So I've just rolled out a beefy Dell Server that's running VMWare vSphere Hypervisor as the root OS The client has purchased 1 copy of Server 2008 R2 Standard which gives them 1 physical key and 1 virtual key. I've set up the 1st VM on vSphere and installed Server 2008 R2 Standard and activated it using the physical key successfully. (even though its a virtual machine running inside of VSXI) The client would like to install a second VM on the same VSXI box to run some LOB software. My question is this. As its running on the same physical host hardware, can I use the second virtual key that came with 2008 R2 Standard to activate the second VM? I've done some searching and understand that the virtual key can be installed from the physical host 2008 R2 install via Hyper-V Role, but nothing I've found gives any guidance when the physical key is activated itself on a VM?? If someone could give me a yes/no answer and point me in the right direction of the source of that answer I can then go back to the client and advise them correctly. Cheers

Thanks very much for the reply. That gives me the answer i was looking for. Cheers Leon.

Hello, -- I've done some searching and understand that the virtual key can be installed from the physical host 2008 R2 install via Hyper-V Role, but nothing I've found gives any guidance when the physical key is activated itself on a VM?? You can use the virtual key to activate one Server 2008 Std. in any virtualization environment (such as VMWare vSphere). But after that, you cannot use the Physical key. The only way that you can use both physical key and virtual key at the same time is if the physical OS is only being used to manage the virtual OS in Hyper-v Role on the same box. See Microsoft Knowledgebase article 949748, here: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/949748 You can contact Microsoft for product key related questions at: http://support.microsoft.com/contactus/?ws=clientprotection&sd=wss Thanks ZHANG