We're medium sized engineering business and would like to properly license the use of Windows (XP, 7 and 10) virtual machines. We will be using VMWare Workstation for our staff and they will need access to a pool of about 20 different VMs. The idea is that a staff member will copy the VM they need off our file server and then run it locally on their laptop. The VMs are essential for us as they will help us connect to specialized and sometimes very outdated equipment that is on-site with our customers.
We already learnt that if our laptop is running Windows 10 Enterprise it can run up to 4 VMs simultaneously and still be fully licenced under the Microsoft terms of use. We will begin upgrading our laptops from Windows 10 Professional to Enterprise to cater for this.
One area of concern is how the VMs running on these laptops are activated, as in, the Windows-activation that normally happens when you first install the operating system. Activation is also required when the VM is copied to a laptop and started for the first time (it generates new hardware addresses and changes other settings, enough to trigger de-activation).
How will these copied VMs get activated? Do we need a KMS server to locally distribute product keys for this? We will be using more than 25 VMs at any one time (about 3 or 4 VMs on a laptop and there's about 20 staff) so the latter is something we can consider.
Anyone any experience with this?
