Licensing: Running Windows desktop OS as a virtual machine on a server
I need to run 3x Windows 7 Professional instances as a virtual machine guest OSes on one physical server hardware running under Windows Server 2008 R2 Std.
It is going to be accessed by, say, 5 different users on 5 different computers who all already have proper Windows 7 Professional OEM on their physical desktops or laptops.
All these users are in the same company.
Question:
What licenses do I need to purchase from Microsoft for all of these to be properly licensed?
For example, Microsoft VDA per device, Microsoft VDA per user, Windows Software Assurance per User Add-on, etc.
And how many.
Also, what kind of activation key is supposed to be used for this virtual guest OS installation?
It is going to be accessed by, say, 5 different users on 5 different computers who all already have proper Windows 7 Professional OEM on their physical desktops or laptops.
All these users are in the same company.
Question:
What licenses do I need to purchase from Microsoft for all of these to be properly licensed?
For example, Microsoft VDA per device, Microsoft VDA per user, Windows Software Assurance per User Add-on, etc.
And how many.
Also, what kind of activation key is supposed to be used for this virtual guest OS installation?
ASKER CERTIFIED SOLUTION
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True, however this question is easy. Same rules as for 3 physical machines. Nothing complicated here.
SOLUTION
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SOLUTION
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ASKER
Hi,
1. Lee W -- RDS is not an option in this case.
2. John Hurst -- yes, each user is accessing only a certain guest. So we need 3 licenses of what?
3. Masq, Lee W -- there are no SAs on client Windows machines as the Windowses are OEM rather then Windows Pro Upgrade OLP or similar, that's why I specified they were OEM. After reading Microsoft's documents about VDA and VDI it follows naturally that VDA is the solution but which one -- a number of VDA for device, a number of VDA for user, a number of VDA for device with a number of SA per user add-on, and how many of them?
This is why I submitted this question to Experts Exchange. For example VDA for device would grant a license to access virtual desktops from a client device, right? then does each user on these devices need also to have virtual desktop access (VDA) per user license to access their the guest desktop OS? does the physical server need to have some sort of additional license to run the virtual desktop OSes? does the virtual desktop OS have to have it's own license, eg. Windows 7 Pro FPP?
4. Adam Brown -- I tried, it's really difficult to get an advice from Microsoft on desktops virtualization topic, basically all they replied so far with was with links to published PDF documents on VDA and VDI that can be easily found even without their help. What I lack is complete understanding of these documents and dealing with some additional confusion they are bringing in.
1. Lee W -- RDS is not an option in this case.
2. John Hurst -- yes, each user is accessing only a certain guest. So we need 3 licenses of what?
3. Masq, Lee W -- there are no SAs on client Windows machines as the Windowses are OEM rather then Windows Pro Upgrade OLP or similar, that's why I specified they were OEM. After reading Microsoft's documents about VDA and VDI it follows naturally that VDA is the solution but which one -- a number of VDA for device, a number of VDA for user, a number of VDA for device with a number of SA per user add-on, and how many of them?
This is why I submitted this question to Experts Exchange. For example VDA for device would grant a license to access virtual desktops from a client device, right? then does each user on these devices need also to have virtual desktop access (VDA) per user license to access their the guest desktop OS? does the physical server need to have some sort of additional license to run the virtual desktop OSes? does the virtual desktop OS have to have it's own license, eg. Windows 7 Pro FPP?
4. Adam Brown -- I tried, it's really difficult to get an advice from Microsoft on desktops virtualization topic, basically all they replied so far with was with links to published PDF documents on VDA and VDI that can be easily found even without their help. What I lack is complete understanding of these documents and dealing with some additional confusion they are bringing in.
You need a license for each guest installed.
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@alexmiby1 - You need proper licenses for each virtual machine. Can you please follow up and close the question?
ASKER
Thank all of you for participation. The solution is VDA licenses which we ended up buying.
Also, it's a little difficult to perform the necessary rituals to summon the MS licensing spirits for getting the correct information about what licenses are needed when for MS's products on EE. Not enough chickens, you see. (This is a joke)