New on LowEndTalk? Please Register and read our Community Rules.
All new Registrations are manually reviewed and approved, so a short delay after registration may occur before your account becomes active.
All new Registrations are manually reviewed and approved, so a short delay after registration may occur before your account becomes active.
If you use a Windows Server 2012(r2) Datacenter key on the main server - how can you get free VPSes
I have been told many time if you use a Windows Server 2012(r2) Datacenter key, you can create any numbers of VPS on that server using the main key in a way I don't understand, and all is activated. So you only need the main server to have a Datacenter key, and you can run lots of VMs on that server (of course if you have the CALs?)
Is this true, and how do it work?
Comments
Want to know as well.
AFAIK you should use the same key on VMs hosted on the same physical machine. Is that SPLA key or BizSpark ? I haven't checked on BizSpark but SPLA keys are MAK and you just need to report correctly (counting per machine not per VM).
@Clouvider It's BizSpark key, not a MAK key.
@myhken no experience unfortunately
. I would imagine that if they don't give you separate keys per VM you should use the same key for VMs hosted on the same machine. It might probably reject activation, but call to activation centre should resolve the problem after you explain that this is a VM hosted on the same physical machine.
Good luck!
Seems like I found the answer, will test it now:
https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dn303421.aspx
That will work only if you do Hyper-V though, as I understand.
Yes, thats how I understand it also.
Yes use AVMA Key that works great
Just tested it out, and it worked just fine. Wasted lots of keys on my VMs, since I never took the time to find out how this worked.
I know understand why Server 2012 R2 datacenter keys for 2 cpus cost from £2000-£4000+ per key.
in future you can also check the key type (and remaining activations) via the VAMT tool
Not on Server 2012 R2 Retail keys no, only on MAK keys you can see the remaining activations. I just tested on one of my R2 keys.
But on my 2008 R2 MAK keys, Win7/8/8.1 MAK keys, and Office VL keys I can see the remaining activations.
But the point here is that I don't need a MAK key, with Datacenter edition, you can activate as many VMs as you like with HyperV using only one activation on the main key.