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I am testing the MRM (Messaging Records Management) features on an Exchange 2010 SP2 Trial. The issue is that to test "Personal Tags" you need an Enterprise CAL. Is it possible to have a trial Enterprise CAL to test the software with Exchange 2010 and Outlook 2010 or is it impossible?

The others questions I found related to CAL does not apply to trying new software. I found this related discussion Is it possible to obtain a trial/evaluation Enterprise CAL? but don't find a conclusive answer.

sw.
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  • CALs are licenses that don't exist anywhere but electronic/paper records for legal compliance. There's nothing to install/apply. If you are still under the trial period, you should be fine, but licensing questions here are "Off Topic" and will be closed. – TheCleaner Feb 25 '13 at 22:12
  • TheCleaner - Some features in Exchange 2010 aren't available without a valid product key, such as DAG's and evidently MRM as well. – joeqwerty Feb 25 '13 at 22:19
  • I don't know of any feature in Exchange including MRM that ever asks for actual CAL information. You never receive a product key for CALs. The licensing is "honor system" and it does tell you that it is a "premium feature" that requires an Enterprise CAL and the Exchange Org Health will show that you need them, but it will not prevent you from using the features. – TheCleaner Feb 25 '13 at 22:36
  • My apologies, I'm not referring to an Exchange CAL. I'm referring to an Exchange Server product key. In my experience I've not been able to enable certain features, such as DAGs, without entering a valid Exchange Server product key. – joeqwerty Feb 25 '13 at 23:48
  • TheCleaner: I am clearly seeing that certain MRM features (individual MRM items taggins) are not available without a specific license. Also the exchange 2010 management console says that. – sw. Feb 26 '13 at 00:11
  • On this page: http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/outlook-help/assign-archive-policy-to-email-messages-HA101861781.aspx it says "If the Assign Policy command is missing on the ribbon, either your Exchange Server administrator hasn’t enabled retention and archive policies for your account, or you aren’t using an Outlook license that is required for the feature. For more information, see License requirements for Personal Archive and retention policies." http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/outlook-help/redir/HA102576659.aspx – sw. Feb 26 '13 at 00:21

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You can't. There's no trial of Exchange 2010 Enterprise Edition.

Upgrading from the trial version to Standard or Enterprise simply requires a key...

Organizations with Technet licenses can evaluate, but in your case (if you need to test the feature), contact your reseller and ask about options or a temporary key to test what you need.

I don't fault Microsoft for not having an Enterprise Trial. Part of me thinks, "is this feature a deal-breaker for you? Are you going to find that Personal Tags don't work as anticipated and say 'oh no, we need another mail solution'?"

Probably not. If you need the feature and Exchange Enterprise Edition is the only means to enable it, just buy the license.

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