Using personal licenses for Microsoft products

Yandex Cloud allows you to use your own Microsoft product licenses on dedicated hosts. The licensing relationship exists solely between you as a client and Microsoft as a license vendor. You are fully responsible for complying with the Microsoft license terms and conditions.

When using Microsoft license products in Yandex Cloud, the cost of license is deducted from the cost of VM usage. You need to settle all license-related matters with your supplier.

What licenses can I useWhat licenses can I use

The possibility of using a license in Yandex Cloud depends on the license terms and conditions of a given Microsoft product. BYOL (Bring Your Own License) is possible if the license was purchased under one of the following agreements:

• Microsoft Enterprise Agreement (EA) or Microsoft Enterprise Subscription Agreement.
• Microsoft Server and Cloud Enrollment (SCE) Agreement.
• Microsoft Enterprise Subscription Agreement (EAS).
• Microsoft Products and Services Agreement (MPSA).
• Microsoft Open, Open Value, and Open Value Subscription.
• Microsoft Enrollment for Education Solutions (EES).

Note that the list of licenses may change and not be exhaustive. Make sure to contact Microsoft for the up-to-date list of license programs suitable for BYOL in cloud environments.

How do I transfer licensesHow do I transfer licenses

1. Import the necessary image.
2. Create a group of dedicated hosts.
3. Create a virtual machine on the dedicated host from the imported image.
4. Make sure the VM is up and running and activate your license.

Import the necessary imageImport the necessary image

You can import the image using the Compute Cloud REST API.

1. Execute the following query:

   Bash

   PowerShell

   curl -H "Authorization: Bearer `yc iam create-token`" -H  "accept: application/json" -X POST https://compute.api.cloud.yandex.net/compute/v1/images -d '{"folderId": "<ID of your folder>", "name": "<image name>", "description": "<image description>", "os": {"type": "WINDOWS"}, "pooled": false, "uri": "<link to image in Object Storage>"}'
   

   function Create-YCImage {
     param(
       [ValidateNotNullOrEmpty()]
       [string]$folderId = "",
   
       [ValidateNotNullOrEmpty()]
       [string]$name = "",
   
       [string]$description = "",
   
       [ValidateNotNullOrEmpty()]
       [string]$os_type = "WINDOWS",
   
       [int64]$minDiskSizeGb = 50GB,
   
       [ValidateNotNullOrEmpty()]
       [string]$uri = ""
     )
   
     $body = @"
   {
     "folderId": "$folderId",
     "name": "$name",
     "description": "$description",
     "os.type": "$os_type",
     "minDiskSize": "$minDiskSizeGb",
     "os": {
       "type": "$os_type"
     },
     "uri": "$uri"
   }
   "@
   
     Invoke-WebRequest `
       -Method POST `
       -URI https://compute.api.cloud.yandex.net/compute/v1/images `
       -header @{ "Authorization" = "Bearer $(& yc iam create-token)" } `
       -ContentType 'Application/json' `
       -body $body
   }
   
   
   $folderId = "<ID of your folder>"
   
   Create-YCImage `
     -folderId $folderId `
     -name "<image name>" `
     -uri "<link to image in Object Storage>"
   
   

2. Open the management console and select the folder whose ID you specified in the folderId parameter in the first step.

3. Go to Compute Cloud and choose the Images tab.

4. Find the image you are importing; it will have the Creating status. Wait until its status changes from Creating to Ready.

Create a group of dedicated hostsCreate a group of dedicated hosts

You can use your own licenses only on VMs created on dedicated hosts. Contact your account manager for a quota for a dedicated host group. Note that the minimum number of vCPU cores on dedicated hosts is 128, and they are all paid.

Follow the guide to create a group of dedicated hosts.

Create a VM from your image on the dedicated hostCreate a VM from your image on the dedicated host

On the dedicated host, create a VM with the boot disk from the imported image. Specify the ID of the dedicated host in the --host-id parameter. You can only create a VM using the CLI, API, or Terraform. Run this command:

yc compute instance create \
--host-id <dedicated host ID> \
--name 'win-test' \
--folder-id <folder ID> \
--cores <number of vCPUs> \
--core-fraction 100 \
--memory <amount of RAM in GB> \
--network-interface subnet-id=<subnet ID>,nat-ip-version=ipv4 \
--create-boot-disk image-id=<ID of imported image> \
--zone <availability zone> \

Reset the admin passwordReset the admin password

To access the VM, reset the default administrator password and generate a new one.

Test the VMTest the VM

Connect to the created VM using RDP with the password generated after you reset the default one.

After that, you can activate your license.