A New Frontier for Exchange Server 2013 Keys and Licensing

A new release of Microsoft Exchange is available right now, though it was released couple of weeks back. The editions are:

  • Microsoft Exchange Server 2013 Enterprise Edition (can store up to 50 Databases per server)
  • Microsoft Exchange Server 2013 Standard Edition (can store up to 5 Databases per server)

The Licensing terms are available HERE

Still follow the golden rule for Exchange Server licenses: License must be assigned for each instance of the server software that is being run. The Server licenses are sold in two server editions: Standard Edition and Enterprise Edition. You can mix and match the server editions with the CAL types. As such, you can use Enterprise CALs with Exchange 2013 Standard Edition. Similarly, you can use Standard CALs with Exchange 2013 Enterprise Edition

The product Key Terms are follows:

  • Product keys can only be used for swapping and upgrading.
  • These keys can be used to upgrade Trial Editions of Exchange; either from standard or enterprise edition.
  • These keys defines which version the key has purchased for.
  • Microsoft Exchange Information Store service needs to be restarted after injecting a valid product activation key.
  • These keys cannot be used to downgrade Exchange Enterprise to Exchange Standard Edition.
  • Also, downgrade can only be done by clean install Exchange 2013, there is no work around for it.

The RTM build number for Exchange 2013 is: 15.00.0516.032

RTM stands for Ready To Manufacture.

NOTE: If you are already running Exchange 2013; a good way to grab it’s build number by running the following command in the Exchange Management Shell:

Get-ExchangeServer | fl name,edition,admindisplayversion