Hyper-V Licensing Question

Discussion in 'Windows Server' started by f0ster, Oct 18, 2014.

  1. sebus

    sebus MDL Guru

    Jul 23, 2008
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    ?????? Retail is a single physical machine key. If one has DC then has unlimited VMs on two processors, for which AVMA should be used.

    Installing same key on number of machines (physical or virtual) definitely breaks the licence!
     
  2. kelorgo

    kelorgo MDL Addicted

    Oct 29, 2012
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    You are missing two important points.
    1) AVMA is only available in 2012 R2, not in 2012, so there is no option to use it.
    2) Licensing and product key use are two related things, but are not identical. You do NOT necessarily break a license by using the same "retail" type key on several machines.

    Consider the following examples (ignoring issues with VMs for the moment, and focusing on physical machines):
    A) DreamSpark gives you the license (i.e. legal right) to use all the products on TWO physical machines, but (since 2012) you only get a single "retail" product key. It is therefore perfectly valid to use the same retail key on two physical machines and that does not break your license.
    B) OEM licenses of products typically give you downgrade rights, but you are not given any extra product keys for the previous products. For example, if a computer comes with Windows 8.1 Professional pre-installed, you have the licensed right to install Windows 7 on it instead, but you are not given a Windows 7 product keys. In such circumstances, the official(!) accepted Microsoft stance is that you can use whatever Windows 7 product key you are able to get hold of, from any source, even if it's been used on a different machine before.

    So as you see, the legalities of licensing and the practicalities of product keys are not always 100% the same thing. (In part this is caused by the fact that licensing details change often and rapidly, faster than the product key/activation technologies tend to change).

    In conclusion, it is my understanding that it is within your licensed legal right to use the same DreamSpark retail key on two physical machines, as well as in all VMs that you are licensed to run.
     
  3. Threat

    Threat Lord of the Files

    Feb 23, 2014
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    The license covers the VM's based on the edition (standard 1 or 2, or dc unlimited)

    The activation on retails knows it's a VM or physical so will allow the activation of the VM without blocking the key; obviously if you tried to activate a lot more VM's than your allowed to (on standard anyway) then it will block, but it does take into account if it's an install on a physical or a VM guest.

    I like to think of retail activation as 'fuzzy' counter.

    A MAK for example fixed and goes down every time.

    A retail has an invisible variable counter, which takes into account the time since the last activation (e.g. if a year since last one, assumes reinstall), if very recent then gets suspicious. It also takes into account the hardware hash. Different hash (i.e. hardware is more suspicious than identical). If a key gets blocked due to a few reinstalls, and they you wait long enough then before you try again then the online activation will work again. So it's more like a points system than a counter I guess.

    Not many people know this but there are in some cases more than one type of retail key ... retail shop bought can be identified vs. retail MSDN keys. This is how Microsoft catch MSDN keys been resold so easily. In some cases they make use of this for the end user benefit, Windows XP retail with retail MSDN key gave 60 days before activation was required instead of 30 - just bases on the retail key been from MSDN. So don't assume Windows Server 2012 'retail' keys cannot be detected during activation as MSDN source vs. true retail...
     
  4. sebus

    sebus MDL Guru

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    Ofcourse every key can be pinpoint exactly.

    Credit cards (Visa/MC) deal with millions of numbers with no major issues for years