where do I put the OS product key in vcenter

OS Product keys are not managed by vcenter. if you are talking about adding license keys for ESX (or) Vcenter you can check the following KB Article by vmware.
http://kb.vmware.com/selfservice/microsites/search.do?language=en_US&cmd=displayKC&externalId=1010839

OS product key? Can you be a bit more specific? If you mean, the vCenter Server product key, you log into vCenter with vSphere Client, then in the 'Home' area, under the middle 'Administration' section, click Licensing. Click the Manage vSphere Licenses link then copy/paste your license in the big box at the top. Click 'Add License' button when done. Let me know if you mean something else.

Regards,
~coolsport00

ok i thought there was a tool that would allow me to enter my 2008 server key so i wouldnt have to do it manually or at least a note section.

No I am not aware of such tool which controls the OS licenses from vcenter. I don't think there is one as OS licenses are proprietary cannot be managed by a distributed license tool.

So create one template with the key for future clones

Good point "BestWay"....it's still not a licensing tool, but it's the closest that can be done. And, it doesn't need to solely be used for templates, but Conversions too...."BestWay" is specifically suggesting to use a Customization Specification "sirius7".

~coolsport00

Yes...kinda; what you do is create this one VM as you want it, then you can create a clone. When going through the wizard, you have the option to create a "custom specification". You add items that you want to configure, 1 being the license key, and at the end you can 'save' this specification to use for future VM creation.

~coolsport00

Or, click on the View menu in vSphere CLient (while logged into vCenter), then Management -> Customization Specfications Manager. You can then click the 'New' button and manually create one.

~coolsport00

Hi

Yes in any customize VMs you choose this option(Template, conversions and configure machine).
But like coolsport00 says this is not licensing tool, but only a VM customization.

Jail