SYSTEM CENTER IMPLEMENTATION & LICENSING Guide

Hi narayandas4one​.
based on the environment you shared, here’s how System Center licensing is typically calculated. (As always, final confirmation should be done against Microsoft Product Terms and your reseller/LSP, but the logic below is the standard model.)

1) What counts for System Center licensing

System Center is licensed for the endpoints being managed:

• Server Management Licenses (Server MLs) for servers running server OS OSEs (physical hosts and/or VMs).
• Client Management Licenses (Client MLs / CMLs) for devices running non-server OS (Windows 10/11 endpoints). https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/licensing/product-licensing/system-center

Also, Server MLs (Standard or Datacenter) include the full System Center “suite” components (ConfigMgr, DPM, SCOM, VMM, Service Manager, Orchestrator) and they aren’t sold separately. https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/licensing/product-licensing/system-center

2) Server ML sizing for your 30 physical servers

System Center server management is core-based:

• License all physical cores on each managed server
• Minimum 8 cores per CPU and 16 cores per server https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/licensing/product-licensing/system-center

Your case (assuming each of the 30 physical servers is 32 cores):

• Total physical cores = 30 × 32 = 960 cores

Now choose edition based on virtualization rights:

Option A: System Center Datacenter (best for highly virtualized hosts)

• Once all cores are licensed, you can manage unlimited OSEs/VMs on that host
• Required core coverage: 960 cores total (30 × 32)

Option B: System Center Standard (best for lightly virtualized hosts)

• A fully-licensed server can manage 2 OSEs/VMs; for more VMs you “stack” licenses (re-license the same cores again) 
• You reported ~4 VMs per host, so you typically need 2× Standard coverage per host:
• Per host: 32 cores × 2 = 64 core licenses worth
• Total: 30 × 64 = 1,920 cores worth of Standard licensing

In short: with ~4 VMs per host, you’re roughly comparing 960 cores (Datacenter) vs 1,920 cores (Standard stacked), and you pick based on commercial convenience/cost.

(Optional note: Microsoft also documents “licensing by virtual machine” scenarios for management, but eligibility/requirements depend on your agreement and Software Assurance/subscription context, so most customers keep it simple with the physical-core model.) https://www.microsoft.com/licensing/guidance/Core-based-licensing-models

3) Client ML (CML) sizing for your 10,000 Windows 11 devices

If you plan to manage Windows 11 endpoints with System Center (typically Configuration Manager), you need Client Management Licenses. Microsoft provides three Client ML types:

• Per User ML
• Per OSE ML
• Device ML (via Core CAL Suite or Enterprise CAL Suite) 

With the data provided (device count only), the straightforward answer is:

• 10,000 Client MLs if licensing per device/OSE
  OR
• # of users if licensing per user (not enough info to calculate from your message)

Important: if your organization already owns Microsoft Intune–included licensing, Microsoft states that most licenses that include Intune also grant rights to use Microsoft Configuration Manager (while the subscription is active). That can materially change whether you need to buy separate ConfigMgr Client MLs, so it’s worth checking your current M365/EMS/Intune entitlements. https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/intune/intune-service/fundamentals/licenses

4) Management servers (MECM / DPM / SCVMM)

You generally don’t buy extra “System Center suite server licenses” just because you have 3 management servers. The Server MLs include rights related to the management server components as part of the suite.

(Separate topic: you still need to license the underlying Windows Server OS and any SQL Server usage beyond what’s permitted as runtime/supporting rights, based on your architecture.)