Virtual Machine Licensing

[time]

Does anyone have any practical licensing tricks for someone without a current MSDN subscription?

That is, how do you create multiple VMs without incurring the wrath of the licensing gods?

Notice I didn't say use "VM" in the title because you can't search on a 2-character word.

 

[ddrueding]

If you mean for duplicating a configured VM and then changing the key to another you have, 2008 and 7 will let you do that in the "Computer Properties" screen after the clone. If you are too lazy to do that, just keep activating with the same key until they refuse activation. At that point you have two options

a) start calling them every time to get override codes
b) change the key once and start cloning that one until they refuse activation

If they are for testing, you have 30-90 days to play with stuff before you have to put in a key at all, longer if you use the many cheats that can be found online to prolong activation.

If I completely missed your point, it's because I'm exhausted, and I'll answer in the morning.

 

[Chewy509]

IIRC,
Windows 2008 R2 Std - 1 physical and 1 Virtual instance
Windows 2008 R2 Ent - 1 physical and 5 Virtual instance
Windows 2008 R2 DC - 1 physical and unlimited VMs.
The catch, AFAIK you need to run Hyper-V to allow access to the virtual licenses. (which I'm unsure if the Hyper-V license counts at the physical license).

Note, that applies to Win 2008 R2 only, not plain Windows 2008.

http://download.microsoft.com/downl...e035c/win server lic book customer hi-res.pdf

 

[time]

What about Windows 7 (Professional or Ultimate)?

I used the word "tricks" deliberately, in that I'm wondering if there's any way to minimize the number of licenses required when hosted on the same physical device, eg sequence of activations etc.

Ddrueding: Unfortunately, I want the VMs to exist long-term. Note that I'm not seeking concurrency, just different configurations that can be loaded.

 

[Mercutio]

An activated license with Hyper-V does count as a product activation, so it must need a license separately.

The Microsoft Partnership agreement my company operates with gives me ridiculous numbers of volume-licensed server installs, even setting aside MSDN subscriptions.
MSDN is by far the easiest quasi-legitimate way to get installs up and running though. You may or may not be bothered by the license restrictions in that instance.

There certainly are hacked, activationless versions of Windows, but I don't trust those at all. If you're willing to go that route I suppose you wouldn't be asking at all.

 

[MaxBurn]

I wonder how they enforce this or audit it for a somewhat sizeazeable company?

 

[Mercutio]

In a big company you'd be using a local activation server to track your usage and I suppose you'd be billed according to what the activation server says you're doing.

 

[time]

Okay, it seems to me that I need to set up a clean base install, activate it and keep that as a master. Then copy it each time I want to create another VM configuration. I'm hoping this won't trigger another activation. Does that sound right?

I assume that the physical BIOS is not accessible from within the VM, so you can't use the same license as for the host PC because the 'hardware' will appear different?

 

[Mercutio]

I suspect the thing that normally trips product activation is that the VMs need to have a different MAC and changing the MAC address is something that pretty much always triggers product activation. I don't know if virtual CPUs have different virtual serial numbers but I do know that the way the activation code works there are only a few things that are tracked and if more than a couple of them change, you have to reactivate. As I recall, changing the NIC is the biggie.

 

[Handruin]

Okay, it seems to me that I need to set up a clean base install, activate it and keep that as a master. Then copy it each time I want to create another VM configuration. I'm hoping this won't trigger another activation. Does that sound right?

I assume that the physical BIOS is not accessible from within the VM, so you can't use the same license as for the host PC because the 'hardware' will appear different?

When I did my deployment of the 256 Server 2008 Core setups from my MSDN using VMware's product. I started with a single install of the OS that I activated and then turned into a template. The cloning process did not trip the activation that I'm aware of. I have to assume that had it triggered the activation, there's no way MS would have let me activate 256 times on the same product key. Actually it was more than that because we did several trials of this before getting it right. More like 350-400 were actually deployed (then the extras deleted).

You are correct that the physical host's BIOS is not seen, only a virtualized BIOS. Mercutio is also correct that the MAC address is changed with each clone/copy of a VM. I've not seen this trigger the VM to reactivate. I can do another trial of this nd get back to you if that helps?

 

[Mercutio]

Your copies of Windows are almost certainly using a volume license key and reporting to a Key Management Server. The process of dealing with activation is simply invisible to you in your current role.

 

[MaxBurn]

This relates to VMware but that "I copied it" verses "I moved it" question relates to the MAC and uuid then that relates to activation.

http://www.techhead.co.uk/vmware-esx-i-moved-it-or-i-copied-it-whats-the-difference

 

[Handruin]

Your copies of Windows are almost certainly using a volume license key and reporting to a Key Management Server. The process of dealing with activation is simply invisible to you in your current role.

Interesting because the ISO I downloaded wasn't the volume licensing version and the key came from a series of 10 that I get. Why would it then go to a KMS if I only get 10 keys to begin with?

 

[BingBangBop]

I thought that forced re-activation required at least 2 tracked HW changes. If it is just the MAC (i.e. network card), then I don't think that is enough. A MB change guarantees it though but I believe that is because it changes several tracked HW items.

 

[Mercutio]

There are different classes of licenses and different mechanisms for dealing with activation. Microsoft encourages companies that have the infrastructure to do so to use KMS licenses that provide an accurate count of licensing more-or-less all the time. It's in the company's best interest to do that so that it's not overpaying for licenses that it's not using and it doesn't risk underestimating its needs. There are also MAK licenses that activate directly with Microsoft. That's what retail and MSDN licenses are. MAK licenses are good for some variable number of activations but I've never seen one that works more than 20 times.

 

[Mercutio]

If it is just the MAC (i.e. network card), then I don't think that is enough. A MB change guarantees it though but I believe that is because it changes several tracked HW items.

MAC + presumably CPU ID or possibly disk volume ID.

 

[MaxBurn]

Something else in the mix I noticed is that in bootcamp and the virtualized version of bootcamp that vmware fusion pulls into osx seems to require two activations, one for each environment. Activating one doesn't carry over to the other. On my previous home premium retail upgrade I activated it in native bootcamp and that did not activate the vmware version. When I got technet I wiped it and put ultimate on and activated that in vmware, that also didn't carry over to the native bootcamp version. It acts like the vmware version is a copy of whats on bootcamp but I don't have a real handle on the details.

 

[Mercutio]

You do know you can do an Anytime upgrade and swap up Windows editions without having to reload, right?

 

[Chewy509]

What about Windows 7 (Professional or Ultimate)?

AFAIK, with the desktop OSes, it's only 1 physical or 1 virtural... (aka for every concurrently running instance you need another license).

 

[MaxBurn]

You do know you can do an Anytime upgrade and swap up Windows editions without having to reload, right?

Didn't even occur to me. Also I don't know how it would like moving from a retail key to a technet key?

 

[Mercutio]

It's not an issue.

I was doing that on lameass machines that came with Vista Basic years ago. Didn't even occur to me that people might not know it's an option.

 

[Chewy509]

It's not an issue.

I was doing that on lameass machines that came with Vista Basic years ago. Didn't even occur to me that people might not know it's an option.

I know they promoted that as a feature on Vista, but I don't recall MS touting it with Win7... (I did know it exists, because everytime I went to start windows update, anytime update was listed).

 

[Handruin]

Didn't even occur to me. Also I don't know how it would like moving from a retail key to a technet key?

It's not an issue.

I was doing that on lameass machines that came with Vista Basic years ago. Didn't even occur to me that people might not know it's an option.

I concur, it's not an issue. I recently did this on my father's new Lenovo. I upgraded the basic Windows 7 home to Windows 7 pro using a MSDN key.