My customer has bought a Hewlett-Packard server with a Windows Server 2012 ROK (Reseller Option Kit) license.

However this customer had some issues with the installation of the license on the Hyper-V guest server. Since the Windows server does not recognize the ‘hardware’ as a Proliant server, licensing will not succeed.

However there is a simple solution. A parameter can be added so that the virtual machines ‘think’ that they are running on real hardware. Here are the procedures for the 2 most popular hypervisors on the market:

Hyper-V:

The trick for Hyper-V environments is the addition of a registry key to the Hyper-V host.

All steps are detailed in this document starting on page 21.

A ) Execute the following command from the command prompt if the guest operating system is Hewlett-Packard branded Windows Server:

REG ADD "HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Virtualization" /v BiosLockString /t REG_SZ /d "Hewlett-Packard                "

NOTE: In the following command line after the word “Hewlett-Packard” there are 17 blank spaces before the quotation mark that must be entered as part of the command.

B ) Execute the following command from the command prompt if the guest operating system is HP branded Windows Server 2012:

REG ADD "HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Virtualization" /v BiosLockString /t REG_SZ /d "HP                             "

NOTE: In the following command line after the word “HP” there are 30 blank spaces before the quotation mark that must be entered as part of the command.

VMware:

After creating the virtual machine, go to Edit Settings / Options / General and select “Configuration Parameters”

Be aware that the virtual machine must be shut down to make these changes.

Add a row, paste smbios.ReflectHost the name, and true the value.

* There  is a similar procedure where you have to   add smbios.ReflectHost = “TRUE”   in the VMX file of the VM. The result will be the same.