Consumption calculation for Mcrosoft Server datacenter core

[claudiogentili]

for this license according to the Microsoft metric the consumption should be calculated taking as reference all the cores of the Hosts inside a Custer vmware. E.G if the Cluster is made up of 6 hosts but only one Microsoft virtual machine is hosted on one of the 6 Hosts, the license consumption should be calculated for all cores of the 6 Hosts and not only on the host that hosts the Microsoft virtual machine. I applied the "Microsoft Server / Management Core" type to the license and the consumption it detects is only on the host hosting the microsoft virtual machine. Is it possible to consider this a bug of the platform or is it necessary to perform some particular configuration?
Thank you

Claudio

[nrousseau1 · Accepted solution]

Hello Claudio,

You are right, currently, the FNMS license computes Windows Server consumptions based on the last state of the Clusters / Hosts / Installed Windows Server VMs... Which is not good. 

The rule however is more complicated than "you need to cover all your ESX servers with Windows Server DataCenter" licenses .

Here is a summary of the licensing rule from a "SAM Best Practices Monthly Webinar" session delivered in September 2021 (https://community.flexera.com/t5/Events-and-Webinars/Recording-and-Presentation-of-the-September-Monthly-SAM-Best/ba-p/206505/jump-to/first-unread-message)

Microsoft Server Operating System’s Licensing is challenging

• Multiple Licenses/Editions
  • Windows Server Standard, Windows Server DataCenter, Core Infrastructure Datacenter, Core Infrastructure Standard, System Center Standard, System Center DataCenter
• Multiple Metrics over the time
  • Old processor metric transitioned to core metric in 2016
• Different licensing rules (and costs)
  • Windows Server DataCenter Edition (7 times more expensive than Standard Edition): unlimited VMs covered
  • Windows Server Standard Edition: cheaper but two rules
    • More VMs will require more licenses
    • A license covering a VM on a host cannot be “reallocated” to another host for 90 days

Microsoft does not require all cores of all Hosts within clusters to be licensed... they have a mobility rule hat leads their customer to choose the "worst" case... or even the "All ESX Servers in DataCenter" options that are extremely expensive. The report com

Another session delivered on February 3rd https://community.flexera.com/t5/Events-and-Webinars/Recording-and-Presentation-of-the-February-Monthly-SAM-Best/bc-p/225402#M124 give details on the Windows Server optimization report that will be released in March. The licenses will not perform the same calculations short term but allocations will be possible (flat Windows Server License consumption report in April)... and this optimization logic will be added mid term to the licenses.

You can subscribe to to "event and Webinar" section of the community to monitor other Best Practices sessions: https://community.flexera.com/t5/Events-and-Webinars/bg-p/learning-labs

Best regards,

Nicolas

B

[nrousseau1 · Accepted solution]

Hello Claudio,

You are right, currently, the FNMS license computes Windows Server consumptions based on the last state of the Clusters / Hosts / Installed Windows Server VMs... Which is not good. 

The rule however is more complicated than "you need to cover all your ESX servers with Windows Server DataCenter" licenses .

Here is a summary of the licensing rule from a "SAM Best Practices Monthly Webinar" session delivered in September 2021 (https://community.flexera.com/t5/Events-and-Webinars/Recording-and-Presentation-of-the-September-Monthly-SAM-Best/ba-p/206505/jump-to/first-unread-message)

Microsoft Server Operating System’s Licensing is challenging

• Multiple Licenses/Editions
  • Windows Server Standard, Windows Server DataCenter, Core Infrastructure Datacenter, Core Infrastructure Standard, System Center Standard, System Center DataCenter
• Multiple Metrics over the time
  • Old processor metric transitioned to core metric in 2016
• Different licensing rules (and costs)
  • Windows Server DataCenter Edition (7 times more expensive than Standard Edition): unlimited VMs covered
  • Windows Server Standard Edition: cheaper but two rules
    • More VMs will require more licenses
    • A license covering a VM on a host cannot be “reallocated” to another host for 90 days

Microsoft does not require all cores of all Hosts within clusters to be licensed... they have a mobility rule hat leads their customer to choose the "worst" case... or even the "All ESX Servers in DataCenter" options that are extremely expensive. The report com

Another session delivered on February 3rd https://community.flexera.com/t5/Events-and-Webinars/Recording-and-Presentation-of-the-February-Monthly-SAM-Best/bc-p/225402#M124 give details on the Windows Server optimization report that will be released in March. The licenses will not perform the same calculations short term but allocations will be possible (flat Windows Server License consumption report in April)... and this optimization logic will be added mid term to the licenses.

You can subscribe to to "event and Webinar" section of the community to monitor other Best Practices sessions: https://community.flexera.com/t5/Events-and-Webinars/bg-p/learning-labs

Best regards,

Nicolas

B

[simonclarke69]

Hi,

Is there a current Best Practice for Licensing a Cluster with MS Server Datacenter Licenses please. Currently I can see Flexera looking to cover all Virtual Cores , so I have a deficit. Should I just 'fudge' the entitlement to cover the max consumprion ? Thank you 

[JohnSorensenDK · Accepted solution]

@simonclarke69 

Please elaborate a bit more on your "best practice" question. As per Nicolas' response above and the available videos where he goes through the various scenarios in details I would say it's the higher density of VMs in the cluster that will help you allocate the appropriate Datacenter licenses as the "cheapest" option. However, this answer may not be aligned to your question?

Thanks,

[simonclarke69]

With the benefit of everybody's superior knowledge I am thinking that we haven't calculated our requirements properly . Would you all agree that an HCI Node with 2 sockets and 48 cores would need Qty 3 x WinSvrDCCore 2019 SNGL MVL 16Lic CoreLic(enses) ? Thank you all...........

[simonclarke69]

Hi, 

Sorry, I now have a better understanding of the Licensing rules and Flexera's controls.

I have 18 Datacenter licenses for six HCI nodes as they are 2 CPU , 24 core (total) machines. The SKU has set the VM rule to enable unlimited VMs for each host. I have rolled back all other Windows Server licensing, as I have some machines running as physicals. I then process the DC licenses and then the standard licenses. The VMs on the HCI are being allocated some of the 2019 Standard Licenses as well as each host having its 3 DC licenses. Any thoughts please

[JohnSorensenDK]

@simonclarke69 

You will most likely have to use allocations to control the licensing of this environment as Nicolas also points out above and in his recordings.

Thanks,

[RWG2022]

What I did was to use the Windows Server Optimisation report and my licensing knowledge to determine DC vs Std. I then used the link that Nicolas references and created device groups using reports. A device group essentially lets you specify which inventory devices should consume from which licenses. You then load one device group into each license on the restrictions tab and it consumes accordingly. For example if you want to license all VM hosts with DC licenses, you build the report and load this into your DC license. Consumption will then be based on all the cores in each CPU (subject to a minimum of 8 cores per processor/16 core per server). Any Windows Server VMs will then be covered under the DC licenses consumed by the VM hosts. It's a bit of  a faff to do and quite long-winded but it does work.

[simonclarke69]

Thanks for this tip , I will have a look in the am. I had also experimented with VM Roles and was wondering if I could name the VMs on a cluster as Dev or Test , to stop them being allocated Standard Licenses .

[nrousseau1]

Hello Simon,

Windows Server Optimization is not the easiest, but recent features in ITAM / FlexNet Manager allow indeed to make things smoother as mentioned by John or @RWG2022 .

I showed this in details in the "An Optimal License Position for Windows Server / CIS in One Hour!" SAM Best Practice Webinar.

You can analyse your optimal license consumption in the Windows Server Optimization Report, then reflect this optimal consumption in your licenses.

The most efficient approach I have used not later than 1 month ago for one of my customers (I have moved from Product Manager to Partner) is to

• Analyse the optimal licensing per cluster in the Windows Server Optimization Report
• Use your Windows Server standard (with SA) with licenses only for Physical hosts and VMs located in "low density cluster" (less than 9 VMs per host on Core Infrastructure Server and 13 VMs per host on Windows Server, the Windows Server Optimizations report re-calculates these thresholds based on your actual license costs (red the very detailed documentation), using an intelligent restriction (release in 2023R1) to "Device Type = Computer" OR Cluster IN (Cluster A, Cluster B, Cluster C) where clusters A, B, C show low VM density in the report. With the October 2022 change that allows to license per VM, the best configuration is the SQL Server one: License Type = Microsoft Server Core, Maximum VMs = 1, Minimum number of Cores per VM = 8).
• Use your Windows Server Data Center (with SA) license to cover your "high density clusters", again with a intelligent restriction using the "VMs in Cluster (D,  E & F). Here, you can use the use rights and rules provided by the SKU (Microsoft Management Core etc).

Now, if you are on premises... and want to get advance automations (which makes sense if you have a large virtualized environment, which may not be the case from what you say), you can contact me at nrousseau@nrsamconsulting.com so that I create the "Number of Active Windows Server VMs For Host" "Number Of Active  Windows Server Production VMs For Host", "Number of Active Red Hat Linux VMs For Host" etc. Thus, you will be able to use these reporting attributes to let ITAM re-assess the current Windows Server density on your clusters and decide what is the best licensing option.

Regarding VMs roles. If you have enough MSDN for IT people accessing non production servers, you can user the "exemption by role" that will repents VMs from consuming from your licenses (and any other license consuming on Windows Server). You may also want to factor the VMs roles in your restriction reports...

Hope this makes sense,

Best regards,

Nicolas