OS Activation / Licensing Test

Microsoft has three types of licenses for its products. The three types of licenses are:

  • Full Packaged Product (FPP) or Retail: You can get this type of Windows license from retail merchants or buy from the Microsoft store. The product keys are often transferable to another computer.

  • Original Equipment Manufacturer (OEM): OEM PCs come with pre-installed Windows operating systems installed by manufacturers. The manufacturer embeds the product key in the UEFI firmware chip, which means that OEM licenses are not for resale and are non-transferrable to other computers.

  • Volume license keys for use on PCs associated with an organization: Here, a KMS Client manages the license keys. They can be installed in bulk which means administrators can use a single product key for multiple installations.

In many Windows environments, administrators may want to know when the Microsoft Windows license is about to expire or if the license had already expired. To aid administrators figure out the licensing information and be up-to date on when the license is about to expire, eG Enterprise offers the Windows OS License test.

This test continuously monitors the target Microsoft Windows system and reports the current status of the license installed on the target system / server. Besides, this test also reports the number of days that are remaining for the license to expire and also reports the number of times the license can be installed and set to trial mode. This way, administrators can figure out the machines on which the license had expired or is error-prone.

Target of the test : A Windows System

Agent deploying the test : An internal agent

Outputs of the test : One set of results for the Windows system being monitored.

Configurable parameters for the test
Parameter Description

Test Period

How often should the test be executed.

Host

The host for which the test is to be configured.

DD Frequency

Refers to the frequency with which detailed diagnosis measures are to be generated for this test. The default is 1:1. This indicates that, by default, detailed measures will be generated every time this test runs, and also every time the test detects a problem. You can modify this frequency, if you so desire. Also, if you intend to disable the detailed diagnosis capability for this test, you can do so by specifying none against DD frequency.

Detailed Diagnosis

To make diagnosis more efficient and accurate, the eG Enterprise embeds an optional detailed diagnostic capability. With this capability, the eG agents can be configured to run detailed, more elaborate tests as and when specific problems are detected. To enable the detailed diagnosis capability of this test for a particular server, choose the On option. To disable the capability, click on the Off option.

The option to selectively enable/disable the detailed diagnosis capability will be available only if the following conditions are fulfilled:

  • The eG manager license should allow the detailed diagnosis capability
  • Both the normal and abnormal frequencies configured for the detailed diagnosis measures should not be 0.
Measurements made by the test
Measurement Description Measurement Unit Interpretation

License status

Indicates the current status of the license.

 

The values that this measure can report and the numeric values they indicate have been listed in the table below:

Measure Value Numeric Value
Licensed - Permanently activated 1
Licensed - Time-based 2
Unknown 3
Within the grace period 4
Notification 5
Extended grace 6
Error 7
Expired 8

Note:

By default, this measure can report the Measure Values mentioned above while indicating whether/not the updates are available. However, the graph of this measure is indicated using the numeric equivalents.

The detailed diagnosis of this measure lists the Server name, Product key channel and the Details of the license.

Expiry Date

Indicates the number of days beyond which the license will expire.

Days

  

Remaining Windows rearm count

Indicates the number of times the license can be uninstalled and set to trial mode in case of transferring the license to another system.

Number