OS license on VM

[erryl_alv]

Hi,

I am preparing for Az-900 and on this page: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/learn/modules/describe-azure-compute-networking-services/2-virtual-...

...it is written that " If a primary datacenter fails, you can create VMs running on Azure to run your critical applications and then shut them down when the primary datacenter becomes operational again".

I was wondering if in such scenarios, I would be required to purchase OS and application licenses specially for the Disaster Recovery VM? I might never have to actually use that VM. What a massive additional cost overhead it would be to have to purchase those licenses.

[#2]

Licensing in the cloud is not the same as licensing on-premises where you purchase OS licenses on say a 3-year agreement

Yes, you can bring your on-premises licenses to the cloud with hybrid benefit https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/blog/save-big-by-using-your-onpremises-licenses-on-azure/ but you can also include the OS license with your Azure VM and pay for the OS and VM based on what you consume. When a VM is stopped and deallocated then you do not pay.

So, disaster recovery VMs will not incur OS or compute charges when not running
As for application licenses, then that will depend on the vendor agreement

In traditional DR scenarios you had to purchase the OS license even if not used; cloud is cheaper and many on-premises organizations use cloud as their DR facility

[#3]

Thank you for that reply @Julian Sharp 

How about Virtual machine Scale sets, is a separate OS license to be purchased for each VM in the scale set or is a single license used on all VM's in the scale set?

[#4 · Accepted solution]

You need to stop thinking with an on-premises purchase license mindset. Cloud licensing is different and you pay based on what you consume and the license cost is bundled in with the consumption

All pricing information is available online e.g., https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/pricing/details/virtual-machine-scale-sets/windows/#overview