The Many Ways to License System Center under SPLA
Finding yourself lost in the terms of System Center licensing? We feel for you. The System Center product line has been one of the more afflicted victims of Microsoft’s ever-changing SPLA licensing models. The good news is that licensing System Center is relatively low-cost in any scenario, and it has the opportunity to be a huge bargain if you’re taking full advantage of your software use rights. Wondering how so? System Center is the name Microsoft has put on a suite of applications used for deploying, configuring, managing, and monitoring your infrastructure. The applications are licensed as a suite, meaning you have rights to run all of the System Center apps (SCOM, SCCM, SCVMM, SCORCH, etc.) on the licensed server(s). The applications in the suite cover a wide range of functionality and licensing costs are pretty minimal (typically $12 to $54 a month per physical server depending on the core count of your physical infrastructure), so there’s a lot of value in utilizing multiple SC applications instead of purchasing standalone applications from other vendors that serve the same purpose.
Of course it may not make sense for your organization to use multiple SC products. If that’s the case, not to worry, System Center can still be deployed affordably if you know what you’re doing. Onto the fun part… the licensing:
Option 1: Core Infrastructure Suite (CIS)
Option 1 is option 1 because it’s the typically the most cost-effective way to license System Center. Core Infrastructure Suite is a bundled product that includes Windows Server and System Center licensing. The licensing model for CIS is the same as Windows Server—i.e. 1. Licenses are assigned to the physical core layer and they are sold in 2-core packs, 2. there’s an 8-core minimum license requirement per processor, and 3. the only difference between the Standard and Datacenter edition is the virtualization rights. (Datacenter edition grants rights to run unlimited Windows & SC VMs on the licensed physical server, and Standard edition includes rights to run 1 VM on the licensed physical server. Standard licenses can be stacked on the physical server for additional virtualization rights).
We’re a bunch of number crunchers here at Altaris. After reviewing all of the different combinations of Windows & System Center VM counts that could potentially sit on a host, we’ve found that it’s more cost-effective to use the CIS SKU to license System Center instead of the Windows Server & System Center SKUs individually in every case besides the following combinations of VM counts.
The main takeaway is that if you’re running more than 2 System Center VMs you’ll save upwards of 20% by using the Core Infrastructure Suite SKU.
Option 2: License Windows Server & System Center Individually
If the combination of Windows VMs and System Center VMs you are going to run on your physical hosts is one of the combinations displayed in the above table, license the hosts with Windows Server & System Center individually. Windows Server & System Center are licensed in the same manner (refer to above section for details).
Option 3: License Cloud Platform Suite
Not many hosters will be eligible to use the Cloud Platform Suite (CPS) SKUs, but the product line can lead to significant cost savings for those who can. The Cloud Platform Suite SKUs like the CIS SKUs are bundled SKUS that include Windows Server and System Center licensing. The difference? Well, there’s a few:
You must use Hyper-V as your hypervisor
You must be running Windows Server 2012/2012R2 & System Center 2012/2012 R2
Instead of assigning your licenses solely to your physical infrastructure (like you do with Windows Server & CIS), you assign licenses to both the physical layer (at a reduced cost compared with Windows & CIS) and the guest layer
There are 2 main reasons this is a sweet spot for hosters who are eligible to use the SKU, the first one being the most relevant-
If you use Cloud Platform Suite to license Windows & System Center, you’ll be able to continue reporting by Processor instead of using the more expensive Core licensing model that Microsoft rolled out with the 2016 product releases.
Microsoft is discontinuing the Cloud Platform Suite SKUs and as a result has not rolled out a Core licensing model for the product line. This can mean material cost savings for you if you choose to license your high-core servers with CPS instead of one of the other licensing options mentioned in this post. Just make sure you’re eligible to report CPS based on the criteria listed above, and that it makes financial sense based on your VM counts. If VM counts are extremely high, CPS won’t be the right model since you have to individually license the guests.
When you license with CPS you don’t have to worry about VM movement. Since you’re licensing both physical and virtual layers, VMs can move to different hosts without creating additional licensing requirements. To illustrate, with Windows Server and CIS you have to license the high water-mark # of VMs that sat on a host in each given month. This means your license requirements increase each time a VM moves hosts. VM movement is also difficult to track, which is why many hosters report Datacenter to make their SPLA reporting simpler even though their VM count doesn’t justify it. CPS eliminates this issue- you are covered on licensing no matter how the VMs move as long as you’ve licensed all physical servers and guests.
Caveats/Tips:
Take advantage of the full Suite of products. If you’re only using one of the applications, test out the others to see if they will add value to your organization.
If the VMs in your environment are moving around, the # of VMs that needs to be licensed on each host is = to the maximum # of VMs that sat on the host within the usage month
If you only need System Center deployed on a small number of VMs, keep those VMs pinned to the lowest number of physical hosts possible. Do so by removing the licensed hosts from clusters or by putting rules in place that restrict the SC VMs from moving around. Licensing costs will increase fast if the VMs are moving.
If you decide to license CIS Standard, you’ll need to stack enough Standard licenses to provide virtualization rights for the total Windows VM count on the host, not just the System Center VM count (since CIS comes w/ Windows licensing)
If you’re using the CIS SKU and you’ve installed the Datacenter edition of the Windows Server OS anywhere, that would automatically trigger the requirement to use the CIS Datacenter license, regardless of how many VMs are running
The same goes for Windows Server licensing
We hope this overview gives you the ammunition you need to make an educated licensing decision. If all of this licensing talk makes your head hurt and you’re looking for additional guidance, schedule a free consultation with us at https://www.altariscloud.com/contact/ or check out our other services for SPLA partners on our about page here: https://www.altariscloud.com/about/.
As always, be SPLAWESOME!!