Is it legal to Physical-to-Virtual (P2V) a Windows Server 2003 OEM Standard when your Virtual Environment has Volume Licensing with Window Server 2008 R2 Datacenter edition?
If you do this, must you change the product key in some way and activate, or can you simply activate and use as is?
There is a lot of confusion out there that makes me wonder if you have to setup a completely new VM with your VL key and completely reset up all the software that the previous OEM physical server had installed.
I spoke with Microsoft Activation Support and was transferred around seven times till they finally transferred me to an extension that hung up on me after a couple minutes. I know with Datacenter edition it can have as many VMs as it can handle, but the
whole P2V of an OEM has me utterly confused on if it is legal to do when you have Datacenter Edition licensing.
Other discussions:
- OEM to P2V leaving me to think it may not be legal: http://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/systemcenter/en-US/803bff58-13af-49ae-8071-3ffec6fac4e1/licensing-oem-servers-after-p2v?forum=virtualmachinemanager
- OEM to P2V where you use the VL cd to change Windows Server 2003 OEM to a VL: http://vinfris.wordpress.com/2012/10/05/convert-oem-version-of-windows-server-2003-to-a-vmware-virtual-machine-p2v/
"Those who fear the darkness have never seen what the light can do." Magic: The Gathering
