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

Q: What keys should I use in my Windows Server 2012 R2 virtual machines (VMs) to use Automatic Virtual Machine Activation (AVMA)?

A: Windows Server 2012 R2 introduces a new feature, AVMA, which allows VMs running Windows Server 2012 R2 to automatically activate, provided the Hyper-V host they're running on is Windows Server 2012 R2 Datacenter and is itself activated. To tell the VM to use AVMA, you need to give the VM a specific key (this acts very similar to the keys used to tell machines to use Key Management Service--KMS).

The keys to use for Windows Server 2012 R2 can be found at the Microsoft site and are shown below:

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