How to upgrade an expired VMM 2016 to a licensed version. That happened to my customer, VMM 2016 was fresh on the Microsoft Download site, the product was installed and he would remember to enter the license after 120 days, but the unexpected happen and the VMM expired. In this Tutorial, we are going over the steps required to bring VMM back to life.
Solution
Let’s start with the error message when we try to access a VMM 2016 after the license is expired. It does not give us too much hope to configure or enter any license keys.
The solution, to uninstall the product. Open Program and Features, select Microsoft System Center 2016 Virtual Machine Manager and click on Uninstall/Change.
The uninstall process will start, on the first page, select Remove features, and click Next
In the Select features to remove page. Select both and click Next
In the Database options page. Make sure to select Retain Database and click on Next. Here is the crucial point, the SQL database with all configuration on this server won’t be touched which will allow a new installation using the same database.
In the Summary page. Click on Uninstall.
In the final page of the wizard, we will have the results similar to this image depicted below.
Installing VMM 2016 using the previous database…
Time to install again VMM 2016, run the setup from the media (could be a trial version).
In the Select features to install page. Make sure that both are selected.
In the Product registration information page. Let’s make sure that we add the Product Key at this time, and click Next.
Complete the installation process, and voilà the new VMM 2016 is licensed and good to go, and all configuration will be there. In some cases, you may have to associate hosts, but check it first.
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