Buying a Windows Server License

I'm possibly interested in buying a license for Windows Server 2012/16 Standard Edition. How can I do that?

I've searched around on the net. The Microsoft Store is out of stock of the only version they offer. After an hour and half on the phone with Microsoft they weren't able to get close to offering a license for sale. Apparently, you can't simply purchase a license online and download an installation image. I've noticed a few OEM licenses for sale from 3rd party resellers I am not comfortable with and I prefer a full retail version anyway.

So how do you buy a license from a reputable organization?

Thanks.

Server 2016 is not yet for sale. You can, however, buy Server 2012 and 2012R2 from various resellers, although most "official" resellers are likely out of stock since MS is in the middle of transitioning from 2012 to 2016.

Here's some resellers that sell through Amazon:

https://www.amazon.com/gp/offer-list...&condition=new

Most people don't buy Windows Server at retail, they tend to buy it through volume licensing, which you can still get.

Mystere said:

Here's some resellers that sell through Amazon:

https://www.amazon.com/gp/offer-list...&condition=new

If you get the server standard do you have to buy this license as well?

Amazon.com: Microsoft Windows Server 2012 OEM - CAL (1 User): Software

Like the OP I was looking into pricing and couldn't figure it out. I was considering server to run VMs (because of dedup). I'm running Server 2016 TP5 at the moment and the saving from dedup are excellent. It seems it might be cheaper to spend the money on disk though.

The licensing has changed quite a bit over the last few editions. And it often depends on what your usage is.

For instance, you do not typically need a CAL for public facing web sites, unless you're using Windows Authentication, but things get more complex as you add other services like SQL. There's a good FAQ on this:

Licensing How To: When do I need a Client Access License (CAL)? Microsoft Volume Licensing Blog

In general, this is one of the great things about Volume licensing (even small volume customers can get volume licensing), MS has licensing customer service folk to talk to about your situation.

Thank you for your replies. I'm a little bit confused (nothing unusual there!) but hopefully it becomes a bit clearer soon.

Is there an OEM vs Retail situation with this, do you know?

Thanks.