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jchilton
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Wins 7 Desktop licencing

Can someone help me understand how I legally licence (from a Microsoft perspective) 10 x Wins 7_64bit VMs that will be accessed from zero clients??

I have to deploy a small project for a Customer using Horizon 7 that is fully VMware licensed but I'm struggling with my software procurement team and my understanding. of Microsoft.

I've advised that I will need a VDA subscription only but his doesn't seem right.  Don't I have to buy the full licences and then pay MS a VDA subscription on top cos I'm using a zero client???

Lets assume my Customer doesn't have any kind of volume licence agreements with MS; I want to build a portable datacentre solution in a transit case and hand it over to him in 1yrs time.

Any ideas/thoughts would be appreciated.

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vJoeG
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That's about 300/user  which to me seems a bit high. I did a quick search here in the US and found a vendor asking $115

Microsoft Corp. MPSA Virtual Desktop Access E3 (VDA) Per Device (AAA-03656)

I agree that VDA should be all you need. Was it a 3rd party vendor who quoted you the 4.5k or Microsoft themselves? I would think they will want to know what kind of keys you will need MAK vs KMS so double check with them before finalizing the order.

I don't see E5 but the license key above is for Windows 10 VDA.

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Joe Graziano
Senior Solution Engineer - EUC Federal
VCP7-DTM, VCP6-DM, VCP6-DCV
vExpert, vExpertPro
jgraziano@vmware.com

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vJoeG
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From a Microsoft licensing point of view, the VDA licenses will be used to cover the Zero Clients and you can use a KMS or MAK license for the 10 x Windows 7-64bit VM's

So if you purchase 10x VDA licenses this should be all you need to allow the Zero Clients to access your Windows 7 VM's

This article is a bit of a long read but covers a lot of the licensing requirements. Note that this is for Windows 10 but I believe Windows 7 also applies

License Windows 10 for use in virtualization environment – including multitenant and cloud hosting u...

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Joe Graziano
Senior Solution Engineer - EUC Federal
VCP7-DTM, VCP6-DM, VCP6-DCV
vExpert, vExpertPro
jgraziano@vmware.com
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HussamRabaya
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good article .. thank you

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jchilton
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Joe, what you say makes sense to me but having re-read the article I still think my procurement team might be right in terms of just buying the VDA subscription. I'm not sure what VDA E3/E5 is at the moment. But I've had a quote back for £4.5k for 15 users for 1 year. Seems expensive.

Extracts from the article:

"Regardless of the virtualization technology being used to virtualize and deliver Windows 10 to your client device (i.e. VMware, Citrix, Microsoft RDS), the licensing is the same for Windows 10. License users or their devices for virtualization access.
Do not license your server hardware or each Windows 10 VM (instance). - I guess this supports just buying the VDA subs.
Do license your users or their primary device for virtualization use rights (access). - VDA right?
Do not use Retail, OEM or the Windows 10 Pro Volume License Upgrade to license the access of a Windows 10 VM or instance (i.e. VDI). The OEM/Retail/Volume License Upgrades do not permit remote use rights from a shared device (AKA server). Remember, only the single primary user of a Windows licensed device may remotely access said device.
Windows VDA E3/E5 per-device is the right option if either ONE of the following applies: - I'm guessing you get a KMS host key then if you get this and want to activate desktops?? How do you get a KMS key?

• The device is not licensed with a “qualifying OS” - correct, zero client no OS.
• The user does NOT have a primary work device (BYOD)" - correct in my use case.
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vJoeG
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That's about 300/user  which to me seems a bit high. I did a quick search here in the US and found a vendor asking $115

Microsoft Corp. MPSA Virtual Desktop Access E3 (VDA) Per Device (AAA-03656)

I agree that VDA should be all you need. Was it a 3rd party vendor who quoted you the 4.5k or Microsoft themselves? I would think they will want to know what kind of keys you will need MAK vs KMS so double check with them before finalizing the order.

I don't see E5 but the license key above is for Windows 10 VDA.

------------------
Joe Graziano
Senior Solution Engineer - EUC Federal
VCP7-DTM, VCP6-DM, VCP6-DCV
vExpert, vExpertPro
jgraziano@vmware.com
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jchilton
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Thanks for your help. I wish MS could provide more useful and clearer briefing material.

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