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DarkPassenger
Contributor
Contributor
‎01-13-2013 04:38 AM

Using templates and reactivation of Windows Server 2008

Hi,

i'd like to create a template of a Windows Server 2008 R2 VM which breaks a lot due to perserving testing and playing. What is the best way to do so, if I don't want to run into reactivation problems with MS? Is a reactivision necessary if you just clone2template a VM after activating it and deploy from that template later on? Or isn't that a problem at all if you perform a "regular" template deployment without sysprep customization?

Other possibilities I could think of would be to perform the activation each time after deploying (this sure would deactivate my licence after a few times) or maybe clone that VM after activation.

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3 Replies
Gkeerthy
Expert
Expert
‎01-13-2013 05:21 AM

Welcome to the Community,

templates creation is the best and easy to deploy and manage....or you can create an appliance by exporting the vm in to ofv or ova format.

the windows activated vm you can make a template ... and if you dont select to regenerate SID in the customization manager answer file.. it wil keep the SID same... and you just deploy the template...but this will violate the EULA of microsoft.. for testing it is ok.. and moreover in production any way you need to remove the old SID..

you can use the KMS activation method in you organisation so that no need to do and track the manual activation...

Please don't forget to award point for 'Correct' or 'Helpful', if you found the comment useful. (vExpert, VCP-Cloud. VCAP5-DCD, VCP4, VCP5, MCSE, MCITP)
DarkPassenger
Contributor
Contributor
‎01-13-2013 07:28 AM

Thank you for your answer. Since this is just a homelab VM and i don't intent to run multiple instances of it, I also think it should be ok to use an activated template for that purpose. Actually creating a snapshot and going back after 1-2 month would be doing the same for me. But I don't want to keep snapshots that long.

Thanks again and have a nice day!

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DarkPassenger
Contributor
Contributor
‎01-15-2013 01:49 PM

Meanwhile I setup a 2008 R2, installed updates, conifgured (LAN etc.) and activated it. After that I cloned that VM to a Template. Now, no matter if deploying a vm from that template nor cloning that template and convert it back to a vm after that, seems to work for my purposes. After booting the template-vm it doesn't show lan1+lan2, but lan3 and 4. The"old" adapters and IPs are still there but don't show up. That's not too bad but unfortunately the system isn't activated any more. I didn't customize the vm while deploy/convert from template.

Am I doing something wrong or should I work with real clones instead to get a 100% copy of my 2008 server?

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