How to manage Windows licences for virtual machines on your Hosted Private Cloud infrastructure

Objective

This guide explains how to manage Windows licences for your virtual machines hosted on your Hosted Private Cloud infrastructure.

The OVHcloud Control Panel now includes a new feature, which allows you to:

• View the number of Windows virtual machines requiring a licence.
• Instantly activate a licence on eligible VMs from the interface.

This gives you better visibility, reduces the need for API calls and helps ensure compliance with Microsoft licensing requirements.

Requirements

• A Hosted Private Cloud service powered by VMware.
• At least one virtual machine running a Windows operating system.
• You must have activated the Windows licences in your OVHcloud Control Panel. See the "Windows Licence" section of our guide "Introduction to the Hosted Private Cloud Control Panel" for more information.
• Allow outgoing TCP connections on port 1688 from licensed VMs to kms.ovh.net in your firewall settings.

Instructions

Activate and monitor Windows licences directly from the OVHcloud Control Panel

Check your Windows licence usage in the Control Panel

1. Go to the Hosted Private Cloud section of your OVHcloud Control Panel and click Managed VMware vSphere.

2. Select your service, then open the Datacenter tab.

Here, you will find:

• The total number of VMs running in your datacenter.
• The number of Windows VMs (requiring a licence).
• The number of declared Windows VMs (licenced by OVHcloud).

Understand the two Windows licence management modes

There are two scenarios:

• Case 1: You bring your own Microsoft licence (BYOL):

  • No action required in the interface.

• Case 2: You want OVHcloud to licence the VM:

  • The VM licence must be activated in the OVHcloud Control Panel for it to be billed properly.

Activate a Windows licence from the OVHcloud Control Panel

1. In your Datacenter, go to the Virtual Machines tab.
2. Locate the VM that needs to be licenced.

3. Click ... on the right, then click Activate licence.

   

4. Choose the appropriate licence from the dropdown menu.

5. Click Activate to confirm the action.

   

When you install a Windows Server operating system, the product key – also known as a KMS (Key Management Service) key – may not be installed correctly. In such cases, the operating system has been installed with a 120-day trial key. Once this time period elapses, the operating system can no longer be used.

This guide will show you how to change the product key for your Windows Server environment.

Manage licences using the OVHcloud API

If you prefer to automate or integrate Windows licence management into your workflows, you can use the OVHcloud API to list, assign, update or remove licences on your virtual machines.

List virtual machines with a licence

You can quickly check which virtual machines in your infrastructure are licenced via the OVHcloud API:

Return example:

[
    {
        "vmId": 1074,
        "name": "my-win2019-vm",
        "guestOsFamily": "windows2019srv_64Guest",
        "license": "windows 2019 Standard Core"
    }
]

Verify the licence of a virtual machine

You can check the licence currently associated with one of your virtual machines via the OVHcloud API:

If no licence is attached to it, the license field value will be null.

Return example:

{
    // ...
    "guestOsFamily": "windows2019srv_64Guest",
    "license": "windows 2019 Standard"
}

Update the licence of a virtual machine

You can update the licence associated with one of your virtual machines via the OVHcloud API:

Unlicence a virtual machine

You can delete the licence associated with one of your virtual machines via the OVHcloud API:

Go further

For specialised services (SEO, development, etc.), contact OVHcloud partners.

If you would like assistance using and configuring your OVHcloud solutions, please refer to our support offers.

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