Install windows server 2016 on a VM

I know this is an old post but I thought I would give it a try anyway.

I am having a problem similar to this, received a new dell server with VMWare 6.5 preinstalled on the SD cards.

Set up VMWare, installed 2 guests with the supplied server 2016 server OEM DVD, it is asking me for a product key when I try to activate them. This is a remote system at a customers location. Did I miss the product key on the box somewhere?  Where could I find it? or is my problem the same and I just need to add the line to the configs also?

Hello,

I know this is an old post, but I have the same problem. I add the specified line to my VM config file but no chance. I did not have any sticker on my server with product ID. (Windows server 2016 OEM)

Did find a solution ?

Thanks.

Hey there, I'm in the same boat as you were. Did you find a solution? I did exactly like they said and added smbios.addHostVendor with a value of TRUE to the ESXI configuration parameters of the VM and got nothing. 

I got this one figured out!

I ordered my server with Windows Server 2016 as a secondary OS, so I wasn't expecting it, but they stuck the product key label on the back of the unit. Since it was ordered as a secondary, I was expecting the product key to be on the sleeve of the disk. I also read that if it's a VM the installation media has a key that it uses, which added to the confusion - must have been for something else. 

There should be a little blue square that you have to scratch off in order to see the full key, but it's there. Then you just activate on Windows as expected - The Key was not embedded in the BIOS. 

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@Kauzig wrote:

Hallo,

I want to install my windows server 2016 license on a VM.

This VM is running on my T330 server with which i bought the license .

 

After trying to install the OS, the system tells me that i only can install this license on the T330, i think it should be able to install it on the same system as a VM isn't it?

Wanna run the VM under VMware ESXi 6.5

 

best regards 

Kauzig

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How you Fix it ?

Hello,

The OEM license isn't intended to be used as a VM, due to the nature of how it activates. The supported way to get a Windows VM would be to purchase a standard license key to activate the VM. However, what you might try to see if it works for you is to add smbios.addHostVendor = “TRUE” to the VMX file for the VM. The VMX file is a configuration file and a text editor should be able to open it for you. Once that is done, boot back up into Windows and run 1) slmgr /upk 2) slmgr /ipk 3) slmgr /ato.

"The OEM license isn't intended to be used as a VM"

No, that's not accurate. I think you mean PRODUCT KEY, not license ... they aren't the same thing. Assuming you have Standard or Datacenter, if you can't activate the VM using the PK that comes with the server, you can use ANY key to activate it. The key you use is only used for activation, not to license the machine. The VM is licensed by the license sticker on the host machine.

Most Dell's include a VHD that uses the same OEM activation as the host. Check in C:\Dell_OEM on the host machine. If there is a VHDX file in there, you can simply mount that in your VM to get a Dell OOBE version of Server 2016, VM-ready.

we think that will not solve the problem.

because we did it for some of our customers @ https://www.hadaf.host/ 

but still not working