Switch Windows Server from BYOL to PAYG

You can switch your Windows Server virtual machine (VM) instances from a bring-your-own-license (BYOL) model to a pay-as-you-go (PAYG) model. License changes from PAYG to BYOL are not supported. For more details on Windows Server licensing on Google Cloud, see Microsoft Licensing on Google Cloud.

For details on license references, license codes, and how to determine allowed license modifications, see License changes and restrictions.

Before you begin

  • If you haven't already, set up authentication. Authentication verifies your identity for access to Google Cloud services and APIs. To run code or samples from a local development environment, you can authenticate to Compute Engine by selecting one of the following options:

    Select the tab for how you plan to use the samples on this page:

    Console

    When you use the Google Cloud console to access Google Cloud services and APIs, you don't need to set up authentication.

    gcloud

    1. Install the Google Cloud CLI. After installation, initialize the Google Cloud CLI by running the following command: 

      gcloud init

      If you're using an external identity provider (IdP), you must first sign in to the gcloud CLI with your federated identity.

    2. Set a default region and zone.

Change a BYOL license to a PAYG license

To replace a BYOL license with a PAYG license, use the Google Cloud CLI or the Compute Engine API.

gcloud

To replace a disk's license with a license reference or code, use the gcloud compute disks update command:

gcloud compute disks update DISK_NAME \
    --replace-license=PREVIOUS_LICENSE,NEW_LICENSE

Replace the following:

  • DISK_NAME: the name of the disk to replace.
  • PREVIOUS_LICENSE: the previous license reference being replaced, for example, "windows-server-2016-byol", "windows-server-2019-byol".
  • NEW_LICENSE: the new license reference, for example, "windows-server-2016-dc", "windows-server-2019-dc".

REST

To replace a disk's license, add the new license to the request body and omit the previous license. Call the following disks.update v1 method:

PATCH https://compute.googleapis.com/compute/v1/projects/PROJECT/zones/ZONE/disks/DISK_NAME?paths=licenses --data '{"name":"DISK_NAME", "licenses":["https://www.googleapis.com/compute/v1/NEW_LICENSE"]}'

Replace the following:

  • PROJECT: the name of the project
  • ZONE: the zone containing the VM
  • DISK_NAME: the name of the disk
  • NEW_LICENSE: the new license reference, for example, "windows-server-2016-dc", "windows-server-2019-dc", or license code, for example, "1000213", "3389558045860892917".

Activate the new PAYG license

After you replace the license on the disk, you must activate the operating system using the Google Cloud Key Management Service (KMS).

To activate the license, complete the following steps on the Windows VM:

  1. Connect to the Windows VM.
  2. Open a PowerShell terminal as an administrator.

  3. Update the Google Compute Engine sysprep package. This ensures you have the latest version of the activation script containing the required license codes.

    googet -noconfirm update google-compute-engine-sysprep

  4. Run the activate_instance.ps1 script. This script detects the new PAYG license and configures the correct KMS server.

    & "C:\Program Files\Google\Compute Engine\sysprep\activate_instance.ps1"

Validate the license change

To validate that your license has been changed on the boot disk, use the following procedure:

  1. Get information about the boot disk by running the gcloud compute disks describe command:

    gcloud compute disks describe DISK_NAME \
    --zone=ZONE \
    --format="value(licenses)"

    Replace the following:

    • DISK_NAME: the name of the boot disk to validate the license of
    • ZONE: the zone containing the boot disk to validate the license of

  2. Verify that the output is similar to the following:

    https://www.googleapis.com/compute/v1/projects/windows-cloud/global/licenses/windows-server-2019-dc