AVMA with Pre-Windows Server 2012 R2 Guests

Q: I'm using Windows Server 2012 R2 Hyper-V hosts and want to use Automatic Virtual Machine Activation with my pre-Windows Server 2012 R2 guest operating systems. How do I do this?

A: Basically, you can't. Automatic Virtual Machine Activation (AVMA) only works with Windows Server 2012 R2 because only Windows Server 2012 R2 has an additional component in the operating system that allows the communication between the guest and the host to enable the activation. If you have previous versions of Windows Server that need to activate, you need to use methods such as a Multiple Activation Key (MAK), a Key Management Services (KMS) server, or Active Directory-Based Activation (ADBA).