Proper Linux / Windows client segregation for licensing

[hexblot]

Hello,
we are trying to find the best way to remain compliant with MS licensing for our proxmox cluster(s).

We currently have a 8 node Proxmox PVE cluster, that hosts both Linux and Windows Server loads. We have licensed 2 nodes with datacenter edition licenses to cover their full core count, and have the appropriate resource group / ha group that only spans those two servers; however our licensing partner insists that in case of an audit, this does not remove the technical feasibility of running windows server on other hosts (since we can clone the templates we have on a different host / live migrate away).

Our initial thought was to split into two clusters, with separate storages so that
- one is a two node cluster (with a virtual 3rd node for quorum) that are covered by the windows licensing, and limit windows ISOs / templates / etc there
- the rest in a cluster for normal Linux use

But are wondering if people with some experience in the matter have better means to prove fencing as it relates to windows licensing without going through that (or even with that -- there is no technical measure to prevent us spinning up windows on the linux cluster ).

thank you in advance for any input!

 

[LnxBil]

I'm no licensing expert and I don't know about Microsoft, but other software vendors are also very picky about such setups, e.g. Oracle. For VMware they also consider the machines where the VM could migrate to, so that everything in your company running VMware with a high enough version has to be licensed. Hard partitioning is only allowed if you run everything on the Oracle stack ... or on real hardware. The latter is often magnitudes cheaper, so people go with this.

Seperating a "windows cluster" sounds like a good idea, yet I don't know if that flies as long as you can also clone and even live migrate from one cluster to another in PVE.

 

[SteveITS]

@hexblot This thread may be useful.

re: installing Windows on the Linux cluster, yes you can, but you could also install Windows on any other computer in the world.

 

[ness1602]

With licensing it's hard. Either have every node fully licensed,or split into smaller clusters,even one-node clusters,set up replication(depending on RTO/RPO) and work with that.