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Enter Product Key

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Applies to: Exchange Server 2010

Use the Enter Product Key wizard to enter a product key for a server running Microsoft Exchange Server 2010 that doesn't already have a product key configured.

When you install Exchange 2010, it's unlicensed. This is also known as a trial edition. The trial edition expires 120 days after the date of installation. A server that is unlicensed functions as an Exchange Standard Edition server, but it isn't eligible for support from Microsoft support services. When you start the Exchange Management Console, if you have Exchange 2010 servers in your organization that are unlicensed, Exchange displays a list of all unlicensed Exchange 2010 servers and the number of days that are remaining until the trial edition expires. If you have Exchange 2010 servers for which the trial edition has expired, Exchange also displays a separate warning for each expired server.

After you complete the Enter Product Key wizard, you must restart the Microsoft Exchange Information Store service so that the change is applied. Depending on the product key that you enter, Exchange will determine if the server is running the Standard Edition or Enterprise Edition of Exchange 2010 and will update any necessary settings.

What Do You Want to Do?

  • Use the EMC to enter the product key
  • Use the Shell to enter the product key

Use the EMC to enter the product key

You need to be assigned permissions before you can perform this procedure. To see what permissions you need, see the "Product key" entry in the Exchange and Shell Infrastructure Permissions topic.

  1. In the console tree, navigate to Server Configuration.
  2. In the action pane, click Enter Product Key Group.
  3. On the Enter Product Key page, enter the product key, and then click Enter.
  4. On the Completion page, review the following, and then click Finish to close the wizard:
    • A status of Completed indicates that the wizard completed the task successfully.
    • A status of Failed indicates that the task wasn't completed. If the task fails, review the summary for an explanation, and then click Back to make any configuration changes.

Use the Shell to enter the product key

You need to be assigned permissions before you can perform this procedure. To see what permissions you need, see the "Product key" entry in the Exchange and Shell Infrastructure Permissions topic.

This example uses the set-ExchangeServer cmdlet to enter the product key.

Set-ExchangeServer -Identity ExServer01 -ProductKey aaaaa-aaaaa-aaaaa-aaaaa-aaaaa

For detailed syntax and parameter information, see Set-ExchangeServer.