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Hi all,
I had a physical SBS2011 essentials machine that was moved to a virtualised environment and needed activating due to detected hardware changes.
The online update did not work and I had to ring through the phone line. However the activation assistant does not accept the confirmation ID, stating the confirmation ID does not match.
The person on the phone said this happens when a device is moved to virtualised environment ,but since the product is based on the now obsolete 2008r2, they cannot provide support and recommended I post here.
My plan is to migrate to a newer version of windows but until this is done I would like to get this product activated.
Any assistance will be appreciated. I did ask on answers.microsoft.com, but I was recommended to post my question here.
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The simpler solution may be to stand up the new one, then migrate the roles over to it.
https://github.com/MicrosoftDocs/windowsserverdocs/blob/main/EssentialsDocs/migrate/Step-1--Prepare-your-Source-Server-for-Windows-Server-Essentials-migration.md
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Just checking if there's any progress or updates?
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Thank you for your suggestion but a migration is not something I can do immediately as we rely on 3rd party software which must be installed by the software providers.
It was due to be installed on the system being migrated to in 3-4 weeks and as a preparatory step I was migrating the (old) system from physical to virtual.
I havent tried a migration yet as it wouldnt solve the immediate issues. This is something that will be done, but at this stage I am looking if there is a way to activate the Windows licence on the virtualised machine.
Alternatively I will have to revert to putting the old physical machine back together, but i dont want to do that as the whole point was to decomission it due to age and slowness.
if there is a way to activate the Windows licence on the virtualised machine.
If a retail product key you can from an elevated cmd.exe
slmgr /ipk xxxxx-xxxxx-xxxxx-xxxxx-xxxxx
slmgr /ato
otherwise, if an OEM product, generally speaking OEM product keys die with the hardware.
--please don't forget to upvote and Accept as answer if the reply is helpful--
Just checking if there's any progress or updates?
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No progress yet.
I have tried the above, I get the error 80070005: access denied, need to be run from elevated priviledges even though I run as administrator.
I might just have to bite the bullet and keep the machine running like this for a few weeks until I have a date from the ISV for a migration of their software to the new system.
Ideally though i would have this activated so that the last backed up version was one that worked if we ever needed to turn it on again.
Hello
Thank you for your question and reaching out. I can understand you are having issues related to SBS Licensing.
I believe OEM is allowed on the licensing agreement, so long as the VM is running on the same hardware it was purchased for.
Try this Method : If the Original Host is still live and showing as Licensed -> Try to create VM with same version of OS and try to activate it.
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AFAIK its not an OEM version but a retail version.
The VM was created by cloning the physical machine. It wont activate and the microsoft activation line wasnt being helpful because the product is out of support.
I was explained however the confirmation ID not matching meant it was due to it being virtualised from an activated physical machine.
though i would have this activated
What happens when you try? From an elevated cmd.exe
slmgr /ipk xxxxx-xxxxx-xxxxx-xxxxx-xxxxx
slmgr /ato
I get an error 80070005: Access Denied, need elevated permissions error.
That is even though it is being done from administrator account with CMD run as administrator
Ok, sounds like the account used does not have permissions for this operation. Might try with another account the has administrative rights. Also note that P2V is a last resort option, so you could also try recreating the VHD
--please don't forget to upvote and Accept as answer if the reply is helpful--
Just checking if there's any progress or updates?
--please don't forget to upvote and Accept as answer if the reply is helpful--