Windows activation
- Thread starter zappa
- Start date
AFAIK, Windows license doesn't really care about the disk or RAM size(s). It is related to some hardware ID's, maybe Motherboard SMBIOS + nic MAC address + something else. I fact I have done quite a few changes to the virtual hardware of Windows Server VMs and never had to reactivate the license. I hope Windows 11 behaves the same (still have no Win11 in production yet).
That sounds great, so I can backup and restore it when ever I like, even if I re-install proxmox?
What if I change my hardware sometime?
I've never had that be an issue with my Windows VMs. Backed up, restored, migrated. If you changed machine type and CPU type, and/or more virtual hardware parameters though you may be risking a re-activation. That should still be resolvable with a manual activation as well.
I once watched a video of the guy who programmed that first hardware change detection algorithm for microsoft. At least back then, it collected a lot of data about the host. These were weighted and then there was a threshold. And when exceeding that threshold you would need to reactivate. But unluckly for us, he didn't wanted to go into details because of NDA.
And make sure to get a retail and not a OEM license. Retail licenses can be moved between different hosts (so no problem if your hardware changes). That isn't possible with a OEM license, which will be bound to that specific hardware. Change that hardware too much and it won'T allow you to activate it again.
For anyone that comes across this post, I cloned a Windows VM to try some new machine settings to improve performance. All went well, until a few days later, it showed it wasn't activated. I have a retail license, but it wouldn't activate.
After finding this post, I found an old backup of the previous machine (I'd already deleted it from Proxmox). Looking at the config on that one, I found the original UUID.
I just shutdown the vm, then under options, changed the UUID back to the original from the backup's config. Then I was able to use the troubleshooter and BAM, it was reactivated.
Hope this helps someone in the future.
After finding this post, I found an old backup of the previous machine (I'd already deleted it from Proxmox). Looking at the config on that one, I found the original UUID.
I just shutdown the vm, then under options, changed the UUID back to the original from the backup's config. Then I was able to use the troubleshooter and BAM, it was reactivated.
Hope this helps someone in the future.