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I inherited non-activated Windows Server 2012 Standard. So I purchased retail version "OEM Win Svr Std 2012 R2 x64 CZ 1pk DVD 2CPU / 2VM" and tried to activate it with product key. With this key, I get an error "This key cannot be validated. Try a different one" (loosely translated, my system is Czech). And I am pretty sure, that I put in the right key. I cannot start validation over phone, command slui 4 gives me only activation by key. Direct phone calls to Czech Microsoft gets me nowhere.

At one occasion I got error "0x8007232b" which relates to http://support.microsoft.com/kb/929826/en . As far as I understand, there could be broken KMS Client. I don't use activation via KMS Host in the infrastructure. Tried to google how to get rid of it, but didn't find out how. It isn't "Function", "Role" or software...

Thanks for any help,

Martin

PS: Not that it should matter, but this system is virtual machine in KVM

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  • Do you have Server 2012 or Server 2012 R2? There's a very big difference and the R2 key won't work on a non-R2 server.
    – Nathan C
    Dec 8, 2014 at 13:26
  • I politely disagree @NathanC. The question here is "How do I fix activation?", not "Which Windows license should I buy?"
    – jscott
    Dec 8, 2014 at 13:42
  • I edited original question, you're right about different versions. Does it really matter in this case (non-R2/R2)? My resseler didn't have licence for Windows Server 2012 (despite they're biggest MS Partner in Czech Republic).
    – mkudlacek
    Dec 8, 2014 at 13:44
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    They are completely different SKUs, you need the proper key.
    – DanBig
    Dec 8, 2014 at 13:50
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    @jscott Technically, this question is worded like "Is this licensing configuration valid?" ...which of course is off-topic. DanBig is correct on this - you need a regular 2012 key or upgrade the server to 2012 R2.
    – Nathan C
    Dec 8, 2014 at 13:53

1 Answer 1

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https://windorks.wordpress.com/2014/02/09/licensing-a-dell-oem-virtual-machine/

With Windows 2012 OEM or Windows 2012 R2 OEM license you get the ability to run 2 virtual machines on a virtualization platform. Typically this is done utilizing the OEM media that is shipped with the server.

The issue that customers run across is that when they install from OEM media within the virtual machine, the install goes just fine – never prompts for a product key. It’s not until they notice that the virtual machine has not activated with Microsoft. So when they try to activate they get a generic error message that to a mere mortal makes no sense.

Here is what is going on – the OEM media that shipped with your server is pre-keyed with Dell’s OEM media key. That key tells the server to check for the SLP bit on the motherboard. If that bit is set then no activation is necessary the server is automatically licensed. The problem comes in when done on a virtual machine that has no access to read the SLP bit on the motherboard, so tries to activate with Microsoft clearing house. Microsoft clearing house immediately denies activation because Dell has the key locked to keep customers from doing that. How do you fix this? It is actually really easy.

  • Open an administrative command prompt in the virtual machine
  • Type the following command: slmgr /upk
  • This uninstalls the existing OEM product key from the virtual machine – Wait for the message to come back and say the product key was successfully uninstalled
  • Type the following command: slmgr /ipk XXXXX-XXXXX-XXXXX-XXXXX-XXXXX Where the X’s are the product key from the COA sticker on the server IMPORTANT: Include the dashes when you type in the product key
  • Wait for the message to come back and say the product was installed successfully.
  • Type the following command: slmgr /ato This tells the VM to go to the clearinghouse and activate this copy of windows
  • Wait for the message to come back and say the copy of windows was successfully activated
  • Type the following command: slmgr /dlv This will bring up a screen that shows a lot of good information including The edition of Windows The channel of the OS – OEM, VL, Retail etc. The last 5 characters of the key that was used to activate Activation status

If you have dealt with KMS in the past these commands will be very familiar.

Hopefully that helps with activating virtual machines when using OEM media to do the install.

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  • Thanks Greg, this looks promising. But I encountered error right from the begining. After slmgr /upk I get "Error: Product key wasn't found". Again, loosely translated from Czech. And I admit I was fiddling with slmgr before, so it may be in some half state...
    – mkudlacek
    Dec 8, 2014 at 14:07
  • I don't think this will work ...his version doesn't match (non-R2 versus R2 key).
    – Nathan C
    Dec 8, 2014 at 14:08

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