Table of contents
Collapse all- OVERVIEW
- INTRODUCTION TO MICROSOFT LICENSING
- LICENSING ON-PREMISES PRODUCTS
- Licenses for on-premises products
- Perpetual and subscription licenses
- License reassignment rights
- Versions and editions
- Downgrade and down edition rights
- Product use rights
- Software Assurance
- Step-up licenses
- External users
- Assigning server licenses to dedicated and shared hardware
- Using Online Services licenses to access on-premises servers
- WINDOWS SERVER 2022
- Licensing Windows Server 2022
- Licensing external users
- Licensing virtual machines
- Licensing a server farm
- Licensing Windows Server Containers
- Licensing for Disaster Recovery
- Downgrade and down edition rights
- CAL equivalent licenses
- Step-up licenses
- Servicing Channels
- Extended Security Updates
- Licensing for the cloud
- Windows Server Software Subscriptions
- Windows Server 2022 Essentials edition
- Availability of Windows Server 2022 licenses
- WINDOWS SERVER 2022 SERVICES
- SYSTEM CENTER 2022
- Servers
- Licensing System Center 2022 for servers
- Licensing external users
- Licensing virtual machines
- Licensing a server farm
- Licensing for Disaster Recovery
- Downgrade and down-edition rights
- System Center Branches
- Licensing for the cloud
- Step-up licenses
- Required infrastructure products
- Core Infrastructure Server Suites
- Availability of System Center 2022 Server MLs
- Clients
- Servers
- SQL SERVER 2022
- Licensing SQL Server 2022
- Licensing external users
- Licensing virtual machines
- Licensing SQL Server with container technology
- Licensing a server farm
- Licensing for High Availability and Disaster Recovery
- Downgrade and down-edition rights
- CAL equivalent licenses
- SQL Server Enterprise Server licenses
- Step-up licenses
- Extended Security Updates
- Licensing for the cloud
- Additional Software Assurance benefits
- SQL Server Software Subscriptions
- Additional editions of SQL Server
- Availability of SQL Server 2022 licenses
- BIZTALK SERVER 2020
- Licensing BizTalk Server 2020
- Licensing external users
- Licensing virtual machines
- Licensing a server farm
- Licensing for Disaster Recovery
- Downgrade and down-edition rights
- Step-up licenses
- Licensing for the cloud
- Required infrastructure products
- BizTalk Server 2020 Developer edition
- Availability of BizTalk Server 2020 licenses
- PROJECT SERVER SUBSCRIPTION EDITION (SE)
- Project Server 2019 and Project Server SE
- Licensing Project Server SE
- Licensing external users
- Licensing virtual machines
- Licensing a server farm
- Licensing for Disaster Recovery
- Downgrade and down-edition rights
- CAL equivalent licenses
- Licensing for the cloud
- Required infrastructure products
- Availability of Project Server SE licenses
- PROJECT SERVER 2019
- Project Server 2019 and Project Server SE
- Licensing Project Server 2019
- Licensing external users
- Licensing virtual machines
- Licensing a server farm
- Licensing for Disaster Recovery
- Downgrade and down-edition rights
- CAL equivalent licenses
- Licensing for the cloud
- Required infrastructure products
- Availability of Project Server 2019 licenses
- EXCHANGE SERVER 2019
- Licensing Exchange Server 2019
- Licensing external users
- Licensing virtual machines
- Licensing a server farm
- Licensing for Disaster Recovery
- Exchange Server 2019 server editions
- Downgrade and down-edition rights
- Step-up licenses
- Exchange Online Voice Mail Service
- CAL equivalent licenses
- Licensing for the cloud
- Availability of Exchange Server 2019 licenses
- SHAREPOINT SERVER SUBSCRIPTION EDITION (SE)
- SharePoint Server 2019 and SharePoint Server SE
- Licensing SharePoint Server SE
- Licensing external users
- Licensing virtual machines
- Licensing a server farm
- Licensing for Disaster Recovery
- Downgrade and down-edition rights
- CAL equivalent licenses
- Licensing for the cloud
- Required infrastructure products
- Availability of SharePoint Server SE licenses
- SHAREPOINT SERVER 2019
- SharePoint Server 2019 and SharePoint Server SE
- Licensing SharePoint Server 2019
- Licensing external users
- Licensing virtual machines
- Licensing a server farm
- Licensing for Disaster Recovery
- Downgrade and down-edition rights
- CAL equivalent licenses
- Licensing for the cloud
- Required infrastructure products
- Availability of SharePoint Server 2019 licenses
- SKYPE FOR BUSINESS SERVER 2019
- Licensing Skype for Business Server 2019
- Licensing external users
- Licensing virtual machines
- Licensing a server farm
- Licensing for Disaster Recovery
- Downgrade and down-edition rights
- CAL equivalent licenses
- Licensing for the cloud
- Required infrastructure products
- Availability of Skype for Business Server 2019 licenses
- THE CAL SUITES
- DYNAMICS 365 SERVER
- Licensing Dynamics 365 Server
- Licensing external users
- Licensing virtual machines
- Licensing a server farm
- Licensing for Disaster Recovery
- Downgrade and down-edition rights
- Step-up licenses
- CAL equivalent licenses
- Licensing for the cloud
- Additional Software Assurance benefits
- Required infrastructure products
- Availability of Dynamics 365 Server licenses
- DYNAMICS 365 FOR OPERATIONS SERVER
- Licensing Dynamics 365 for Operations Server
- Licensing external users
- Licensing virtual machines
- Licensing a server farm
- Licensing for Disaster Recovery
- Licensing for failover
- Downgrade and down-edition rights
- Step-up licenses
- CAL equivalent licenses
- Licensing for the cloud
- Required infrastructure products
- Availability of Dynamics 365 for Operations Server licenses
- DYNAMICS 365 BUSINESS CENTRAL ON-PREMISES
- LICENSING THE DEVELOPER TOOLS
- VISUAL STUDIO 2022
- AZURE DEVOPS SERVER 2022
- Licensing Azure DevOps Server 2022
- Licensing users with Visual Studio subscriptions
- Licensing external users
- Licensing virtual machines
- Licensing a server farm
- Licensing for Disaster Recovery
- Downgrade and down-edition rights
- CAL equivalent licenses
- Licensing for the cloud
- Required infrastructure products
- Availability of Azure DevOps Server 2022 licenses
- WINDOWS 11 (DEVICE)
- OFFICE LTSC 2021
- VISIO LTSC 2021
- PROJECT 2021
- AZURE HYBRID BENEFIT
- FLEXIBLE VIRTUALIZATION BENEFIT
- LICENSE MOBILITY THROUGH SA
- LICENSING CSP-HOSTER SOLUTIONS
- LICENSE DEPLOYMENT OPTIONS
- SOFTWARE ASSURANCE
- BUYING ON-PREMISES PRODUCTS: EA
- BUYING ON-PREMISES PRODUCTS: MPSA
- BUYING ON-PREMISES PRODUCTS: SELECT PLUS
- BUYING ON-PREMISES PRODUCTS: OPEN PROGRAMS
- BUYING ON-PREMISES PRODUCTS: CSP
- BUYING ON-PREMISES PRODUCTS: MCA-E
Microsoft sell a wide range of products across traditional software, Online Services and Azure, and there are a substantial number of agreements that customers can purchase them through. The rules for how you acquire licenses for the different products are diverse, often complicated, and can differ dependent on how the licenses are purchased. The licensing information for all of these different products and agreements is spread across many documents and websites, and this makes it really difficult to learn the rules or even find them when you need them.
All this is why we've created our Microsoft Licensing Body of Knowledge – to gather together licensing information across all of the products across all of the ways to buy them. We’ve chosen the content carefully – we wanted to make it as complete as possible without making it overwhelming by including every single licensing detail about every single product. Overall, it’s about 90% of the full set of licensing information, and we think that’s probably the right amount for the vast majority of people.
The intention of this digital book is not to replace Microsoft’s official documentation, rather to explain it. You should always reference Microsoft’s own resources, rather than this digital book, for example, when you document your licensing decisions, and it’s the Product Terms site and Microsoft’s Licensing Guides that you’ll probably find most useful.