Licencing with Hyper-V

Question

Licencing with Hyper-V

Damien 41

I hope someone can give me a quick pointer for this.

I currently have a requirement to run a service on an existing server and they are asking for admin rights etc, so my first thought was Hyper-V. The host that its running on is Windows Server 2012 R2 and for testing purposes I as hadnt used Hyper-V before, I created a quick VM running Server Std 2019, but then I am not sure about how to licence the VM. I have just read that a 2019 server licence comes with 2 free VM licences, but my question is, does this apply to 2012 as well? And should I be creating a 2012 VM instead of 2019.

Basically I got a quote for a 2019 licence and its VERY expensive, but then looking into it, I saw that it has 2 free VM licences. So I am confused now.

Cheers.

3 answers

Your answer

Answer 1

Anonymous

Some general info

Each host needs to be licensed.
A minimum of 8 core licenses is required for each physical processor and a minimum of 16 core licenses is required for each server.
Core licenses are sold in packs of two.
Standard Edition provides rights for up to 2 Operating System Environments or Windows Servers containers with Hyper-V isolation when all physical cores in the server are licensed. For each additional 1 or 2 VMs, all the physical cores in the server must be licensed again.
DataCenter Edition provides rights for unlimited Operating System Environments or Windows Servers containers with Hyper-V isolation when all physical cores in the server are licensed.
AVMA keys can be used only when the host is DataCenter edition
https://download.microsoft.com/download/7/C/E/7CED6910-C7B2-4196-8C55-208EE0B427E2/Windows_Server_2019_licensing_datasheet_EN_US.pdf

If you wanted to run a Server 2019 guest on a Server 2012 host then you'll need to come up with a valid Server 2019 product activation key for it.

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Damien 41 Reputation points

2021-09-29T07:36:23.557+00:00

So the best way is to just use a 2102 R2 VM then? I don't want spend the nearly £1000 for a 2019 licence just for one VM that is only going to be running one service.

The host server is fully licenced with 2012 R2 and it just an old app server, but I don't want to give an external company (who are going to be installing this app) full admin rights to this server which is what they want (no idea why) So Hyper-V is the way to go.
Anonymous

2021-09-29T12:39:19.167+00:00

Yes, that's correct, you can freely install two 2012 R2 virtual machine guests on your 2012 R2 host assuming no other roles / applications have been install on host.

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Damien 41 Reputation points

2021-09-30T11:17:55.397+00:00

The server I have installed Hyper-V onto is a 2012R2 Standard server, properly activated. Its a HP DL360 Gen9 server that was bought a few years ago for Windows 2012 R2 Standard

I setup a new 2012 R2 VM using the Eval download. I have done the following to it:

DISM.exe /Online /Get-TargetEditions (just to check I can upgrade to ServerStandard)
DISM /online /Set-Edition:ServerStandard /ProductKey:DBGBW-NPF86-BJVTX-K3WKJ-MTB6V (correct AVMA key for 2012 R2 Standard)

I then had to run

slmgr /ipk DBGBW-NPF86-BJVTX-K3WKJ-MTB6V

And it did say that it was installed successfully, but the VM still says its not activated.

If I run cscript slmgr.vbs /ato It does give display Error: 0xC004FD03 on a computer running Microsoft Windows non-core edition, run 'slui.exe 0x2a 0xC004FD03' to display error text, which does tell me that the host machine cant activate the edition of Windows on the virtual machine.

So I am using a properly licenced Server 2012 R2 Standard host, to run Hyper-V to run a Server 2012 R2 Standard server and I am at a loss of how to proceed.
Anonymous

2021-09-30T11:57:20.23+00:00

You cannot use an AVMA product key to activate a Standard server. Use the 2012 R2 product key that came with your host OS purchase. Then if you are using licensed installation media you can
slmgr /ipk xxxxx-xxxxx-xxxxx-xxxxx-xxxxx
slmgr /ato

otherwise if evaluation media were used you can covert to full (non-domain controller)
Dism /online /Set-Edition:ServerStandard /AcceptEula /ProductKey:xxxxx-xxxxx-xxxxx-xxxxx-xxxxx

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Anonymous

2021-10-01T13:45:58.46+00:00

Just checking if there's any progress or updates?

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Damien 41 Reputation points

2021-10-01T14:12:32.033+00:00

Hi there, I actually managed to find the original Product Key for 2012 R2 and now I have an activated host and a single VM!

YAY ME...

Thanks for the pointers though.
Anonymous

2021-10-01T14:14:59.113+00:00

Glad to hear,

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Anonymous

2021-10-06T13:08:40.697+00:00

Just checking if there's any progress or updates?

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Answer 2

Limitless Technology 39,926

Hello Derrick,

unfortunately this service (called AVMA) is only available from 2012R2 and later. There is a table of what you can activate with each host system (for example 2012R2 host, can only activate 2012R2 vms)

See: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-server/get-started/automatic-vm-activation

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Hope this helps with your query,
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Damien 41 Reputation points

2021-09-30T11:17:40.917+00:00

The server I have installed Hyper-V onto is a 2012R2 Standard server, properly activated. Its a HP DL360 Gen9 server that was bought a few years ago for Windows 2012 R2 Standard

I setup a new 2012 R2 VM using the Eval download. I have done the following to it:

DISM.exe /Online /Get-TargetEditions (just to check I can upgrade to ServerStandard)
DISM /online /Set-Edition:ServerStandard /ProductKey:DBGBW-NPF86-BJVTX-K3WKJ-MTB6V (correct AVMA key for 2012 R2 Standard)

I then had to run

slmgr /ipk DBGBW-NPF86-BJVTX-K3WKJ-MTB6V

And it did say that it was installed successfully, but the VM still says its not activated.

If I run cscript slmgr.vbs /ato It does give display Error: 0xC004FD03 on a computer running Microsoft Windows non-core edition, run 'slui.exe 0x2a 0xC004FD03' to display error text, which does tell me that the host machine cant activate the edition of Windows on the virtual machine.

So I am using a properly licenced Server 2012 R2 Standard host, to run Hyper-V to run a Server 2012 R2 Standard server and I am at a loss of how to proceed.

Answer 3

Damien 41

I have a feeling this wont work because the host server is only standard edition and not datacenter.

So basically there is no way I can get it to work.

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Licencing with Hyper-V

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