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Monday, February 24, 2014

Keys for Windows Server 2012 R2 AVMA , KMS Keys for Windows 8.1 and Windows Server 2012 R2, KMS Client Setup Keys / 2016

KMS Client Setup Keys: here
Updated: August 2016. Applies to Windows 10, Windows 8.1, Windows Server 2012 R2.

The following AVMA keys can be used for Windows Server 2012 R2:

Edition AVMA key
Datacenter       Y4TGP-NPTV9-HTC2H-7MGQ3-DV4TW
Standard       DBGBW-NPF86-BJVTX-K3WKJ-MTB6V
Essentials       K2XGM-NMBT3-2R6Q8-WF2FK-P36R2

Key Management Service (KMS)

The following KMS keys can be used for Windows 8.1 and Windows Server 2012 R2:

Windows 8.1 Professional  GCRJD-8NW9H-F2CDX-CCM8D-9D6T9
Windows 8.1 Professional N  HMCNV-VVBFX-7HMBH-CTY9B-B4FXY
Windows 8.1 Enterprise  MHF9N-XY6XB-WVXMC-BTDCT-MKKG7
Windows 8.1 Enterprise N  TT4HM-HN7YT-62K67-RGRQJ-JFFXW
Windows Server 2012 R2 Server Standard  D2N9P-3P6X9-2R39C-7RTCD-MDVJX
Windows Server 2012 R2 Datacenter  W3GGN-FT8W3-Y4M27-J84CP-Q3VJ9
Windows Server 2012 R2 Essentials  KNC87-3J2TX-XB4WP-VCPJV-M4FWM

Additional Information:

How to Find the Windows 10 Product Key After an Upgrade
"How do you find the Windows 10 product key once the upgrade from Windows 7, 8 or 8.1 is completed."
Now traditionally, all that is required to retrieve this information is using the inventory capability via the Mobile Device Management software of choice.  Another option has been made available via third party applications. Be careful when pursuing this route as reports have come forward that some third party applications install adware/malware during the installation of the tool.   In either case, what has been discovered in some cases using both methods is the key provided is actually a generic key akin to one of the following:
  • Windows 10 Enterprise: NPPR9-FWDCX-D2C8J-H872K-2YT43
  • Windows 10 Pro: VK7JG-NPHTM-C97JM-9MPGT-3V66T
  • Windows 10 Home: TX9XD-98N7V-6WMQ6-BX7FG-H8Q99
The trouble with using these keys, should you need to re-enter said key in future, is that it enrolls said Windows 10 installation into Insider Preview. While ok in a lab environment, Insider Preview could be troublesome in a production environment.

Keys for Windows Server 2012 R2 Automatic Virtual Machine Activation (AVMA) WindowsITPro

Activating virtual machines via Automatic Virtual Machine Activation in Windows Server 2012 R2  Server & Tools Blog

Automatic Virtual Machine Activation in Windows Server 2012 R2 Ben Armstrong

Windows Server 2012 R2 licensing and Automatic Virtual Machine Activation (AVMA)  Dell TechCenter Blog

AVMA step-by-step  Brian Lewis

Automatic Virtual Machine Activation in Windows Server 2012 R2 Gunter Danzeisen


AVMA: An easier way to activate Windows Server 2012 R2 in Hyper-V Secret Nest

Automatic Virtual Machine Activation (AVMA) in Windows Server 2012 R2

Automatic Virtual Machine Activation–Windows Server 2012 R2

Windows Server 2012 R2 & Windows 8.1 KMS Service Activation

Automatic Virtual Machine Activation

Windows Server 2012 R2 kicks Hyper-V up another notch

Windows 8.1 and Windows Server 2012 R2 KMS Keys  The Deployment Pros

Microsoft Server 2008 Keys  computerproblemhelper

Windows 8 genuine-activation keys  computerproblemhelper

Windows 7 Keys  computerproblemhelper

Tuesday, February 18, 2014

Hyper-V Management Pack Extensions 2012 / 2012 R2

Management Pack to monitor the performance of your Hyper-V 2012 and 2012 R2 Servers and Clusters.
Requires SCOM 2012 RTM or higher. SCOM 2012 SP1 recommended.
A free extension to the Hyper-V SCOM management pack has been updated with support for Windows Server 2012 R2.

Date published: 12/08/2013

Download link:  Hyper-V Management Pack Extensions 2012 / 2012 R2

New features on release 1.0.1.282
Support for Windows Server 2012 R2 hyper-V
Hyper-V Extended Replica Monitoring and Dashboard
Minor code optimizations

Features on release 1.0.1.206
VMs Integration Services Version monitor
Hyper-V Replica Health Monitoring Dashboard and States
SMB Shares I/O latency monitor
VMs Snapshots monitoring
Managment Pack Performance improvements

Included features from previous release
Hyper-V Hypervisor Logical processor monitoring
Hyper-V Hypervisor Virtual processor monitoring
Hyper-V Dynamic Memory monitoring
Hyper-V Virtual Networks monitoring
NUMA remote pages monitoring
SLAT enabled processor detection
Hyper-V VHDs monitoring
Physical and Logical Disk monitoring
Host Available Memory monitoring
Stopped and Failed VMs monitoring
Failed Live Migrations monitoring




Monday, February 17, 2014

Management solution for Microsoft Hyper-V Server Core.

The Server Core is great for virtualization. It makes it easier for administrator to get the system configured and started. There are many benefits in using  Server Core, including greater stability, reduced maintenance, reduced memory and disk requirements and reduced attack surface. With Server Core you can significantly minimize your expenses and have a smaller storage footprint than a comparable deployment of full version of Windows Server. Check out some benefits of deploying Windows Server Core Installation here.

However, because there is no GUI, management of this installation demands a great deal of experience from user, involving the use of RSAT or Virtual Machine Manager. VMM is expensive and RSAT doesn't let the administrator to manage some versions of Hyper-V Server from the older OSes. These issues might prevent administrators from deploying Server Core on their servers, despite lower costs and other benefits.

VT Technology Management Utilities for Hyper-V remove the need for RSAT and VMM. More importantly, there is no steep learning curve for using vtUtilities to manage Server Core. This step-by-step guide will help you with setting up your environment from the scratch and outline using vtUtilities on Server Core or free Hyper-V Server.

vtUtilities can be installed locally on a Hyper-V host and deliver GUI with functionality level similar to Microsoft Hyper-V Manager.

With vtUtilities you can start/stop/create/interact and see the state of the virtual machines, change and read VMs settings, see host and guests performance data, configure virtual networks/virtual hard disks and much more...


Advantages of the vtUtilities

  • Local GUI to manage Hyper-V on Server Core and free Hyper-V Server.
  • GUI for replication, live migrations, VHDX, virtual Fibre Channel adapters, file system views and operations.
  • GUI allowing connecting to the VM console 
  • GUI for virtual network management including the management of virtual connections and bindings.
  • Support for Windows Server 2008 R2, Windows Server 2012, Windows Server 2012 R2 as well as Hyper-V Server 2008 R2, Hyper-V Server 2012 and Hyper-V Server 2012 R2. 
  • Local and remote management of Hyper-V Server 2012 and Hyper-V Server 2012 R2 from Windows 7, Windows 8 and Windows 8.1
  • Local and remote management of all past Hyper-V versions from a single application.
  • Easy access to Hyper-V event logs and VM jobs history.
  • Real time monitoring of Hyper-V host and guests.

Support for new functionality introduced in Hyper-V Server 2012 R2

  • Generation 2 virtual machines.
  • Virtual hard disk and storage quality of service.
  • Hyper-V Replica enhancements including support for extended replication.
  • Hyper-V virtual networking enhancements.

 Free 1 week trial can be downloaded here:  vtUtilities





 Site and product links:






Friday, February 7, 2014

New Download. Windows Server 2012 R2 Products and Editions Comparison Chart

This chart illustrates the differences among the various Windows Server 2012 R2 products and editions, including the various editions of Windows Server, Microsoft Hyper-V Server, Storage Server, and MultiPoint Server.


The chart includes information about:


  • Locks and limits (such as maximum number of connections of various kinds, domain-joining capability, and CPU and RAM limits) 
  • Which server roles are supported
  • Which server features are available

Download link: Windows Server 2012 R2 Products and Editions Comparison

Date Published: 02/07/2014

Supported Operated System:

Windows Server 2012 R2 













Windows Server 2012 R2 Products and Editions Chart (Large)







Wednesday, February 5, 2014

A collection of Windows Server 2012 R2 / Hyper-V Server 2012 R2 links and related articles.

Related Links:

New Links for Windows Server, Hyper-V, Azure / July - October 2015
Windows Server 2012 R2 / Hyper-V / Azure Links & Videos
Useful Links for Windows Server 2012 R2 / Hyper-V Server 2012 R2

Windows Server 2012 R2 Technical documentation, install, deploy



Series:


Hyper-V: Clustering & Resiliency Series by Pierre Roman



Top 10 New and Improved Features in Windows Storage Server 2012 R2  by Scott M. Johnson


Using Hyper-V features to enhance storage SearchStorage

How to create a Custom Authentication Provider for Active Directory Federation Services 3.0 Series by Tino Donderwinkel

Table of Contents: Success with Hybrid Cloud Series by Brad Anderson

New Blog Series: DR Planning for IT Pros

Hyper-V Replica Series by John Kelbley on TechNet


End-to-End Bare-Metal Provisioning with SCVMM 2012 SP1 / R2 Series / Andiy Q's Blog

Hyper-V 2012 R2 Network Architectures Series by Cristian Edwards

Ask the Core Team: What's New in Windows Servicing


Contoso Labs-Table of Contents Server & Tools



Downloads:

Download link:  Do you know what Hyper-V Server is?




Switch between Server Core mode and Server GUI mode in Windows Server 2012 Switch script

Tool: MPSReport replacement, MSDT
The Microsoft Product Support Report (MPSR) tool has been replaced by the Microsoft Diagnostic Toolkit (MSDT)

Tool: Server Performance Advisor (SPA) v3.1 to troubleshoot high CPU in LSASS in AD Domain Controllers. Applies to: Windows Server 2012 R2, Windows Server 2012, Windows Server 2008 R2, Windows Server 2008

Announcing the GA of Windows Azure Hyper-V Recovery Manager
Windows Azure Hyper-V Recovery Manager Service protects your on-prem applications by orchestrating the protection and recovery of Hyper-V Virtual Machines running in a private cloud (i.e. System Center Virtual Machine Manager 2012 R2 or System Center Virtual Machine Manager 2012 SP1) to a secondary location.

Test Lab Guide: Windows Server 2012 R2 Base Configuration in Windows Azure
This Microsoft Test Lab Guide (TLG) provides you with step-by-step instructions to create the Windows Base Configuration test lab in a Windows Azure Virtual Network, using computers running Windows Server 2012 R2.

Windows Server 2012 R2 Test Lab Guide
This TLG provides you with step-by-step instructions to create the Windows Base Configuration test lab, using computers running Windows 8.1 or Windows Server 2012 R2

Three Types of Base Configurations for TLG

Hyper-V Replica Automation Toolkit for SMA

List of Rollup Updates for Windows 8/8.1 & Windows Server 2012 / 2012 R2

Hyper-V: Update List for Windows Server 2012 R2

Recommended hotfixes and updates for Windows Server 2012 R2-based failover clusters

Windows Server® 2012 R2 and Windows Server 2012 BranchCache Deployment Guide

HyperV - Dash Board

Windows Server® 2012 and 2012 R2 Core Network Guide

Windows Server 2012 R2 Deploying 802.1X Authenticated Wireless Access

Microsoft Virtual Machine Converter 2.0 

Server 2012 Failover clustering-Step by step guide

Virtualization Fabric Design Considerations Guide
This guide details a series of steps and tasks that you can go through to design a virtualization fabric that is able to host many virtual machines. Although all virtualization fabrics contain storage and servers for hosting virtual machines, in addition to the networks that connect them, every organization’s virtualization fabric design will likely be different. Throughout the steps and tasks, the guide presents the relevant design and configuration options available to you to meet functional and service quality (such as availability, scalability, performance, manageability, and security) requirements.

Licensing Brief - Licensing Windows Server 2012 R2 for Use with Virtualization Technologies
This document discusses how Microsoft Windows Server 2012 R2 is licensed when used with virtualization technologies like VMware ESX/ESXi, Microsoft System Center 2012 R2 Virtual Machine Manager, or Parallels Virtuozzo.


Server & Tools Blog

 

Scripts


This PowerShell script will check if a server is pending for reboot and get the reboot status.

Uptime of servers
This script is used to extract the uptime of servers.

Hyper-V Network VSP Bind (nvspbind)
nvspbind is a tool for modifying network bindings from the command line. It is especially useful in Server Core environments with the Hyper-V role enabled.


Brad Anderson's Blog






Ben Armstrong's Blog




Jose Barreto's Blog




Yung Chou's Blog


Windows Server 2012 R2 Installation Options and Features on Demand
High Availability, Disaster Recovery, and Windows Azure
Creating Microsoft Azure Virtual Machine


TechNet


Top Support Solutions for Microsoft Windows Server 2012
This is a collection of the top Microsoft Support solutions to the most common issues experienced using Microsoft Windows Server 2012 and Windows Server 2012 R2 (updated quarterly). Note that some content that applies to earlier versions of Windows Server is listed, because it can be helpful with Windows Server 2012 issues also.

Top Support Solutions for System Center 2012 Virtual Machine Manager
This is a collection of the top Microsoft Support solutions to the most common issues experienced using System Center 2012 Virtual Machine Manager (updated quarterly).

DirectAccess Survival Guide DirectAccess in Windows Server® 2012 R2 and Windows Server® 2012

Keith Mayer's Blog





CANITPRO



WindowsITPro



Petri



WindowsNetworking


VirtualizationAdmin

InfoWorld

TechTarget


Backup & Recovery


Five reliable Windows Server backup solutions TechRepublic

Hyper-V Recovery Manager Automates Windows Azure Disaster Recovery Lifehacker

Announcing the GA of Windows Azure Hyper-V Recovery Manager Brad Anderson

Backup Windows Server 2012 R2 with Microsoft Azure Recovery Services  CloudComputingAdmin

Security

Edge Show 87 Linux Integration Services for Hyper-V  Ch9
Windows 2012 Active Directory Domain Services Videos (2) TechNet
Virtualization with Windows Server 2012 R2  TechNet
Windows Server 2012 R2 Storage Technologies  TechNet Video

Books


Related VTTechnology Blog's posts: