Windows Server Core licenses

The licenses assigned to the server are called Core licenses, and you need to assign a minimum of 8 Core licenses to each processor, and a minimum of 16 Core licenses to each server. Therefore, a single processor machine with 8 cores would need 16 licenses assigned to it, and a server with 2 x 16-core processors would need 2 x 16 = 32 licenses. All cores in the server must always be licensed. The diagram below shows the required licenses assigned to the servers in the examples we’ve just looked at:

Across a network with several servers you can have different editions of Windows Server running – a mix of Windows Server 2022 Standard and Datacenter, for example. However, you can’t mix licenses on a single server; a single physical server needs to be licensed entirely with Standard or entirely with Datacenter Core licenses, and allows you to run the software in the Physical Operating System Environment (POSE).

You can imagine that if you have several servers that you need to acquire licenses for, the number of Core licenses required is likely to be large: 5 servers with 1 x 24-core processor will add 120 Core licenses to your shopping list for example. To make things a bit simpler, Windows Server 2022 Core licenses are purchased in 2-packs or 16-packs. Thus, for these 5 servers you could acquire 60 x 2-packs or 7 x 16-packs and 4 x 2-packs, for example. It doesn’t matter how you combine the packs – it’s only a way of purchasing licenses – and the licenses aren’t joined together in any way. When buying the licenses, you don’t have to be extraordinarily precise and buy 1 x 16 pack and 4 x 2-packs for each server, you just calculate the total licenses required and then buy that number of licenses combining the packs in any way that’s convenient to you.

Just to keep you on your toes, the Software Subscriptions for Windows Server that are sold through CSP come in 8-packs. They can be combined with the 2- and 16-packs of Core licenses detailed above as required.