Merge pull request #271886 from rpsqrd/esu-devtest-clarification

Added explicit info on dev/test scenarios for ESU licenses

Author: prmerger-automator[bot]

articles/azure-arc/servers/deliver-extended-security-updates.md

@@ -93,11 +93,11 @@ Azure policies can be specified to a targeted subscription or resource group for
 
 ## Additional scenarios
 
-There are some scenarios in which you may be eligible to receive Extended Security Updates patches at no additional cost. Two of these scenarios supported by Azure Arc are (1) [Dev/Test (Visual Studio)](/azure/devtest/offer/overview-what-is-devtest-offer-visual-studio) and (2) [Disaster Recovery (Entitled benefit DR instances from Software Assurance](https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/licensing/licensing-programs/software-assurance-by-benefits) or subscription only). Both of these scenarios require the customer is already using Windows Server 2012/R2 ESUs enabled by Azure Arc for billable, production machines.
+There are some scenarios in which you may be eligible to receive Extended Security Updates patches at no additional cost. Two of these scenarios supported by Azure Arc are (1) [Dev/Test (Visual Studio)](license-extended-security-updates.md#visual-studio-subscription-benefit-for-devtest-scenarios) and (2) [Disaster Recovery (Entitled benefit DR instances from Software Assurance](https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/licensing/licensing-programs/software-assurance-by-benefits) or subscription only. Both of these scenarios require the customer is already using Windows Server 2012/R2 ESUs enabled by Azure Arc for billable, production machines.
 
 > [!WARNING]
 > Don't create a Windows Server 2012/R2 ESU License for only Dev/Test or Disaster Recovery workloads. You shouldn't provision an ESU License only for non-billable workloads. Moreover, you'll be billed fully for all of the cores provisioned with an ESU license, and any dev/test cores on the license won't be billed as long as they're tagged accordingly based on the following qualifications.
-> 
+
 To qualify for these scenarios, you must already have:
 
 - **Billable ESU License.** You must already have provisioned and activated a WS2012 Arc ESU License intended to be linked to regular Azure Arc-enabled servers running in production environments (i.e., normally billed ESU scenarios). This license should be provisioned only for billable cores, not cores that are eligible for free Extended Security Updates, for example, dev/test cores.
@@ -122,14 +122,13 @@ This linking won't trigger a compliance violation or enforcement block, allowing
 > Adding these tags to your license will NOT make the license free or reduce the number of license cores that are chargeable. These tags allow you to link your Azure machines to existing licenses that are already configured with payable cores without needing to create any new licenses or add additional cores to your free machines.
 
 **Example:**
-- You have 8 Windows Server 2012 R2 Standard instances, each with 8 physical cores. Six of these Windows Server 2012 R2 Standard machines are for production, and 2 of these Windows Server 2012 R2 Standard machines are eligible for free ESUs through the Visual Studio Dev Test subscription.
+- You have 8 Windows Server 2012 R2 Standard instances, each with 8 physical cores. Six of these Windows Server 2012 R2 Standard machines are for production, and 2 of these Windows Server 2012 R2 Standard machines are eligible for free ESUs because the operating system was licensed through a Visual Studio Dev Test subscription.
     - You should first provision and activate a regular ESU License for Windows Server 2012/R2 that's Standard edition and has 48 physical cores to cover the 6 production machines. You should link this regular, production ESU license to your 6 production servers.
     - Next, you should reuse this existing license, don't add any more cores or provision a separate license, and link this license to your 2 non-production Windows Server 2012 R2 standard machines. You should tag the ESU license and the 2 non-production Windows Server 2012 R2 Standard machines with Name: "ESU Usage" and Value: "WS2012 VISUAL STUDIO DEV TEST".
     - This will result in an ESU license for 48 cores, and you'll be billed for those 48 cores. You won't be charged for the additional 16 cores of the dev test servers that you added to this license, as long as the ESU license and the dev test server resources are tagged appropriately.
 
 > [!NOTE]
-> You needed a regular production license to start with, and you'll be billed only for the production cores.  
-> 
+> You needed a regular production license to start with, and you'll be billed only for the production cores.
 
 ## Upgrading from Windows Server 2012/2012 R2
 

articles/azure-arc/servers/license-extended-security-updates.md

@@ -14,7 +14,7 @@ When provisioning WS2012 ESU licenses, you need to specify:
 * Either virtual core or physical core license
 * Standard or Datacenter license
 
-You'll also need to attest to the number of associated cores (broken down by the number of 2-core and 16-core packs).
+You also need to attest to the number of associated cores (broken down by the number of 2-core and 16-core packs).
 
 To assist with the license provisioning process, this article provides general guidance and sample customer scenarios for planning your deployment of WS2012 ESUs through Azure Arc.
 
@@ -32,18 +32,24 @@ If you choose to license based on virtual cores, the licensing requires a minimu
 
 1. The Windows Server operating system was licensed on a virtualization basis.
 
-An additional scenario (scenario 1, below) is a candidate for VM/Virtual core licensing when the WS2012 VMs are running on a newer Windows Server host (that is, Windows Server 2016 or later).
+Another scenario (scenario 1, below) is a candidate for VM/Virtual core licensing when the WS2012 VMs are running on a newer Windows Server host (that is, Windows Server 2016 or later).
 
 > [!IMPORTANT]
 > Virtual core licensing can't be used on physical servers. When creating a license with virtual cores, always select the standard edition instead of datacenter, even if the operating system is datacenter edition.
 
 ### License limits
 
-Each WS2012 ESU license can cover up to and including 10,000 cores. If you need ESUs for more than 10,000 cores, split the total number of cores across multiple licenses. Additionally, only 800 licenses can be created in a single resource group. Use additional resource groups if you need to create more than 800 license resources.
+Each WS2012 ESU license can cover up to and including 10,000 cores. If you need ESUs for more than 10,000 cores, split the total number of cores across multiple licenses. Additionally, only 800 licenses can be created in a single resource group. Use more resource groups if you need to create more than 800 license resources.
 
 ### SA/SPLA conformance
 
-In all cases, you're required to attest to conformance with SA or SPLA. There is no exception for these requirements. Software Assurance or an equivalent Server Subscription is required for you to purchase Extended Security Updates on-premises and in hosted environments. You will be able to purchase Extended Security Updates from Enterprise Agreement (EA), Enterprise Subscription Agreement (EAS), a Server & Cloud Enrollment (SCE), and Enrollment for Education Solutions (EES). On Azure, you do not need Software Assurance to get free Extended Security Updates, but Software Assurance or Server Subscription is required to take advantage of the Azure Hybrid Benefit.
+In all cases, you're required to attest to conformance with SA or SPLA. There is no exception for these requirements. Software Assurance or an equivalent Server Subscription is required for you to purchase Extended Security Updates on-premises and in hosted environments. You are able to purchase Extended Security Updates from Enterprise Agreement (EA), Enterprise Subscription Agreement (EAS), a Server & Cloud Enrollment (SCE), and Enrollment for Education Solutions (EES). On Azure, you do not need Software Assurance to get free Extended Security Updates, but Software Assurance or Server Subscription is required to take advantage of the Azure Hybrid Benefit.
+
+### Visual Studio subscription benefit for dev/test scenarios
+
+Visual Studio subscriptions [allow developers to get product keys](/visualstudio/subscriptions/product-keys) for Windows Server at no extra cost to help them develop and test their software. If a Windows Server 2012 server's operating system is licensed through a product key obtained from a Visual Studio subscription, you can also get extended security updates for these servers at no extra cost. To configure ESU licenses for these servers using Azure Arc, you must have at least one server with paid ESU usage. You can't create an ESU license where all associated servers are entitled to the Visual Studio subscription benefit. See [additional scenarios](deliver-extended-security-updates.md#additional-scenarios) in the deployment article for more information on how to provision an ESU license correctly for this scenario.
+
+Development, test, and other non-production servers that have a paid operating system license (from your organization's volume licensing key, for example) **must** use a paid ESU license. The only dev/test servers entitled to ESU licenses at no extra cost are those whose operating system licenses came from a Visual Studio subscription.
 
 ## Cost savings with migration and modernization of workloads