Recently, I was asked how it was that Extended Support Updates (ESU)were licensed. This is answered in the FAQ for ESU.
Can customers license just the virtual machine? For example, if a customer is running a Windows Server 2008 or 2008 R2 virtual machine on Windows Server 2012 or another host, do they need Extended Security Updates for the full server? What if the host is running Windows Server 2008 or 2008 R2, but none of the virtual machines are?
Customers cannot license individual Windows Server virtual machines. They must license the full physical server. Licensing requirements for Extended Security Updates on-premises align to the licensing requirements for the underlying Software Assurance coverage or subscription. Customers will only need to know their Windows Server license position for a given server, to know how many Extended Security Update licenses they need.
Customers who have covered all the underlying cores of the physical server with Windows Server Datacenter licenses should buy Extended Security Updates for the number of physical cores, irrespective of the number of VMs running on that physical server.
Customers who have covered all the underlying cores of the physical server with Windows Server Standard licenses should buy Extended Security Updates for the number of physical cores, but will only be licensed to run and update two virtual machines on the server. Customers who wish to run and update more than two virtual machines on a server licensed with Windows Server Standard must re-license all of the physical cores on the server with both Windows Server Standard and Extended Security Updates for each additional pair of virtual machines.
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For more details on this, please read the FAQ:
- Extended Security Updates frequently asked questions
https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/cloud-platform/extended-security-updates - Extended Security Updates Datasheet
https://download.microsoft.com/download/A/3/F/A3F0908A-0FD8-494C-82BC-E75F313F3FAD/Extended_Security_Updates_for_Windows_Server_2008_and_SQL_Server_2008_End_of_Service.pdf
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