Yes, it’s the talk of the town. “Windows 2016! Oh my! It’s moving to cores!!!” That part is true. What is NOT true is even when Windows 2016 is released, it doesn’t mean you have to license by core – you can still license by processor for all 2012 and earlier editions. The catch? Once your agreement expires and you sign a new SPLA after October 1st (when Windows 2016 is released) you must license by core regardless which version you are running.
So what does this mean to you? If I was a service provider that reports over 2k in Windows and SQL licenses, I might readjust when my SPLA expires to extend processor based licensing. Wait…What? You can readjust when my SPLA agreement expires? Sure. I’m SPLA Man. Anything is possible with SPLA Man.
Thanks for reading,
Windows 2016 Man
SPLA Licensing 
Lior
September 27, 2016 at 11:13 am
Thanks!!! Very important tip. do you any idea how to license the windows server 2016 in high availability environment? and what about virtualization? and what about regular physical server? the rules in spla are different than in VL and i can not find any references about it…..
Davin
October 4, 2016 at 1:09 am
Hi. I have always have this question. If I create Linux VMs, do I need to report Windows Server SPLA license for it? Or only have to report for Windows OS VMs?
splaman
October 4, 2016 at 1:28 pm
All VMs including Linux. That’s what makes the Cloud Platform Suite so attractive.
Austin
November 18, 2016 at 9:16 am
So how would one go about readjusting their SPLA expiration and what is the extension you could readjust for?
MS Licensing
November 20, 2016 at 8:50 pm
hi austin. that is probably a question for your reseller. Unfortunately the time to sign a new SPLA has passed to extend Windows 2016 licenses
Bob
January 5, 2017 at 1:28 pm
Not really related to cores as such, but more to Windows Server 2016.
If you currently have Hosts Licensed using Server 2012 R2 Datacenter, can you create 2016 guests on that host under the unlimited virtualization rights, or does the host have to be 2016 before you can use 2016 guests under that right.
Everything I’ve seen and read is on downgrade rights in virtualization rather than what I’m actually looking for. Any thoughts?
therioman
January 5, 2017 at 1:28 pm
Not really related to cores as such, but more to Windows Server 2016.
If you currently have Hosts Licensed using Server 2012 R2 Datacenter, can you create 2016 guests on that host under the unlimited virtualization rights, or does the host have to be 2016 before you can use 2016 guests under that right.
Everything I’ve seen and read is on downgrade rights in virtualization rather than what I’m actually looking for. Any thoughts?
MS Licensing
February 3, 2017 at 3:51 pm
you can run 2016 guest but you have to license the host by core if you do. Even if the host is 2012. Sorry for the delay!
Stuart Kibbe (@stuartkibbe)
January 30, 2017 at 1:29 am
Hey SPLA Man, our agreement expires in 30 days. How do I readjust when my SPLA agreement expires? Tx
MS Licensing
February 3, 2017 at 3:48 pm
Hi Stuart, you cannot adjust when it expires but you can terminate one earlier
Stuart Kibbe
February 3, 2017 at 3:52 pm
thanks for your feedback
T roponen
May 2, 2018 at 5:11 am
Hi,
Can service provider report/license both Windows Server per proc (if they are eligible with SPLA agreement) and also Windows server per core.
MS Licensing
May 9, 2018 at 8:56 pm
Yes. That is correct