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khadarar
Contributor
Contributor

Guest Machine Windows License Migration

Hi,

I am planning to migrate 2 Windows Server 2019 virtual machines from a hypervisor to VMware 8.0. Currently, the servers have Windows licenses that are free from the hypervisor. My question is, if we convert them to VMware, will we be able to use the same Windows licenses in VMware as well?

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scott28tt
VMware Employee
VMware Employee

This is more a question for Microsoft than VMware users.

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Although I am a VMware employee I contribute to VMware Communities voluntarily (ie. not in any official capacity)
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michelkeus_stwg
Enthusiast
Enthusiast

That entirely depends on how the licenses were obtained, which edition and how the base license is covered. If you used the OEM license version of 2019 you are not allowed to migrate the VMs to new hardware as the licenses are officially bound to the underlying hardware even if not using Automatic Virtual Machine Activation (AVMA). 

Assuming the license is not hardware locked then by default the 2019 Standard License allows for 2 OSE's but then requires the entire host to be licensed (minimum of 2 sockets with 8 cores; so 16 core licenses minumum for the host but more if more cores are present). Starting 2022 Microsoft also started a Per-VM licensing but that doesn't apply here.

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