Dell Microsoft Windows Essential Business Server 2008 Operating Instructions

Dell™ OEM Windows Server® Media

Operating System

Activation Guide

www.dell.com | support.dell.com

Notes and Cautions

NOTE: A NOTE indicates important information that helps you make better use of

your computer.

CAUTION: A CAUTION indicates potential damage to hardware or loss of data if

instructions are not followed.

____________________

Information in this document is subject to change without notice.
© 2009 Dell Inc. All rights reserved.

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is strictly forbidden.

Trademarks used in this text: Dell, and the DELL logo are trademarks of Dell Inc.; Microsoft, Windows,
and Windows Server are either trademarks or registered trademarks of Microsoft Corporation in the
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February 2009 Rev. A00

Contents

1Overview. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5

Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5

2 Determining License

Activation Status

Determining License Status Using the CLI . . . . . . . . 7

Product Key and Virtual Key

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7

. . . . . . . . . . . . . 6

Determining License Status Using the GUI

3 Setting Up and Activating the

Physical System or the
Virtual Machine

Identifying the Product Key and Virtual Key . . . . . . . 11

Replacing the Existing OEM Product Key
With the COA Key

Replacing and Activating the
Key Using CLI

Replacing and Activating the
Key Using GUI

Confirming the Installation
of the Correct Key

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13

. . . . . . . 8

Contents 3

Activating the COA Keys . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13

Activating the COA Key
Through Internet

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14

Activating the COA Key
Through Telephone

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15

Confirming the Activation

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16

4 Contents

Overview

This document describes the instructions to activate a Microsoft®
Windows

®

2008 based operating system installed using Dell™ Original
Equipment Manufacturer (OEM) server media on virtual machines or
physical systems that are not enabled with OEM Activation (OA) 2.0
technology.

NOTE: Dell does NOT provide OEM operating system support on any non-Dell

hardware. To verify that the operating system is supported on the hardware being
used and for more information, see the Operating System home page at

www.dell.com/ostechsheets and the Dell website at
www.dell.com/content/topics/global.aspx/alliances/en/os_certifications.

NOTE: Windows 2008-based operating systems include but are not limited to Web,

Standard, Enterprise, and DataCenter versions of Windows Server 2008, Windows
Small Business Server 2008 and Windows Essential Business Server 2008.

Introduction

After installing the operating system using the Dell™ OEM media, you may
be asked to activate the systems depending on how they were configured at
the time of purchase.

NOTE: When you install the operating system using the Dell OEM media, you are

not prompted to enter or change the key during setup. If you attempt to activate a
physical system using the embedded key, the attempt fails and you need to change
the key following the steps in "Activating the COA Keys" on page 14. Using an
Open Manage disk to assist the installation of the hardware drivers and operating
system does not alter the operating system activation requirements

The operating system on your Dell system is automatically activated if the
system previously shipped with a Windows
operating system pre-installed from Dell, and you are repurposing the system.

®

Server® 2008-based (WS08)

Operating System Activation Guide 5

The operating system activation occurs with the OEM media that the system
was shipped with. If the system did not ship with pre-installed Windows
operating system, it does not have any version of OA.

A Windows Server 2008-based operating system installed as a virtual machine
requires a virtual product key to activate the guest operating system. To install
on physical systems that are not OA 2.0 enabled, the product key on the
Certificate of Authenticity (COA) label must be used.

Product Key and Virtual Key

The product key is a 25-character string with each of the characters separated
by a hyphen. The product key is optional during the operating system setup
process but it is required during the activation process.

For Dell systems running a Windows Server 2008-based operating system,
you receive the following two keys:

•

Product Key

on the physical system.

•

Virtual Key

operating system, installed on a virtual machine.

NOTE: The Product Key and Virtual Key are printed on the Certificate of

Authority (COA) sticker.

For detailed license terms related to guest operating system instances,
see article 949748 on the Microsoft Technet website at
technet.microsoft.com/kb.

– It is used to activate the operating system that is installed

– It is used to activate the software that is used as a guest

6 Operating System Activation Guide