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Enter product key in Exchange Server

How to enter the product key in Exchange Server? After installing Exchange Server, we like to apply a license key in Exchange Server. In this article, you will learn how to install the Exchange license key.

Exchange Server editions

A product key tells Exchange Server that you’ve purchased a Standard or Enterprise Edition license. If the product key you bought is for a Standard Edition license, it allows you to mount a maximum of five databases. If it’s an Enterprise Editon license, it lets you mount more than five databases per server.

Read more: Exchange Server edition comparison »

The Exchange Server will automatically run as a Trial Edition if you don’t provide a key. The Trial Edition functions just like an Exchange Standard Edition server and is helpful if you want to try out Exchange before buying. In addition, you can make use of the Trial Edition license for up to 180 days.

If you’re going to keep using the server beyond 180 days, you’ll need to enter a product key, or the Exchange Admin Center (EAC) will start to show reminders that you need to enter a product key to license the server.

How to enter product key Exchange Server

You can enter the Exchange Server product key with:

  1. Exchange Admin Center
  2. PowerShell (Exchange Management Shell)

Let’s look at both possible ways to license the Exchange Server.

Enter product key in Exchange Admin Center

Sign in to Exchange Admin Center (EAC). Use the fully-qualified domain name (FQDN) of the Exchange Server in the format https://<ServerFQDN>/ecp. For example, https://ex01-2016.local/ecp.

Note: To access the EAC in a web browser on the Exchange Server itself, you can use the value https://localhost/ecp.

Sign in to Exchange Admin Center (EAC). Navigate to servers > servers. In the list, click on the Exchange Server. Then, in the right panel, click the Enter Product Key link.

In our example, it’s the Exchange Server EX01-2016.

Enter product key Exchange Server 2016 browse to enter product key

The server properties window opens. On the general tab, fill in the license key. When done, click Save.

A warning message shows up:

The product key has been validated and the product ID has been successfully created. This change won’t take effect until the Information Store service has been restarted.

Click OK to dismiss the notice.

Enter product key Exchange Server 2016 warning to restart service

On the Exchange Server, open the Services console. Search and click on Microsoft Exchange Information Store. Click Restart the service.

In the next step, we will check if licensing the Exchange Server worked.

Verify licensed Exchange Server

Navigate to servers and click the Exchange Server that you licensed. Confirm that it’s showing Licensed.

Enter product key Exchange Server 2016 check licensed

Enter product key with PowerShell

To license Exchange Server with PowerShell, follow the below steps:

1. Run Exchange Management Shell as administrator.

2. Run the Set-ExchangeServer cmdlet, include the ProductKey parameter, and add the key.

[PS] C:\>Set-ExchangeServer "EX01-2016" -ProductKey XXXXX-XXXXX-XXXXX-XXXXX

3. A warning message shows up:

The product key has been validated and the product ID has been successfully created. This change won’t take effect until the Information Store service has been restarted.

4. Restart the Microsoft Exchange Information Store service.

[PS] C:\>Restart-Service "MSExchangeIS"

Verify licensed Exchange Server

Verify that the Exchange Server is licensed.

[PS] C:\>Get-ExchangeServer "EX01-2016" | ft Name,Edition,ProductID,IsExchangeTrialEdition -Auto

Name         Edition ProductID               IsExchangeTrialEdition
----         ------- ---------               ----------------------
EX01-2019 Enterprise XXXXX-XXXXX-XXXXX-XXXXX                  False

Everything looks great! Did this help you to apply the license key in Exchange Server?

Keep reading: Find Exchange version with PowerShell »

Conclusion

You learned how to enter a product key in Exchange Server. Start Exchange Admin Center and navigate to the servers page. Click in the list on the Exchange Server and install the Exchange license key. Another way is to apply the Exchange license with PowerShell. Don’t forget to restart the Microsoft Exchange Information Store service to have the change take effect.

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ALI TAJRAN

ALI TAJRAN

ALI TAJRAN is a passionate IT Architect, IT Consultant, and Microsoft Certified Trainer. He started Information Technology at a very young age, and his goal is to teach and inspire others. Read more »

This Post Has One Comment

  1. Thank you for your articles Ali! You have the best Exchange 2016 content out there right now. I know Exchange 2016 on-premise isn’t super in vogue, but there are a lot of us still running it.

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