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 Cloud de Confiance by S3NS, see Microsoft Licensing on Cloud de Confiance by S3NS.

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 Cloud de Confiance by S3NS 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 Cloud de Confiance console to access Cloud de Confiance by S3NS services and APIs, you don't need to set up authentication.

  gcloud

  1. Install the Google Cloud CLI, and then sign in to the gcloud CLI with your federated identity. After signing in, initialize the Google Cloud CLI by running the following command:

     gcloud init

  2. Set a default region and zone.

Prepare to update a disk's license

To update the disk's license while the disk is attached to a running instance, first either stop the instance or detach the disk.

• Stop the instance. Temporarily shuts down the instance before updating the disk's license.
• Detach the disk. This detaches the disk from the instance before updating the disk's license.

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

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"]}'

Activate the new PAYG license

After you replace the license on the disk, you must activate the operating system using the Cloud de Confiance by S3NS 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