Windows 2008 server and CALs

[rasczak]

I'm trying to get my numbers right for a project I'm working on.

25 servers
240 clients

per this link

http://www.microsoft.com/windowsserver2008/en/us/pricing.aspx

25 server licenses [25 * $1029 = $25725]
240 clients [12 * $799 = $9588]
*12 represents the amount of CAL packs I would need to buy

The question is did I buy too many CAL packs? given that each server has five licenses each, I would automatically be given 125 CALs correct? so then I would need to modify my purchse of CAL packs to 6 CAL packs instead?
or
6 * $799 = $4794

Would this be a true reflection of how many CALs to purchase?

Thanks!

 

[imagoon]

A CAL is a CAL (assuming all 2008 per your topic.) If the server has 5 included and you buy 25 licenses you have 125 to start. Only buy what you need from that point. Also looking at your prices, I can tell you haven't run this buy MS and tried to get a vendor agreement. 2008 std for me is sub $700 and each CAL is sub $20.... it is worth the time to talk with them.

 

[rasczak]

Yea, I haven't talked to anybody yet about pricing. I've only looked at their site to get an approximate gauge on pricing. Which vendor do you use?

 

[imagoon]

Yea, I haven't talked to anybody yet about pricing. I've only looked at their site to get an approximate gauge on pricing. Which vendor do you use?

Insight

I am not sure about your future paths but it helps to know if that is 25 distinct servers vs 25 virtual machines etc. MS licensing get pretty complex but there is the potential for some nice savings if you are running VMs. You can license per physical host. Windows 2008R2 datacenter is per CPU socket and covers an unlimited number of VM installs on that host, while 2008R2 Enterprise gives you 4 at a time not paying attention to the CPU count.

To give you an idea, 2 x Datacenter (1cpu socket) licenses covers 15 VM's I have running at the moment on 2 hosts at this location etc.

 

[rasczak]

I'll be deploying 25 physical servers across seven sites.