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Don’t forget to License your SCOM 2016 deployments


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Just like previous versions of Operations Manager, all SCOM deployments are installed as “Evaluation Version” which is a 180 trial.  You DON’T want to forget about this and have your production and lab deployments time-bomb on you down the road.

To see your current license, in PowerShell on a SCOM server:

Get-SCOMManagementGroup | ft skuforlicense, timeofexpiration -a

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In order to set your license – you just need to run the Set-SCOMLicense cmdlet.  This is documented here:

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/powershell/systemcenter/systemcenter2016/operationsmanager/vlatest/set-scomlicense

 

IMPORTANT:

1.  You need to get your license key, from whomever keeps that information for your company.

2.  The best place to run this is on one of your SCOM management servers.

2.  You MUST run this cmdlet in a PowerShell sessions launched “As an administrator” as this will need access to write to the registry.

3.  You must run this cmdlet as a user who has write access to the OperationsManager database.

 

Run this command ONE time on ANY management server…..

Set-SCOMLicense -ProductId ‘99999-99999-99999-99999-99999’

…… where you change the example key above to your key.

You should restart the PowerShell session, then run the command to get the license again.

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(Note:  You might have to restart you management server services or reboot the management server before you see this take effect)

 

 

Common issues:

Issue #1:  You run the cmdlet – and you get the following response:  Set-SCOMLicense : Requested registry access is not allowed.

Resolution:  Run the cmdlet in a PowerShell window “As an administrator”.  You must be logged in with an account that has local administrator rights on the SCOM server, AND running under a PowerShell session that is elevated.

 

Issue #2:  You run the cmdlet, and it just hangs, and never does anything.

Resolution:  This will happen when you are running the command as a local administrator, but do NOT have the rights to the OperationsManager database.  The Set-SCOMLicense command will write directly to the OperationsManager database.  You need to run this command as a user account that has local administrator rights to the local management server, AND has the appropriate rights to the SCOM OperationsManager database.  DBO user right over the OperationsManager DB is enough permission.

 

Issue #3:  You run the cmdlet, and get back an error:  Set-SCOMLicense : The product key is not valid. Please enter a valid product key.

Resolution:  This will happen when you have invalid characters in your product key you are supplying.  This can happen easily when you copy and paste the Product Id, use invalid quotes, or mistype the ID.  Try again without any quotes, or open a new PowerShell window and re-run the command but type it out fully – do not paste the key.

16 Comments

  1. Gerald Versluis

    Hi Kevin,

    From my experience: restart ALL SCOM services on ALL Management Servers. Unless of course you really like troubleshooting weird errors, like HTTP 500 your SCOM web servers.

    Regards, Gerald

  2. Filippo Sismondo

    Hi! I’m strugling with this error: Set-SCOMLicense : Unable to proceed with the command. Ensure you are connecting to correct Management Server and have
    sufficient privileges to execute the command.
    Elevated Powershell, using and account that is admin on the box, sysadmin on SQL and admin on SCOM too… it’s also the account I use to push agents (so log on as a service granted…).
    🙁

    • kevinholman

      Make sure you type the license key and do not paste it. I have seen some issues with copy/paste. You can capture a procmon trace to see what’s happening and where it seems to be failing.

      • Karen

        i am getting the same error as this post “Set-SCOMLicense : Unable to proceed with the command. Ensure you are connecting to correct Management Server and have
        sufficient privileges to execute the command.” – i typed the License key.
        question – when it wants the “ManagementServer:” i assume that is the server name and not the scom management group. . management server name have to be FQDN? I have tried both
        I entered the server name and entered by credentials but still get this error.

          • Harro

            I had the exact same issue.

            And confirm that I could succesfully activate by using the GUI (SCOM console) > About

            Note: I copy/pasted the key in the GUI without issues, whereas the PS cmdlet failed

            thanks

  3. Pramod

    Hi Kevin,

    I have a question. can we change SCOM license key second time. Suppose If I have already applied SCOM product key today and due to any reason after some time if I want to change the product key again, can I do that. if yes, than what would be the process is it same as from trial to full version or any other process.

    • Kevin Holman

      There is no reason to do this. Everyone uses the same key for SCOM license. There is no concept of re-apply a license key. You are either licensed (Retail) or unlicensed (Eval). Period.

  4. Manoj

    Hi Kewin,

    Actually I have one of my customer who has scom which was being managed by other vendor who was owning the license. But now it will be managed by us. A new license is getting purchased by our company. And now it will be reapplied to same SCOM. Need your guidance if we can re-apply new license to same SCOM server.

    • Kevin Holman

      It’s the same license key. There is no special key per customer. So as long as it is currently licensed, that’s all that matters.

  5. Teresa Konoski

    After resetting the license key, all agents, Management servers and gateway servers are in a NOT MONITORED State. I verified the key is set to retail on all management servers.

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