Server 2012 R2 datacenter. I have a key from dreamspark and that key activated server 2012 r2 DC. So far, i have 1 hyper-V running on that server. I want to know how i activate the hyper-V guest server 2012 r2 DC? I also read that if DC has 2 procs, you have to "assign" 2 different keys. How do i do this?
Can i "test" if it works with dreamspark without them "seeing" too much? How would i assign multiple keys if using someother activation method?
Yes, you can because AVMA is completely offline activation method. Just activate the host os with the DreamSpark key & apply appropriate AVMA keys in the Hyper-V VMs.
The AVMA keys work only with 2012 R2. Therefore you need a 2012 R2 DC as host and 2012 R2 Essential/Standard/Datacenter as VM-Client. Windows Server 2012 (non R2) is not supported
Thats what i thought (although i did get a newer beefy server and installed 2012 r2). So as i understand ms licensing, with a licensed 2012 DC physical server you get 2 "free" VM's. What do you have to do to accomplish this?
A properly licensed Datacenter edition in theory legally entitles you to an unlimited number of licensed VMs on that physical host. Prior to 2012 R2 however, activating those VMs in practice was indeed a problem, if you weren't a volume license customer. It's particularly an issue with Dreamspark keys, since you get no support from MS. It is a silly situation where your legal rights are more than what the technology practically allows. This is solved by the AVMA keys in R2. Note that Standard edition entitles you to 2 VMs, Datacenter entitles you to unlimited VMs.
This is what i am confused on So the MS technet article says DC (the 2012 we are talking about is NOT R2) needs 2 keys for dual procs. So how do you enter 2 keys in DC? If this is done, will the VM just "notice" that you are properly licensed and therefore activate or do you have to activate that VM? EDIT So, i have read so many articles about licensing, it appears i may have read this part wrong. I found an article that says 1 DC license covers up to 2 procs.... my mistake. But my question remains, how do you license the VM's? I guess you just have to have a key for every VM? /EDIT
Can you post a link to the article that you are referring to? Perhaps it would help explain the confusion. You don't assign 2 different product keys.
Some month ago I bought an older 2008R2 Enterprise retail license and got two different keys with it. One for the host and another one for the virtual machines running on it. On the other hand my TechNet account doesn't offer these VM-Keys, but the keys I got there was good for multiple activations. This has changed with Windows Server 2012. Since WS 2012 there are only some retail keys in the accounts and no one knows how to license the virtual machines on 2012 (Standard/DataCenter) / 2012R2 (Standard) properly.
I honostly think it isn't that hard. It get's a little weird when you're running servers that have more than two CPU's. And please correct me if I'm wrong, but I'm sure that the people who run servers with more than two CPU's can count on advise from their license provider. right?
Something is wrong either they are MAK's with just one count or retail. MAK and KMS both belong to VL. Correct me if I am confused.