System Center 2012 - Service Manager Evaluation, Retail, and Select Editions

Updated: May 13, 2016

Applies To: System Center 2012 SP1 - Service Manager, System Center 2012 R2 Service Manager, System Center 2012 - Service Manager

System Center 2012 – Service Manager is available as both a retail edition and a select edition. Both editions offer the same functionality. The retail edition is purchased separately, and it includes a product key that you enter during setup. The select edition is delivered as part of a Microsoft Volume Licensing plan, and a product key is not required.

During setup of the retail edition of System Center 2012 – Service Manager, you have the option of performing the installation without a product key and instead installing Service Manager as an evaluation edition. The evaluation edition times out 180 days after installation. If you start with an evaluation version of Service Manager and you rerun Setup and install the retail edition or select edition, and you decide to use the existing databases that you created originally, your installation will time out after the original expiration date.

The following table describes the interactions between the various editions of Service Manager.