windows server 2012 r2 - activation grace period?

Solution 1:

When the grace period expires, Windows typically will reboot every hour until activated. The grace period it would seem is 30 days (which can be re-armed). See below.

There is an article here: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/hh831612.aspx but it doesn't explicitly say what will happen, just says "The computers running Windows Server 2012 must connect within a 30-day period to active KMS client computers."

If they don't connect, it appears they will exhibit the same behavior a 2008 R2 server would. This is confirmed here: http://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/windowsserver/en-US/fb618fc8-2975-4a5e-b8ff-1b5cb74b2232/windows-server-2012-setup-grace-period-watermark-notification-where-is-the-official-documentation?forum=winserver8setup

The system runs fine. I can configure it and run anything I want on it. But after it hits its 30-day grace period, the system will only stay running for one hour, then it shuts down. If you reboot, you get another hour. You do get an entry in the event log. You can rearm the install to give you another 30 days, then the same thing happens. If I'm not mistaken, I think you can rearm once more for another 30 days.