What Windows 2022 licenses do I need to set Windows 2022 Hyper-V hypervisor with linuix machines acting as web servers with services for clients

Question

We are considering to set a Windows 2022 hypervisor with a few linux based web servers.

Services hosted on linux VMs would be available for our cutomers or emplyees through web.

Do I need some kind of CALs ? Or I only need to license all physical cores with Windows 2022 Server licenses ?

In our environment we have a Windows domain with many windows servers licensed with cores and user cals but what to to with those hypothetic windows hypervisor located outside our LAN ?

Answer 1

AFAIK, in your scenario, Client Access Licenses (CALs) may not be required if the Windows Server itself is only acting as a hypervisor and not providing services directly to users.

1. Licensing Physical Cores:
   • You need to license all physical cores on the Windows Server 2022 hypervisor host according to Microsoft's core-based licensing model.
   • A minimum of 16 core licenses is required per physical server, and at least 8 core licenses per processor.
2. CALs for Linux-Based Web Services:
   • CALs are not required for access to services running on Linux VMs because those services are not directly provided by the Windows Server.
3. CALs for Windows Services:
   • If the Windows Server hypervisor itself is accessed for administrative tasks (e.g., via RDP), or if it provides any services to users (e.g., file sharing or hosting Windows applications), then User or Device CALs are required for each user or device accessing the Windows Server.
4. Outside the LAN:
   • If the Windows Server hypervisor is isolated and used solely to run Linux VMs, its location (inside or outside your LAN) does not affect the CAL requirement, as CALs are only necessary when accessing Windows-specific services.

Keep in mind that for any licensing-related questions, you'd want to confirm the information provided on this forum with a Microsoft representative. For more, refer to https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/licensing/product-technical-support

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hth

Marcin

Answer 2

Hi Adam,

Thanks for your post. Generally speaking, Windows Server 2022 Standard Edition does allow you to create Linux virtual machines using its built-in Hyper-V role. Hyper-V is a mature virtualization platform that supports a variety of operating systems, including various Linux distributions such as CentOS, Ubuntu, Debian, etc.

For Linux virtual machines, since they are not Windows operating systems, they do not directly consume your Windows Server license. In other words, you can run any number of Linux virtual machines on a licensed Windows Server 2022 host without acquiring separate Windows licenses for these Linux VMs. As for the number of Linux virtual machines that can be created, it mainly depends on your hardware resources, such as processors, memory, storage, etc.

I hope the information above is helpful.

Best Regards,

Ian Xue

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Answer 3

Thank You for Yours answers.

I knew that I can run many linux VMs without any additional licenses, but i was wondering what about accessing them from the internet by people without any windows CAL or special license.

Earlier, Microsoft had a free standalone Hyper-V core edition (till 2019) so it was more clear that running core Hyper-V hypervisor with linux VMs do not need any additional licenses.

Setting Hyper-V as a role on full Window 2022 confused me a little about that.

So if thats true, it is nice to hear, that for setting a farm of internet available linux VMs on W2022 needs only Windows core licenses.

I hope it is like that.