License For Replicated Windows Servers

[sutcliff]

I have Site Recovery Manager setup and replicating some windows servers from my protected site to my recovery site.

Do I need separate Windows license for the recovery site if they are not both active at the same time? How about if they are both active for testing?

Thanks,

Brian Sutcliffe

[ikiris]

Two things from what I have seen. You need to assign a license (even if it's 1 vm) to the SRM extension. Otherwise it will expire after either 60 or 90 days. For the VMs, official literature says that licenses are needed for where the vms are protected initially. During a reprotect you may not need the licenses if you use the same recovery plan I think. That being said, I was In a session with Ken Werneburg where he said that they care if you have the license on both vcenters (as long as you have enough license to cover all VMs).

[sutcliff]

I understand that I need site recovery manager licenses for both ends. I

was wondering about the Windows License. Do I need a Windows license to

cover the server that is being replicated and not powered on?

Thanks,

Brian

VMware Certified Professional - Data Center Virtualization

Best contact for me is my email

External Phone

845-892-2535

Internal IBM Phone

53(2)-2535

[ikiris · Accepted solution]

Found this on a google group:

Re: License For Replicated Windows Servers

Microsoft offers what they call “disaster recovery rights” for every license that you have covered by software assurance.

“Cold” Disaster Recovery Rights.

For each instance of eligible server software you run in a physical or virtual operating system environment on a licensed server, you may temporarily run a backup instance in a physical or virtual operating system environment on a server dedicated to disaster recovery. The product use rights for the software and the following limitations apply to your use of software on a disaster recovery server.

 The server must be turned off except for :smileyinfo: limited software self-testing and patch management, or (ii) disaster recovery.

 The server may not be in the same cluster as the production server.

 You may run the backup and production instances at the same time only while recovering the production instance from a disaster.

 Your right to run the backup instances ends when your Software Assurance coverage ends.

As part of its Software Assurance licensing program, Microsoft currently offers free software licenses for cold servers intended for disaster recovery. It does not offer free licenses for warm or hot servers. You get more details in SRM Reference Guide.

[sutcliff]

That is exactly what I needed.

Thanks,

Brian

VMware Certified Professional - Data Center Virtualization

Best contact for me is my email

External Phone

845-892-2535

Internal IBM Phone

53(2)-2535

[ikiris]

Awesome. Please mark the thread as answered if you can.