Windows activation

Question

I'm trying to understand how to activate Windows, with particular reference to VMs published as VD in Remote Desktop Services but also to Windows in general.
I found various references to MAK, KMS, Active Directory-Based Activation, Automatic Virtual Machine Activation, but I can't find an organic explanation that summarizes all the available solutions, if possible with the advantages of each.
Where can I find an overall description?
Regards

Answer 1

For VDI read on here
https://download.microsoft.com/download/3/D/4/3D42BDC2-6725-4B29-B75A-A5B04179958B/Licensing_brief_PLT_Windows_10_licensing_for_Virtual_Desktops.pdf

For windows server 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.
  https://download.microsoft.com/download/7/C/E/7CED6910-C7B2-4196-8C55-208EE0B427E2/Windows_Server_2019_licensing_datasheet_EN_US.pdf

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Answer 2

MAK are just multiple activation product keys like retail products generally are MAK
KMS is key management service for volume activation
AVMA is used for virtual machine activation when the host is DataCenter
ADBA https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/deployment/volume-activation/active-directory-based-activation-overview

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Answer 3

Many thanks fir the very useful documents.
Is there any documentation about MAK, KMS, Active Directory-Based Activation, Automatic Virtual Machine Activation, ... and, mainly, the scenery to use each solution?
Regards

Answer 4

I think I finally found the document I was looking for, and I hope it can be useful for other people with the same question.
The document is on page https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/deployment/volume-activation/plan-for-volume-activation-client and (not secondary) it's available in other local languages like Italian (see page: https://learn.microsoft.com/it-it/windows/deployment/volume-activation/plan-for-volume-activation-client ).
Many thanks, again.