Windows Storage Server 2012 Licensing

High-Rely offers licenses for Microsoft Windows Storage Server 2012 and 2008 R2

Microsoft Storage Server 2012 is a special version of Windows server sold only with hardware appliances. It is not intended or licensed to be used as a general purpose Windows machine, but allows for creating a full-featured NAS appliance. The Storage Server 2012 license is owned by the user who owns the machine, as the two go together. No CALs are required with Storage Server.  Microsoft does not intend this OS to be used for general server or workstation purposes, but allows loading standard Windows backup apps, storage apps, anti-virus, and security applications onto Storage Server 2012 or Storage Server 2008 R2.

If you are a managed service provider (MSP) or IT professional considering using other Windows versions (i.e. Windows 7, Windows 8.1, or a standard server version) to create a Backup device on standard hardware, please check Microsoft’s EULA. You may find Microsoft does not allow you to own an OS on your customer’s location for the purposes of providing backup as a server without additional SPLA licenses, thus making that solution more expensive. Also many Windows versions do not allow transfer ownership if you want to sell the BDR to your client later. These problems are eliminated with Windows Storage Server, because the license travels with the hardware.

Windows Storage server versions can still join a domain, yet there is lower cost for license fees compared to full server versions. These operating systems can only be purchased preinstalled on one of our backup appliances. To learn a little more, check the Microsoft overview document or the table below.

High-Rely makes backup appliances available for either of these two versions: Standard and Workgroup. Note that in Windows Storage Server 2008 R2 there are other versions, including an Enterprise edition that doesn’t exist on Storage Server 2012.

Workgroup edition adds only around $220 to the hardware price and is limited to 32GB RAM, 1 CPU socket, 50 user limit, 250 simultaneous SMB connections, limited to six hard disks, with no Hyper-V license included. 250 SMB connections limits the number of network machines that can use the hard drives in the NAS to 250 simultaneously.

Standard edition adds around $590 to the hardware price. The Standard license supports 64 CPU sockets and 2TB of RAM, and it has no practical restrictions on the number of disk drives or concurrent SMB connections. Standard also has a number of features — notably fail-over clustering, data deduplication, and the ability to host 2 Hyper-V virtual machines — that you don’t get in the Workgroup edition. If you need to host more than 2 Hyper-V, 2 WSS Standard licenses can be stacked to allow 4 Hyper-V machines. 2 charts below will help see the features. there is a simple version and a more complete version of the chart