Our discussions with Microsoft and its license resellers have shown that the following is accepted:
If you set processor affinity to match the number of cores you have licensed, then you can validly license fewer cores than are available to Windows. This applies to both physical and virtual instances of Windows.
The licensing must cover all cores that you are using. If you have a 32-core box and you use affinity to set 8 cores for IO usage and a different 8 for CPU workload that is 16 cores you must have a license for.
Original author: https://github.com/SQL-FineBuild/Common/wiki/ 1-click install and best practice configuration of SQL Server 2019, 2017 2016, 2014, 2012, 2008 R2, 2008 and 2005.
When I give food to the poor they call me a saint. When I ask why they are poor they call me a communist - Archbishop Hélder Câmara