What Windows license is needed to run in a virtual machine?

Question

Windows

Good day!
I have a VM on Ubuntu, I have a Docker image with Windows 10 inside. It is assumed that up to 4 containers will be launched at the same time. I understand that a regular license is not suitable for this? What kind of license do I need in this case. I read on the Microsoft website about this - it turns out that Windows Server Standard seems to be suitable, but there are a lot of all sorts of nuances.

Answer 1

Microsoft's convoluted licensing system is so complicated that it takes a special person who goes to special courses and passes the relevant exams so that he can explain to you what and how.
At the same time, prices in this area, often on request, I mean when you want to optimize something somewhere, you have to pull out information with ticks, or eat what they give, i.e. not optimal for you, or the first one that comes across.
The smallest version (in terms of licenses and price) that can run inside a virtual machine is win10 pro, and yes, the oem versions won't work for you. There is also a licensing form when you rent a license for a month(it seems to be available only with enterprise versions, there are also a lot of varieties) and there is also software assurance, which, as an additional package, allows you to license from user workstations and not devices (if I understand correctly, the sea of ​​​​diarrhea that is written on the official website).
Starting from a certain number of workstations / users (you still need to figure out which is which), with or without virtualization, server versions may be more profitable when licensed for the number of processor cores (any number of users).
And there are / were various programs to help small businesses (from some kind of turnover or income per year, I didn’t specify much) when for a relatively small rent you are given access to a huge package of products almost without restrictions, including the necessary versions of windows. .but for a limited period (five years it seems), i.e. to thoroughly hooked on the needle, but then milk it to the fullest.
ps without virtualization, for small offices, it may turn out to be the most profitable option win 10 home + the minimum number of processor units to which several workstations are connected at the same time (monitor + keyboard + mouse), based on ibik aster, judging by the fact that the company still exists, they somehow settled disputes with licensing (on the forum they had epic quotes from a conversation with a Microsoft representative, according to which it followed that you couldn’t even play hotsit together on home versions)