[Windows Software] Which serial number for deploying unlimited Windows Server VM on Datacenter 2008 ?

[albertwt]

Hi Guys,

I've got a server from Dell with Windows Server 2008 Datacenter edition sticker on it and I'd like to deploy many Windows Server 2003-2008 VM on it, according to this article:

https://www.microsoft.com/windowsserver2008/en/us/licensing-faq.aspx#virt

we can deploy unlimited VM of any server OS version, but the question is, which serial number to use ?

in the COA there is a 2 types of key, one is physical and the other is virtual, and i don't think that the virtual key is compatible with the Windows Server 2003.

Any kind of help would be appreciated.

Thanks.
AWT

[ZeroHour]

Hi Guys,

I've got a server from Dell with Windows Server 2008 Datacenter edition sticker on it and I'd like to deploy many Windows Server 2003-2008 VM on it, according to this article:

https://www.microsoft.com/windowsserver2008/en/us/licensing-faq.aspx#virt

we can deploy unlimited VM of any server OS version, but the question is, which serial number to use ?

in the COA there is a 2 types of key, one is physical and the other is virtual, and i don't think that the virtual key is compatible with the Windows Server 2003.

Any kind of help would be appreciated.

Thanks.
AWT

Firstly, 2003 does not have activation so any 2003 serial you have will be fine. I am not sure which serial you should use but I would setup a KMS server to do the activation, that way they never activate with Microsoft and they just work as thats what we did.

Cheers

[albertwt]

thanks for the suggestion to setup KMS man, so in this case we can reuse any server OS serial number as long as there is Datacenter 2008 license on the host to cover it up ?

[ZeroHour]

I *think* if you use the same license (for 2008) key as hardware OS has for datacenter it may allow activation.
If you setup KMS on the host then you would use a KMS client key (tells windows to look for kms and activate with it)
For settings up KMS you need a KMS master key (ring c) which is activate online by the kms host and that allows it to activate any clients with a KMS client key entered.
You get 30 days grace period to activate when you use a KMS client key.