Will swapping from a trial sharepoint server 2016 license to a permanent license cause an issue ?

Question

We are installing Sharepoint 2016 on premise for a customer (single server farm with a separate database server).

We dont have the sharepoint product key yet - so have done the install with the trial (180 days?) product key available from microsoft learn. A sharepoint server (2016) license is being ordered, which will presumably provide us with a product key.

I understand that we can swap from the trial product key to a permanent product key later ( via central admin , upgrade).

Are there any known issues in doing the install using a trail license key and swapping to a permanent one later ?

As i understand it, there are two versions (of sharepoint 2016 server) - Standard and Enterprise. As i understand it we will be using standard.

The sql server install is licensed and wont be changing.

Thanks.

Answer 1

Hi @Greg Booth ，

You can change your license only in the following two situations:

• You have SharePoint Server with standard client access license. Now, you want to use the enterprise features for which you have to convert your license type from standard to enterprise.
• You use SharePoint 2016 trial product key (valid for 180 days), which is going to expire and you may want to upgrade it to your regular key.

Your situation belongs to the second type, which is a normal update process, and generally there will be no problems. Please don't worry, if there is a problem in the process, you can contact us at any time, we will solve it for you.

When you have a new license, you can change the license type via SharePoint 2016 Central Administration -> Upgrade and Migration -> Convert License Type.

---

If the answer is helpful, please click "Accept Answer" and kindly upvote it. If you have extra questions about this answer, please click "Comment".

Note: Please follow the steps in our documentation to enable e-mail notifications if you want to receive the related email notification for this thread.

Answer 2

Hello @Xyza Xue_MSFT ,

I have a partner with a similar problem:

Customer has a SharePoint 2013 installed and wanted to migrate from there. They user a Trial from SharePoint and now they want to activate it with a Key. The Key they bought was a Perpetual LIcense via CSP Program. SharePOint Server with Standard CAL and Enterprise CAL.

They got the error message: This Product Key cannot be used to convert from SharePoint Server with Access to Enterprise Client to SharePoint Server with Access to Enterprise Client.

We have no idea why it does not work MS Support says they cannot help, they shloud ask their Disti. I am the Disti and license wise it should be okay, but they do not even get an Enterprise Key. What could we do?