I am attempting to look into what options are available on consolidating pieces of our licensing infrastructure to as few boxes as possible. Specifically I'm having trouble finding succinct resources to explain: How windows licensing is handled in failover / redundant scenarios. Operating restrictions in hosting multiple license versions on one box. What other considerations are required for additional hosted applications? (Such as office 2010) Thank you, -Aaron

Hi Aaron, Are you talking about the KMS license for Windows OS? 1. How windows licensing is handled in failover / redundant scenarios? For failover/redundant scenarios, do you mean the cluster servers? The Windows OS licenses are calculated by the amount of client computers. It doesn’t matter whether the computer is a cluster computer or something else. 2. Operating restrictions in hosting multiple license versions on one box. If you mean hosting multiple KMS keys on one computer, you don’t have to do so. You only need to carefully pick one KMS key which can activate all kinds of Windows computers in your environment. For more information on how to choose the right key, please refer to the article below. Determining Product Key Needs http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ff793412.aspx 3. What other considerations are required for additional hosted applications? (Such as office 2010) If there is already a Windows KMS host running on an operating system that supports an Office KMS host, it is recommended to use the same computer as your Office KMS host. Of course you can also use a separate computer as the Office KMS host. Please note only the following operating system can serve as the Office KMS host: • Windows Server 2003 or later versions • Volume License editions of Windows 7 • Windows Server 2008 R2 The following operating systems are not supported as the Office KMS host: • Windows Vista or a later version • Windows Server 2008 including service packs For more information on deploying volume activation of Office 2010, please refer to the link below. http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ee624357.aspx#section Regards, Karen JiPlease remember to click Mark as Answer on the post that helps you, and to click Unmark as Answer if a marked post does not actually answer your question. This can be beneficial to other community members reading the thread. This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights.

Wow, thank you very much Karen! 1. How windows licensing is handled in failover / redundant scenarios, To try and clarify I will pose two examples - Failover scenario - If I have a blade enclosure of 16 blades set up in a cluster hosting VMs, and a VM of Server 2008r2 Ent. gets reassigned from blade 1 to blade 9, the host and base hardware has changed, and my limited understanding was that the KMS host would consider this a 'move' and that there are a whole lot of other license compliance issues around that. - Redundant scenario - I have a KMS host in datacenter1 and another KMS host in datacenter2 to the sake of full scale redundancy. What are the limitations in how & use & assign & manage the KMS licenses so that I remain compliant while still having the redundant functionality? 2. Operating restrictions in hosting multiple license versions on one box. Thank you, this answers my question rather well. Yes, I am interested in hosting as many keys on the single KMS host as possible. It outlines that Windows7 servers count towards the activation count of Server 2008r2. Is there a range of legacy OSes that share this functionality? Do Vista servers cound towards the activation cound for Server 2008? Do Vista servers cound towards the activation cound for Server 2008r2? /etc. Its wording it is still a little unclear that a Server 2008r2 KMS host would be able to provide activation to Server 2003 boxes. 3. What other considerations are required for additional hosted applications? (Such as office 2010) Again thank you very much. =]

Hi Cheshire43, To answer your questions again: 1. How windows licensing is handled in failover / redundant scenarios? 1) Failover scenario If you are using Windows Server 2008 R2 or Windows 7 as the KMS host, the virtual machines will be counted to be activated by KMS. I don’t think the virtual machine would need to be reactivated because the SID of it will not change during the failover. But you can have a test on your blade servers. 2) Redundant scenario If you have more than one KMS host, you will need to change the default DNS permissions for SRV records. Other wise the other host won’t be able to update the SRV RR. For the detailed information, please refer to the part “Changing the default DNS permssions for SRV records” in the following article. Deploying KMS Activation http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ff793409.aspx 2. Operating restrictions in hosting multiple license versions on one box. -Is there a range of legacy OSes that share this functionality? -Do Vista servers cound towards the activation cound for Server 2008? -Do Vista servers cound towards the activation cound for Server 2008r2? /etc. Yes, the KMS host key can be used to activate the versions of the operating systems that is equal or higher than Windows Vista. But it could not activate the OS below Windows Vista, such as Windows Server 2003. However, Windows Server 2003 can be used as a KMS host to activate Vista and higher versions of Windows. I hope that is clear for you. 3. What other considerations are required for additional hosted applications? (Such as office 2010) For the volume activation of Office 2010, I think I’ve made it quite clear in my previous reply. If you still have some other concerns about it, please go to Office 2010 forum for further support. Here’s the link for your convenience. http://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/en-us/officevolact/threads Regards, Karen JiPlease remember to click Mark as Answer on the post that helps you, and to click Unmark as Answer if a marked post does not actually answer your question. This can be beneficial to other community members reading the thread. This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights.

When using VLKs, I understand it is possible to downgrade a server 208 r2 license: http://www.microsoft.com/windowsserver2008/en/us/downgrade-rights.aspx Can server 2008 r2 configured as the KMS host activate Windows 2003 servers as long as it has the appropriate key?

Hi Cheshire43, The downgrade license just means you can use this license to downgrade the OS. It has nothing to do with the volume activation. Windows Server 2008 R2 cannot be used as the KMS host to activate Windows Server 2003. As the volume activation concept of KMS and MAK just applies to Windows Vista and later operating systems. If you still doubt about it, you can contact Microsoft Volume Licensing Center. http://www.microsoft.com/licensing/contact-us.aspx Regards, Karen JiPlease remember to click Mark as Answer on the post that helps you, and to click Unmark as Answer if a marked post does not actually answer your question. This can be beneficial to other community members reading the thread. This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights.

Thank you again Karen, I have no doubts, just wanting to sort out the available information. I had misunderstood the phrasing. As my organization is a VLK customer, to (finally) clear things up for me, Server 2003 VLK edition will simply not require activation once installed, Server 2008/r2 use KMS, have the KMS key as the default installation key, and will find the KMS host on the local network to authenticate themselfs against our respective VLK licenses?

Hi Cheshire43, If Windows Vista, Windows 7,Windows Server 2008 and Windows Server 2008 R2 use KMS activation, they will discover the KMS host automatically and initialize the activation itself once they are brought onto the network as long as the KMS host is in the same network as those clients. Regards, Karen JiPlease remember to click Mark as Answer on the post that helps you, and to click Unmark as Answer if a marked post does not actually answer your question. This can be beneficial to other community members reading the thread. This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights.