HOW TO: Add a License Key to Exchange Server 2007

When you install Exchange Server 2007, including the evals posted on Microsoft's web site, it is unlicensed. Unlicensed servers function as 120-day trials, according to Exchange Server 2007 documentation.

When you start the Exchange console, you get a list of all unlicensed servers and the number of days left for the trial to expire.


Unlike previous versions of Exchange, the trial versions can be upgraded to fully functional versions by simply adding a product key. This can be done easily from the console by right-clicking the server in Server Configuration, and selecting Enter Product Key [screenshot].

From the Exchange shell, you can enter the product key using the set-ExchangeServer commandlet:

set-ExchangeServer SERVERNAME -ProductKey aaaaa-aaaaa-aaaaa-aaaaa-aaaaa

To get a list of all Exchange Server 2007 servers and their product keys and trial status, including number of days left:

get-ExchangeServer | select name,ProductID,*trial*

(Note: I typically format this as a list rather than a default table, particularly for a smaller number of objects - the table tends to chop off bits of a field when you have too many fields displayed:
get-ExchangeServer | select name,ProductID,*trial* | fl)

The output looks something like this:

Name: E12EDGE
ProductID:
IsExchange2007TrialEdition: True
IsExpiredExchange2007TrialEdition: False
RemainingTrialPeriod: 29.19.12.55.8950288

Yes, the timing displayed is very precise, down to the seconds and milliseconds :) - but you can probably tell it's 29 days.