OEM Windows activation on DL380 following motherboard replacement - no SLIC

[Xavier Walker]

Hi,

I'm wondering if anyone can shed any light on this as it's an issue I've received conflicting information.

We have a server which was purchased with an OEM licence of WS2008. As a result, the OS automatically activates with the SLIC tables in the BIOS, HP's certificate and SLP PID key (the latter two are installed as part of the OS installation with SmartStart CDs, etc).

We have over 100 servers, most of them running HP OEM Windows licences fine.

One DL380 had a motherboard failure. This was replaced under an HP Care Pack support contract. The issue is that the replacement motherboard doesn't hold the SLIC tables so the OS is no longer activated.

Some have suggested that we should activate it with the COA key on the lid - this is something we could do, but not really an accepted solution as it would require human intervention for manual activation (server is not on the internet). Also, this means this server would be different to all the other servers running activated with the standard HP OEM mechanism.

So my request is I would want the replacement motherboard to be a "like for like" which includes the SLIC tables present so it can operate the same way that the previous motherboard did. Of course, we can track by the serial number and confirm that the server was purchased with an OEM licence, but it appears that this isn't possible?

I've used other OEM vendors before and any motherboard hardware replacement was always a like for like and any previous SLIC information was injected in the new one when applicable so the OS would continue to operate. So should HP be any different?