Windows 2008 R2 Activation

Why is this such a pain Microsoft seriously?  For me I am setting up a VM with Server 2008 R2 for testing and working with VMs…. nothing major right?  Then how come I have a licensed copy of Windows 2008 Server R2 (64bit) and I cannot activate it….  ah yes, there are several blogs and forums that introduce that using the CMD (run as admin of course) you can type in the following and the problem goes away….

slmgr.vbs -/ipk (enter your serial key here)  then press ENTER.

But what if you get the key was successful message, but yet you still remain not activated in the eyes of MS???  That is my quandary.  So this particular blog is trying to see what you, the audience have experienced and if you have found avenues to clear up this blemish on the server activation process?   Anyone?  Anyone?   Bueller?  Bueller?

Cisco Labs or Lab Emulators

There is one thing that has irked me for some time and I figured I would put that out here now.  For Cisco certification there are several labs you can attach too at a very low to no cost solution.  However finding one that is good for just testing ideas or honing your skills sets is a bit more difficult to get for free.  I have been playing with the GNS3 suite and the install is very nice however you have to provide your own IOS images… (those are the actual configurations from a switch or router)…  but I don’t have any… ouch.  Trying to find some basic IOS images where I can take those and add or subtract activities to them is very challenging… well maybe I am looking in the wrong places… who knows.  Regardless, I think it would be very cool to have some free emulators out that would provide a person to create a raw IOS image for routers, switches and even firewalls for the most complex solution to the most basic.  However that does not seem to exist anywhere I have searched.   If there is such a wondrous location and you know where we all can find it… I would love to see your posts here…  Take care my friends!

 

UPDATE – If you go to https://software.cisco.com/download/navigator.html?a=a&i=rch  You will find a TON of IOS images from what it appears… I have not tried any so please do not hold me to that but I have heard these are very nice to use.