New Microsoft Windows Server Optimization report optimizes licenses for Windows Server

Note:This feature is available with IT Asset Management.

When licensing Windows Server on virtual machines (VMs), customers can either:

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Pay a higher price to cover ESX servers hosting an unlimited number of VMs with Windows Server Datacenter edition

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Cover the ESX hosts with the less expensive Windows Server Standard edition, in proportion to the number of VMs running the software, and adhering to the reassignment restrictions.

Further complexities are:

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There is no clear direction on how VMs deployed with a Windows Server Datacenter edition operating system must be licensed.

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VMs with no host (mainly due to vCenter import issues) show no consumption in IT Asset Management. To avoid underestimating license requirements, we can use the license consumption from VMs with hosts to estimate consumption for orphan VMs.

The Microsoft Windows Server Optimization report addresses these complexities and challenges. The report calculates VM density across both hosts and clusters, captures the 90 peak number of Windows Server VMs per host, identifies the need for Core Infrastructure Server licenses where System Center has been installed, calculates the license need for orphan virtual machines and helps you calculate your optimal license consumption.

Running this new report in IT Asset Management will provide a summarized view of optimal licensing consumption and potential cost savings.