[dba-Tech] Can Microsoft just let go for a moment?

Hi Jim

I can't tell. By principle I refuse to join courses in licensing, because if
licensing is so difficult that it requires a full day training course to
understand, it is - per definition - too complicated.

Thus, for clients requesting licenses from MS, Adobe, Symantec (luckily we
don't have Oracle clients), I simply call the distributor's licensing people
with the details and receive within an hour a detailed quotation. It is for
a reason that the distributors have a handful of fulltime experts employed,
and that expertise you cannot match. And should they fail, you can tell the
client or supplier that you utilize the license team's knowledge to avoid
having the responsibility for the client's licensing. 
Add to this circus that the competition in selling licenses is very strong,
thus the profit is only a few percent. It isn't worth the trouble to deal
with.

Even though I would be glad to help, it probably wouldn't be of much value,
as the rules at your place might be different from those in force here.

However, it is my understanding that the Hyper-V Server 2012 (R2) is
absolutely free to use. It beats the free offering from VMware by a
magnitude in every aspect.
The only limitation is, that for remote administration the R2 requires a
Windows 8.1 Workstation or Windows Server 2012 R2 for the admin tool. The
former non-R2 can use Windows 7+ or Windows Server 2012+. It is a great
product - comes with bare metal recovery, a basic SMB file server, joins AD
at a snap, and can handle all the drives and VM you can stuff into the
physical machine.

/gustav

-----Oprindelig meddelelse-----
Fra: dba-tech-bounces at databaseadvisors.com
[mailto:dba-tech-bounces at databaseadvisors.com] På vegne af Jim Lawrence
Sendt: 18. december 2013 01:46
Til: Discussion of Hardware and Software issues
Emne: Re: [dba-Tech] Can Microsoft just let go for a moment?

Hi Gustav:

I can hardly speak as a expert on Windows licensing. My understanding is
that it is complex to say the least. When I was working full-time, my
clients were either government or larger companies and they bought site
licenses and for my own use I bought a yearly tech account (I understand
that has gone away now(?)).

Maybe you can give some of your experiences and costs in deploying a Hyper-V
server with 15 to 20 (KVMs (?)) using various platforms. Does each virtual
drive, require a complement of products, depending on the service provided,
need to be separately licensing, charges according to the number of
concurrent users or is there a site license or VD license available?

Do you have any estimates of costs? Does Microsoft have a strategy like
Docker with its "Containers" and be able to be as easy to deployed or are
there additional licensing issues? 

Aside: Microsoft paid a large amount of money towards Linux development,
especially in OpenSuse, from which Docker, Mono, the Linux version of Visual
.Net Studio and Hyper-V was fully developed.      

Jim

----- Original Message -----
From: "Gustav Brock" <Gustav at cactus.dk>
To: dba-tech at databaseadvisors.com
Sent: Saturday, December 14, 2013 3:16:56 AM
Subject: Re: [dba-Tech] Can Microsoft just let go for a moment?

Hi Jim

The article does seem to add confusion, which the count of comments also
indicates.
And what is your friend's issue?

The Hyper-V Server 2012 R2 is free no matter what it hosts. However, and of
course, the VMs must be licensed as normal.

That said, the Hyper-V install may not pay off if you plan to host Windows
2012 R2 servers only. Then it will be cheaper to use the Windows Server 2012
R2 as host as it comes with two licenses more for Windows Server 2012 R2 it
may host. 

For larger setups, you can use the Datacenter editions where one license
allows for one host and unlimited VMs.

But in general, MS licensing is a nightmare. For the same reason we stopped
active selling of other than OEM and simple package licenses.

/gustav

>>> accessd at shaw.ca 14-12-13 5:29 >>>
Hi All:

I was trying to help a friend out with his attempting to get a full and
legal Hyper-V system up and running and he is just about ready to toss in
the towel. Just ran across this article and it seems to say it all.

http://www.channelregister.co.uk/2013/12/12/feature_microsoft_caught_in_virt
ual_monkey_trap

Microsoft is not doing itself any favours...I wonder if the next set of MS
management will have the courage and the comprehension to see the light?

Jim