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Windows 2022 Data Centre Downgrade rights to Windows 2019. Can I use Windows 2022 Standard for VMs?.

Peter Clarke 0 Reputation points
2023-09-11T09:50:55.99+00:00

Hello, we have a number of VMs we need to upgrade in the following months. I would prefer to use Windows 2022 Standard for the virtual machines that our hosted on our two Hyper Visor servers.

My situation is as follows:-

We are currently fully licensed for 2x Windows 2022 Data Centre licenses, my predecessor decided to build our 2x Hyper Visor servers with Windows 2019 Data Centre utilizing downgrade rights. The new Virtual Machines that I would like to build would preferably be built using Windows 2022 Standard.

I know you are allowed unlimited number of VMs with the data center license, question is being that I am fully licensed with 2x Windows 2022 Data Centre licenses, am i allowed to build the VMS in Windows 2022 Standard, or am I only allowed to use Windows 2019 Data Centre as the hosts are running 2019?. If i am allowed how do i activate the Windows 2022 standard servers?.

I have tried using slmgr /ipk YDFWN-MJ9JR-3DYRK-FXXRW-78VHK but this will not activate, my guess is because the hosts are on Windows 2019 data center?.

Can you please advise?

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  1. Anonymous
    2023-09-11T13:19:53.41+00:00

    The only possibility would be to stand up 2022 DataCenter VMs and use the 2022 DataCenter product key for activation. AVMA keys can only be used for <= the host OS when the host is DataCenter.

    --please don't forget to close up the thread here by marking answer if the reply is helpful--

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  2. Eric Siron 1,566 Reputation points MVP
    2023-09-12T18:56:16.9333333+00:00

    Purchasing 2022 Datacenter Edition should have provided Server Standard 2022 MAKs in your licensing portal. You can plug that into each 2022 Standard VM that you create. They typically give you more than enough slots on your MAK to handle any reasonable deployment but if you hit the limit, you can call the licensing center and they'll extend the cap. Alternatively, you can stand up a KMS environment on a server, physical or virtual, running WS2022 using the 2022 KMS key and enter the 2022 Standard KMS client key into each of those VMs. AVMA only works by technology level and has no idea of your actual entitlements.

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