Microsoft Windows Server Datacenter BYOL Hybrid Benefit Report

IT Asset Management (Cloud)

The Microsoft Windows Server Datacenter BYOL Hybrid Benefit report shows the entitlements available for licensing Microsoft Windows Server in the Azure public cloud under the Azure Hybrid Benefit (AHB). This Benefit can allow for simultaneous use of license entitlements, originally purchased for use on-premises, to authorize installations both on-premises and in Azure. This is called "bring your own license", or BYOL, and clearly represents significant possible savings compared with PAYG licensing for Windows Server on cloud instances. The prerequisite for this right is that the license entitlements must be covered by active Software Assurance.

Generating the report

1. Go to the Microsoft Windows Server Datacenter BYOL Hybrid Benefit page.
2. Click Run report to display the results for all Microsoft Windows Server implementations discovered in your Azure cloud.

Limiting the report results

After the report has been run, you can click Add filter and set one or more filters above the listingas follows:

• Select BYOL enabled, select Yes or No from the next drop-down list, and then click the orange check icon. This lets you filter the listing to those licenses where the BYOL use right is turned on (or off, as the case may be).
• To check a particular license, select License name, select a name from the next drop-down list, and then click the orange check icon.
• Select Primary application, select a name from the next drop-down list, and then click the orange check icon.

Alternatively, click the filter icon to expose the simple filter row below the column headers, and enter partial text matches for these columns.

Reading the report

The following columns (listed alphabetically) are available in this list. By default, some are available through the column chooser.

Active Software Assurance quantity

The number of entitlements on this license that are covered by active Software Assurance. This is a prerequisite for BYOL, so this is the effective maximum number of entitlements from this license available for use in Azure.

AHB consumed

The number of entitlements consumed in Microsoft Azure under the Azure Hybrid Benefit (AHB). Applicable for licensing Microsoft Windows Server Datacenter edition, where AHB allows entitlements originally purchased for on-premises installations to be used simultaneously in Azure and on-premises (subject to active Software Assurance). Compare this value (consumption in the cloud) with the value for consumption on-premises shown in the Consumed column.

BYOL availability/shortfall

Shows the number of license entitlements covered by Software Assurance that are available for use in Azure under the AHB (or if over-committed, the number of additional entitlements with Software Assurance required). Values may be:

• Blank if the Azure Hybrid Benefit / license mobility check box (in the license properties under Use rights & rules > License consumption rules > Cloud service providers) is not selected
• When Azure Hybrid Benefit / license mobility is selected, but the Entitlements may be used simultaneously in the cloud and on-premises check box is not selected, it shows the difference between the active Software Assurance coverage on this license and the on-premises Consumed quantity
• When both Azure Hybrid Benefit / license mobility and Entitlements may be used simultaneously in the cloud and on-premises are selected, it shows the difference between the active Software Assurance coverage on this license and the cloud AHB consumed quantity.

BYOL enabled

Boolean, displaying Yes or No to show whether the use right for Azure Hybrid Benefit / license mobility has been selected in the Use rights & rules tab of the property sheet for this license. (This also requires that minimally Microsoft Azure has been selected as your cloud service provider, or else you have selected Any cloud service provider.)

Compliance status

Whether or not the current use of software under this license complies with the license terms and conditions. Values may be:

• At risk — Consumption exceeds entitlements. Consider uninstalling some software, or finding more purchase records, or making new purchases to cover the shortfall.
• Compliant — The calculated consumption is less than or equal to the total recorded entitlements (these may be recorded in one or many purchases linked to this license). If your data input is complete and accurate, this license is in good shape.
• Not tracked — This is the initial (default) value for CAL Legacy, Oracle Legacy, and Concurrent User licenses, because the compliance status of these license types is not calculated by license reconciliation process. However, you can manually set the compliance status value in the Compliance tab of the properties for these licenses. Custom Metric licenses also start out as Not tracked, but for Custom Metric licenses you may manually set the value only if you first set the Set Compliance status manually check box in the Identification tab of the license properties.
• Unknown — Inventory data cannot be used to determine the compliance status of this license. Typical reasons may include:
  • Missing calculations — You haven't yet run a compliance calculation (called a Reconcile, available in the Reconcile page, or run automatically overnight).
  • Missing applications — The license has no application linked. You can identify the installed software and link it to the license; or as a short-term workaround, you can switch to the Consumption tab, allocate the license to specific computers (or end-users, depending on license type), provided that in the Use rights & rules tab you expand the License consumption rules section and select the Allocations consume license entitlements check box.
  • Missing inventory details — This license may require details from hardware inventory that are currently not available. For example, Microsoft Server Core and Microsoft Server Processor licenses require the number of threads and cores or processors from hardware inventory. All inventory tools do not include these details. Prior to the 2012 release, Microsoft Endpoint Configuration Manager (previously Microsoft SCCM) did not provide information on cores; and threads may be missing from various sources, and the license compliance cannot be accurately calculated without this information. Unless the license is already at risk, it is given a status of Unknown. To correct this, identify the computers linked to this license that are missing the necessary hardware properties, and set the values manually until you can change to an inventory tool that provides all required data. Consider augmenting the inventory on these computers with direct inventory gathering by IT Asset Management through an inventory beacon.

Consumed

The number of license entitlements that are being consumed by on-premises installations. Contrast this with the number shown under AHB consumed. If you are planning to decommission the on-premises installations that are consuming these on-premises entitlements, these entitlements (assuming coverage by active Software Assurance) can be freed up for BYOL use in Azure.

License name

The license name may be:

• Copied from the first-linked software product
• Derived from the License Name field of the SKU in the first-linked purchase (or if there is no SKU, from the purchase Description field)
• Created manually.

Primary application

The application linked to the license. In this report, the linked application is expected to be a version and an edition of Windows Server. If there are multiple applications linked to this license, the column displays Multiple products.

Simultaneous use right

Displays Yes when the check box for Entitlements may be used simultaneously in the cloud and on-premises (in the license properties Use rights & rules > License consumption rules > Cloud service providers) is selected (checked), and otherwise displays No.