Using Windows Server 2012 Essentials with more than 25 users

re: Using Windows Server 2012 Essentials with more than 25 users

Susan — Thu, 14 Feb 2013 20:12:41 GMT

@Andreas you do get a real product key for Essentials if you purchase VL for Server 2012. This post is only for OEM and retail where the keycode is not as easily available.

@cmcfarling09 as long as you can get a keycode you can then install it in a virtual instance

@ttc-Gareth the issue is if you installed full GUI Server 2012 you'd need 2012 server cals

re: Using Windows Server 2012 Essentials with more than 25 users

TTC-Gareth — Thu, 24 Jan 2013 21:46:29 GMT

This is interesting however if you had a customer that was 20ish users to falls into the Essentials server could you buy a Server 2012 license and downgrade to Essentials so that if the customer then grew over the 25 users you would just need to buy the CAL’s?

re: Using Windows Server 2012 Essentials with more than 25 users

cmcfarling09 — Mon, 14 Jan 2013 15:50:39 GMT

While not directly related related to this blog post, I'm hoping you may have a definitive answer to the following... Assume you purchase a physical server with Windows Server 2012 Essentials pre-installed. W2K12 Essentials has no virtualization rights and thus no virtual key is included. Could the pre-installed OEM copy of W2K12 Essentials be stripped off and then reinstalled on top of a hypervisor running on the same hardware?

re: Using Windows Server 2012 Essentials with more than 25 users

Andreas M. — Thu, 10 Jan 2013 20:31:40 GMT

Too bad you can't get a real product key for WSE2012 if you aren't a VL customer. By using the in-place license transition method described you will lose the media streaming capabilities of WSE2012.