License Exchange or SharePoint Server with your key

You license Exchange Server and SharePoint Server by entering your product key on the server. The key tells the software which licence you own: Standard or Enterprise. This guide assumes the server is installed. If not, start with Install Exchange Server or SharePoint Server.

What you received

Your order contains a 25-character product key and no installer: these products are delivered as a licence key only. The key is in your order confirmation email and in your Lizensa account under My Library. This guide shows it as XXXXX-XXXXX-XXXXX-XXXXX-XXXXX.

What the key does depends on the product:

• Exchange Server 2016 and 2019 (2019 Standard, 2019 Enterprise, 2016 Standard, 2016 Enterprise). Without a key, each server runs as a trial edition that works like Standard. After 180 days the Exchange admin center starts reminding you to enter a product key.
• SharePoint Server (2019 Standard, 2019 Enterprise, 2016 Standard, Subscription Edition). The key applies to the whole farm. A trial key also runs for 180 days, and you can switch to your own key during or after that period.

Standard or Enterprise

For Exchange, the edition is only a matter of the key. Both editions install from the same files:

• Standard mounts up to five databases per server.
• Enterprise mounts up to 100 databases per server.

A mounted database is one in use: an active mailbox database, or a passive copy that receives log replication. You can create more databases than the limit, but only the allowed number can be mounted. The recovery database does not count.

A key can move a server from the trial to Standard or Enterprise, or from Standard to Enterprise. It cannot move a server from Enterprise back to Standard or back to the trial. Going back means uninstalling and reinstalling Exchange, then entering a Standard key, or no key for the trial.

For SharePoint, Standard and Enterprise also share one set of installation files. Enterprise adds the Enterprise features, which you switch on after the licence change, as shown below.

Match the key to the installation

Use the key for the product, version and edition named in your order, for example an Exchange 2019 Standard key on an Exchange 2019 server. If you plan an upgrade to Exchange Server Subscription Edition, check Microsoft's upgrade and licensing notes first. The installation media come from Microsoft's Download Center:

• Exchange: Exchange Server 2019 CU15 or Exchange Server 2016 CU23. Each cumulative update is a full installation.
• SharePoint: 2019, 2016 or Subscription Edition. Microsoft labels these images as trial media. Your key licenses the installation.

To see which Exchange version you are running, open the Exchange Management Shell and run:

Get-ExchangeServer | Format-Table -Auto Name,Edition,AdminDisplayVersion

For the versions in this guide, 15.1 means Exchange 2016 and 15.2 means Exchange 2019. Exchange Server Subscription Edition also starts with 15.2, so check the full build number against Microsoft's build list if you are unsure.

Before you enter the key

You license an installed server. In short, the installation runs like this:

• Exchange: mount the Microsoft ISO, run Setup.exe, select the Mailbox role and the option that installs the required Windows features, clear every error on Readiness Checks, select Install, then restart.
• SharePoint: mount the image, run splash.hta, select Install software prerequisites and restart as prompted. Then select Install SharePoint Server, enter your key on Enter Your Product Key, and finish the SharePoint Products Configuration Wizard.

All steps, requirements and the command-line variant are in the installation guide.

Before you enter the key, check:

• Exchange: you can sign in to the Exchange admin center (EAC) or open the Exchange Management Shell with an Exchange administrator account.
• SharePoint: Central Administration opens, and your account is a farm administrator.

Plan a short break for Exchange users. After you license a Mailbox server, you restart its Microsoft Exchange Information Store service. The restart can briefly interrupt mailbox access on that server.

Enter your product key

Exchange Server: in the Exchange admin center

1. Sign in to the EAC and go to Servers > Servers.
2. Select the server you want to license.
3. Select Edit. On an unlicensed server you can also select Enter Product Key in the details pane.
4. On the General tab, type your key in the Enter a valid product key boxes. If the server already has a key, select Change product key first.
5. Select Save.
6. Restart the Microsoft Exchange Information Store service. Open Server Manager > Tools > Services, right-click the service and select Restart.

Exchange Server: in the Exchange Management Shell

Open the Exchange Management Shell on the server you license. Replace EX01 with that server's name and run:

Set-ExchangeServer EX01 -ProductKey XXXXX-XXXXX-XXXXX-XXXXX-XXXXX
Restart-Service MSExchangeIS

The first command licenses the server or changes Standard to Enterprise. The second restarts the Information Store of the server you are working on. Repeat both on each Mailbox server you license, signed in to that server.

Several Exchange servers

In an organisation with more than one Exchange server, first list them all with their licence state:

Get-ExchangeServer | Format-Table -Auto Name,Edition,*Trial*

Every production server that still shows the trial needs a key. License one server at a time. On each Mailbox server, restart the Microsoft Exchange Information Store service before you move on to the next one.

SharePoint Server: key during setup

If you typed your own key on the Enter Your Product Key page during setup, the farm is already licensed. Skip to the check below.

SharePoint Server Subscription Edition on Server Core

On Windows Server Core, Setup has no dialog for the key. Microsoft's method is a configuration file:

1. Copy \Files\SetupSilent\config.xml from the mounted image to a folder you can write to, and remove its read-only attribute.
2. Open the copy in a text editor. Remove the <!-- and --> markers, but keep the text between them.
3. Replace the text Enter Product Key Here with your product key and save the file.
4. Run Setup with that file. Adjust the drive letter and folder to your server:

D:\setup.exe /config "C:\SharePoint Files\config.xml" /IAcceptTheLicenseTerms

The parameter /IAcceptTheLicenseTerms confirms that you accept Microsoft's licence terms.

SharePoint Server: change the licence later

If you installed with a trial key, or you want to move from Standard to Enterprise:

1. Open SharePoint Central Administration from the Start menu.
2. Select Upgrade and Migration, then Convert farm license type.
3. Enter your product key and select OK. The page then shows the licence the farm uses.

After a change to Enterprise, two more steps switch on the Enterprise features:

1. Under Upgrade and Migration, select Enable Enterprise Features, choose Enterprise and confirm.
2. Select Enable Features on Existing Sites, so that sites created before the change receive the Enterprise features as well.

To run Project Server on SharePoint Server 2016 or 2019, Microsoft requires an Enterprise key.

Check it worked

Exchange Server. In the EAC, go to Servers > Servers and select the server. The details pane shows the edition, Standard or Enterprise, and Licensed. In the Exchange Management Shell you can check one server or all of them:

Get-ExchangeServer EX01 | Format-List Name,Edition,*Trial*
Get-ExchangeServer | Format-Table -Auto Name,Edition,*Trial*

The Edition column shows Standard or Enterprise, and the trial properties show whether the server still runs as a trial edition. A production server that is still a trial needs its key.

SharePoint Server. In Central Administration, open Upgrade and Migration > Convert farm license type. The page shows the licence the farm currently uses. After a Standard-to-Enterprise change, check that Enable Enterprise Features shows Enterprise as the selected feature set. Under Upgrade and Migration, Check product and patch installation status lists the SharePoint products installed on each server of the farm.

Keep a record

Store your order confirmation with your licence documents. If you rebuild an Exchange server or a SharePoint farm later, you enter the same key again after setup, using the steps above. You find the key in My Library.

If something goes wrong

The EAC keeps showing reminders to enter a product key. The server still runs as a trial edition, usually after the 180 days. Microsoft notes that a trial server keeps working after that date; what changes are the reminders. A production server still needs its licence. Enter your key as described above, save, and restart the Information Store. Repeat this on each server that shows the reminder.

You cannot find Enter Product Key in the EAC. That link appears only for unlicensed servers. On a licensed server, open Edit and use Change product key on the General tab.

Exchange shows Enterprise, but you need Standard. Microsoft allows an upgrade from Standard to Enterprise, not the other way round. Moving back to Standard means reinstalling Exchange on that server. Contact our support before you do anything else.

Exchange or SharePoint does not accept the key. Compare the installed product, version and edition with your order. Compare it character by character with the key in My Library.

Set-ExchangeServer reports that the server cannot be found. Use the server name exactly as Get-ExchangeServer lists it, as in the version check above.

Convert farm license type does not change the licence. Sign in to Central Administration with a farm administrator account and try again. The conversion goes from trial to licensed and from Standard to Enterprise. If the page still shows the old licence after a few minutes, send us the exact message.

You plan to move from Exchange 2019 to Exchange Server Subscription Edition. Microsoft states that Exchange Server SE does not need a new product key at its first release, and that a later cumulative update will add a new key requirement. A Lizensa key for Exchange 2019 is a licence for Exchange 2019. Ask our support before you upgrade.

Still stuck? Contact our support with your order number, the last five characters of your key and the exact message you see.