When you install Configuration Manager as an evaluation version. It becomes read-only after 180 days. Before or after this period, you will need to activate the product from the Site Maintenance page in Setup and have it upgraded to a full installation. This can be done at any time before or after the 180 days. In this article, we shall discuss how to Upgrade Expired Evaluation Configuration Manager to Full Version. Please see how to Set Microsoft Defender AV to Passive mode on a Windows Server, and How to upgrade Windows Server Evaluation to Full Version.
Note: Configuration Manager doesn’t consider secondary sites as evaluation installations. So after you upgrade a primary parent site to a full installation, you don’t need to modify a secondary site.
Also, see how to Change the number of MachineAccountQuota a user can add to AD, how to Block IP Addresses Using Group Policy (GPO) in Active Directory, and how to fix AADSTS50020: User from Identity Provider does not exist in Tenant.
Upgrade an evaluation installation of Configuration Manager to a full installation
Let’s launch the Microsoft Configuration Manager console as shown below.
When you connect a Configuration Manager console with an evaluation version. The window title bar displays the number of days that remain until it expires. The number of days in the window title doesn’t automatically refresh. It only updates when you make a new connection to a site. Please see “how to install Endpoint Configuration Manager on HyperV VM“.
But as you can see from the image below, the evaluation period has expired.
According to Microsoft documentation, the upgrade requires the setup file as shown below
On the site server, run .\BIN\X64\Setup.exe from the Configuration Manager installation folder. Microsoft recommends to use this this copy of Setup because site maintenance options aren’t available when you run Setup from source media.
You can choose to run the setup file from the command prompt or over file explorer.
On the Before You Begin Page, please click on Next as this is just informational.
If you encounter any issues or find out that the “perform Site Maintenance or reset this site” is greyed out. Please see this guide on how to Fix “Perform Site Maintenance or reset this site” greyed out.
Since we have fixed this issue, now we have the ability to perform site maintenance or reset the site.
Next, select Upgrade the evaluation edition to a licensed edition. Then enter a valid product key, and select Next.
On the Microsoft Software License Terms page, read and accept the license terms, and then select Next.
On the Configuration page, select Close to complete the wizard.
Please see All About Windows Server 2016, and “Microsoft SQL Evaluation period has expired: How to upgrade SQL Server instance“.
Relaunch Microsoft Configuration manager Console
Let’s view the logs, as you can see. It was successfully converted from the evaluation version to the Full product version.
Close and re-launch the Configuration Manager console. Until you reconnect the console to the site, the title bar might indicate that the site is still an evaluation version.
I hope you found this blog post useful on “How to Upgrade Expired Evaluation Configuration Manager to Full Version”. Please feel free to leave a comment below.
