 , Windows 2016 , Windows 2019 and Linux.
3. Also Am I allowed to use AVMA keys for VMs if I bought Windows 2016 data center license, is there any separate license needed for VMs ?
Please guide and suggest
Thanks,
Hi Raj thanks for reading and sorry for the delayed response.
1. Can I host unlimited VMs on that physical host ?
You can run unlimited VM’s (OSEs) on each physical host that’s licensed.
2. Do I need to buy separate licenses and Product keys for that each VM also? If VM OS is Windows 10 Pro, Windows 2008 , Windows 2012 , Windows 2016 , Windows 2019 and Linux.
You don’t need to buy separate licenses for each VM (OSE) if you have purchased datacenter licensing for each host. There are some places where you might want to purchase Microsoft VDA (Virtual Desktop Access) licenses for desktop OS’s specifically on VDI. But for all your servers OS’s your covered with datacenter.
3. Also Am I allowed to use AVMA keys for VMs if I bought Windows 2016 data center license, is there any separate license needed for VMs ?
I would guess you could use AVMA based licensing for that, though I haven’t done it personally since it appears to require Hyper-V and I don’t do much of that. I typically setup a KMS server with KMS licensing.
Thanks again for reading and I hope that answered your questions.
Hi,
Can you please explain the difference between MS Software assurance and MS External Connectors? Its use cases.
We’re trying to build a 2 node vSphere cluster and Windows licensing is bit confusing for us.
Thank you for sharing the license calculator.
Thanks for reading and posting! The External Connector licenses are for external users connecting to internal server resources. They typically classify external users as those not directly employed by your organization. I’ll defer to Microsoft though for a better explanation. https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/licensing/product-licensing/client-access-license
Hope that helps!
Is the $43 per user cal the cost of the cal plus SA or is it the cost of SA only? If it’s not the SA only cost, what is the ongoing SA only cost for these after each 3 year renewal?