Installing Exchange 2019 CU11 downloaded from the Action Pack; product key is no good

[D_Greg_Scott]

Hi - I downloaded and installed Exchange 2019 CU11 from the Action Pack website. I copied the product key from the Action Pack website, but when I paste it in with Exchange Admin Center, the EAC returns the dreaded "Invalid product key" error.  I've checked, double-checked, and checked again. It's the Action Pack key. No typos; I pasted it in, field by field. Multiple times.

The official Exchange documentation at https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/exchange/plan-and-deploy/plan-and-deploy?view=exchserver-2019

says,

"Always install the latest Exchange Cumulative Update (CU) (Exchange Server build numbers and release dates | Microsoft Docs). There is no need to install the RTM build or previous builds and then upgrade to the latest Cumulative Update. This is because each Cumulative Update is a full build of the product."

This is different than Exchange 2016, where I found out the hard way I did need to install the RTM build first and then upgrade it to the latest CU. It's a welcome improvement if true. But my Exchange 2019 product key is no good with this CU11 build.

So - is the documentation wrong and I need to find the RTM version, or is my Action Pack product key no good, or is something else going on?

Thanks

- Greg Scott

[#2 · Accepted solution]

A few days later and the silence is deafening.

But in case any search engines pick this up, here was the solution. The EAC continued to return errors. And then I read a little farther into the documentation - there's a Powershell way to enter the product key. Quoting the documentation:

To enter the product key in the Exchange Management Shell, use this syntax:

PowerShell

Set-ExchangeServer <ServerName> -ProductKey <ProductKey>

Note that this command works to license an unlicensed server or to upgrade a licensed server from a Standard Edition license to an Enterprise Edition license.

This example licenses the Exchange server named Mailbox01.

PowerShell

Set-ExchangeServer Mailbox01 -ProductKey 12345-12345-12345-12345-12345  

With nothing to lose, I tried my activation from Powershell and it worked.  The EAC said the key was invalid, but Powershell liked it. Go figure. I restarted the Information Store service and now the EAC says I have a fully licensed Exchange 2019 server.

[#3]

Greg,
Which browser did you use when trying to license your Exchange Server using the Exchange Admin Center?
There are some glitches when using any other browser but Internet Explorer.
-Thomas

[#4]

I used Chrome. I may have also tried Firefox. And maybe Edge. But IE? Really?

[#5]

It didn't work on Firefox, but it sure did in Edge.