I have a copy of Server 2012 Datacenter through Microsoft’s Alliance program (MSDN) from collage back in the day.
I have activated it on a bare metal to run some linux vm’s of mine.
Is there any special consideration for activating a vm of the same install disk with the same key?
I am a bit confused with understanding the ‘unlimited’ vm’s with a datacenter licences.
Does it mean i am not limited on how many vms i can install but still need many keys?
Or does it mean I can use the same key to activate as many VMs i want on the same host machine?
I tried the later before with a Windows 2008 datacenter r2 vm i got through MSDN a year before but it would not let me activate any 2008 dc r2 vm with the same key used for the host.
The dreamspark/onthehub version of Datacenter does not let you install unlimited VMs. If you were to purchase the license through Microsoft or a retailer, then yeah, on a Datacenter Hyper-V instance you can reuse the license on all of the VMs you spin up on that Hyper-V server.
However, I have installed Server 2012R2 and Server 2016 from DreamSpark/OntheHub several times, using the same license. On RedHat KVM, Debian KVM, Hyper-V, ESXi 5.5, 6.0, and 6.5 hypervisors and the worst I had to do was do the text message activation on some of the fresh installs. You can do it verbally over the phone, but their robot sucks at hearing some numbers and letters.
I know, Microsoft takes your phone number and sends to the NSA, steals every digital bit of data you’ve had since before you were born, rapes your father, and kills your mother… But, at least I had a fresh license to test some things on Windows Server.