Hello

So I have physical server that has 2008R2 Standard and that has a 2008R2 VM on it. The license for 2008R2 is OEM.

I am looking to upgrade this server to 2012R2.

The question is if after I upgrade the physical server to 2012R2 can I still run the 2008R2 VM ? 

Thank you 

Hi,

Yes, you can still run your windows 2008 R2 VM.

-Umesh.S.K

• Proposed as answer by Leo HanMicrosoft contingent staff, Moderator 23 hours 58 minutes ago

Hi

 You could run 2008 r2 vm's on Windows server 2012 r2 platform(with hyper-v role)

Also the OEM versions has downgrade rights.And you can able to run 2008 r2 with licence (downgrade right)

Also check this for downgrade rights

http://blogs.technet.com/b/licensing/archive/2013/02/07/downgrade-rights-explained.aspx

• Proposed as answer by Leo HanMicrosoft contingent staff, Moderator 23 hours 57 minutes ago

The question was if, from a legally stand point, i will be able to use the 2008R2 VM with the license from the OEM license and not to use one of the two licenses for vitual machines from the 2012R2 license ?

No,only if you have server 2012 r2 licence,you could run server 2008 r2 vm on 2012 r2.But with 2008 r2 OEM licence,you could not.

Hi Tiandrei,

Agree with Umesh and Burak.

The OEM license could only be used on the specified device.

On Server 2012 R2 Hyper-V host, we could run a Server 2008 VM. But, on Server 2008 R2 Hyper-V host, we could not run a Server 2012 R2 VM.

Here is the detailed information:
Hyper-V: Supported Guest OS List:
http://social.technet.microsoft.com/wiki/contents/articles/2761.hyper-v-supported-guest-os-list.aspx

About the problem of license, we could also ask Activation Center for help:
https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/Licensing/existing-customer/activation-centers.aspx

Best Regards,

Leo

So I will explain the situation once again.

I have a physical server that has a 2008R2 OEM license on it. This machines also runs a 2008R2 VM with the license for VMs included in the OEM license.

I am now looking to upgrade this server to 2012R2. I will buy a new license ( FPP ) and upgrade the OS from the physical machine to 2012R2. In hyper-V i will install two new VMs with 2012R2 ( which i can with the Standard version of 2012R2 ).

The question is if I can still run the old 2008R2 VM after the upgrade of the physical machine to 2012R2 ?

Thank you for your answers so far 

• Edited by tiandrei 13 minutes ago