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Windows Server 2019 Licensing Calculator

Shawn March 27, 2019 10 Comments

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.

VMware vExpert 2019 Awarded!

Shawn March 8, 2019 No Comments

Wow! What a crazy week. I started an amazing new job on Monday and was awarded VMware vExpert 2019 on Thursday! This is my third consecutive year in this awesome program and I couldn’t be more thankful. Once again I’m humbled and honored to be a part of the 2019 class. I’ve said this before but I don’t get to post as often as I’d like or even about some of the things I’d like to with my personal time constraints. Given that, I’m so thankful to be recognized for what I am able to contribute to the community. Continue reading →

Windows is not genuine – KB971033 breaks Windows 7 KMS activation

Shawn January 10, 2019 No Comments

Countless Horizon View and VDI administrators probably woke up on Tuesday, January 8th, 2019 thinking “Hey it’s Taco Tuesday!” What they didn’t know was Microsoft had other plans for them. Reddit and a variety of tech forums have been full of posts from admins whose users are getting the Windows is not genuine dialog boxes on Windows 7 VDI desktops. It appears Microsoft has changed the way their KMS servers respond to certain activation requests. Thankfully there’s a reported fix and as my first post of 2019, I wanted to share it with the masses. Lets’ take a look at what’s happening and then dive into how to fix the issue!

Continue reading →

vSphere 6.7 Update 1 Upgrade

Shawn December 3, 2018 4 Comments

Welcome and thanks for reading! As you probably know vSphere 6.7 Update 1 came out recently. My lab is ground zero for running the latest and greatest so of course, I immediately upgraded when it came out. I wanted to share how easy the process is to upgrade from vSphere 6.7 to vSphere 6.7 Update 1. VMware has really made it an incredibly simplistic process but it’s not without a few pitfalls and you should always make sure you’re ready for such an upgrade. Let’s dive in! Continue reading →

vSphere 6.7 Update Manager Tip #1

Shawn November 19, 2018 No Comments

Welcome back! After a bit of a hiatus I’m back to work. I’m changing my format slightly in that I’ll be including new content with much shorter articles. I’ll still have the really in-depth content as well but hopefully this will allow me to get more content out.

Let’s jump into this one. Update Manager hasn’t changed much over the years. It’s typically easy to use and usually only causes problems when the host has incompatible VIBs or there’s not enough space on the host for the updates to complete. With vSphere 6.7 and vSphere 6.7 Update 1 we’ve been given a streamlined version of the same old product in the HTML5 interface. They’ve of course changed the terminology a bit around updating components but overall it’s still the same.

One big change is that you can no longer natively select both the Critical Host Patches and the Non-Critical Host Patches or any other baselines simultaneously in the HTML5 interface. You can only select one baseline and Stage or Remediate against it at a time. Continue reading →

VMworld 2018 – Wednesday

Shawn August 31, 2018 No Comments

This entry is part 5 of 5 in the series VMworld 2018

4 days in Las Vegas is right at the limit of being in Vegas entirely too long. Luckily this is pretty much the last day of the show. There are of course still things going on on Thursday but it’s usually reserved as a travel day for most people, myself included. Wednesday is the last day of the Solutions Exchange and the night of the VMworld Fest. It’s been a great show so far, let’s see what the last day had in store. Continue reading →

Image Building Series – Agents

Shawn August 31, 2018 12 Comments

This entry is part 6 of 6 in the series Image Building Series

Welcome to Part 6 of my Horizon View and Windows 10 Image Building Series. So far in this series we’ve built a virtual machine and customized it for use with Horizon View and Windows 10. We installed Windows 10 (1803) Enterprise, installed VMware Tools and ran Windows Updates. We applied many customizations to Windows settings and options. We’ve staged the Agents, Scripts and drivers. We downloaded and staged the VMware OS Optimization Tool and ran it using my custom template. Lastly we installed necessary software and drivers on the image.

In this article we will be installing all the previously staged Agents including the View Agent, View Direct Connect agent, UEM agent and the App Volumes agent. We’ll also be attaching a vGPU to the Pool Image VM and installing the NVIDIA GRID Drivers. Finally we’ll be completing the Windows 10 (1803) image and making it ready to deploy to a Horizon View pool. I’ll be using a numbered list so you can easily follow this guide while adding detail around specific sections where necessary. Continue reading →

Image Building Series – Apps & Drivers

Shawn August 30, 2018 No Comments

This entry is part 5 of 6 in the series Image Building Series

Welcome to Part 5 of my Horizon View and Windows 10 Image Building Series. So far in this series we’ve built a virtual machine and customized it for use with Horizon View and Windows 10. We installed Windows 10 (1803) Enterprise, installed VMware Tools and ran Windows Updates. We applied many customizations to Windows settings and options. We’ve staged the Agents, Scripts and drivers. Lastly we downloaded and staged the VMware OS Optimization Tool and ran it using my custom template.

In this article we look at applications, software and drivers that may need to be installed onto the image. We’ll install Office 2016, manage AppX apps, install anti-virus/anti-malware, printer drivers and any other drivers or software. I’ll step through each of these and detail what I typically see. I’ll be using a numbered list so you can easily follow this guide while adding detail around specific sections where necessary. Continue reading →

VMworld 2018 – Tuesday

Shawn August 29, 2018 No Comments

This entry is part 4 of 5 in the series VMworld 2018

It’s day 3 of VMworld 2018 and everything is in high gear. Another crazy day in the books with just constant opportunities for learning, networking and all sorts of fun. I spent the day on the Solutions Exchange floor and talking with colleagues and customers. There’s so much to see and do that it’s hard to get to all the sessions and experience all the content. I’m glad I can stream most of the sessions once I get home. The VMworld experience continues even after this week just trying to catch up on everything you missed.

I got some surprises in the breakdown today. Let’s check it out! Continue reading →

Image Building Series – VMware OS Optimization Tool

Shawn August 29, 2018 4 Comments

This entry is part 4 of 6 in the series Image Building Series

Welcome to Part 4 of my Horizon View and Windows 10 Image Building Series. So far in this series we’ve built a virtual machine and customized it for use with Horizon View and Windows 10. We installed Windows 10 (1803) Enterprise, installed VMware Tools and ran Windows Updates. We also applied many customizations to Windows settings and options. Finally we’ve staged the Agents, Scripts and drivers we’ll need later. We also downloaded and staged the VMware OS Optimization Tool.

The VMware OS Optimization Tool is a VMware Fling that started out as a nice easy way to automate the previously manual/partially scripted process of optimizing Windows to work as a VDI desktop. In this article we’re going to explore how to run the tool and I’ve built a custom template that I’m sharing with you here for what I’ve found are the best settings for VDI. I’ll be using a numbered list so you can easily follow this guide while adding detail around specific sections where necessary. Continue reading →