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Thanks for your time and expertise.<br />
Here's my scenario: &nbsp;I have an old Server 2008 R2 Enterprise host with four VMs. &nbsp;Two of the VMs are recent installs and they are running server 2012 R2 Standard. &nbsp;The two recent installs (the server 2012 R2 Standard vms) need to be activated. &nbsp;<br />
My question is if I upgrade the host OS to 2008 R2 Datacenter or 2012 R2 Datacenter will this process active the two unlicensed vms, or do I have to purchase licenses for these vms separtely.<br />
Your recommendations and advise are greatly appreciated.
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Thanks for your time and expertise.
Here's my scenario:  I have an old Server 2008 R2 Enterprise host with four VMs.  Two of the VMs are recent installs and they are running server 2012 R2 Standard.  The two recent installs (the server 2012 R2 Standard vms) need to be activated.  
My question is if I upgrade the host OS to 2008 R2 Datacenter or 2012 R2 Datacenter will this process active the two unlicensed vms, or do I have to purchase licenses for these vms separtely.
Your recommendations and advise are greatly appreciated.

Upgrade Server 2008 R2 Enterprise to 2008R2 Datacenter or 20012 R2 Datacenter

Virtualization is the act of creating a virtual (rather than actual) version of something, including (but not limited to) a virtual computer hardware platform, operating system (OS), storage device, or computer network resources. Virtualization is usually the creation of a system that executes separate from the underlying hardware resources, or the creation of an entire desktop for systems located elsewhere, similar to thin clients.

Virtualization

Operating systems perform basic tasks, such as recognizing input from the keyboard, sending output to the display screen, keeping track of files and directories on the disk, and controlling peripheral devices such as disk drives and printers. For large systems, the operating system makes sure that different programs and users running at the same time do not interfere with each other. The operating system is also responsible for security, ensuring that unauthorized users do not access the system. Operating systems provide a software platform on top of which other programs, called application programs, can run.

Operating Systems

Hyper-V is a native hypervisor; it can create virtual machines on x86-64 systems and supersedes Windows Virtual PC as the hardware virtualization component of the client editions of Windows NT. A server computer running Hyper-V can be configured to expose individual virtual machines to one or more networks. Hyper-V Server supports remote access via Remote Desktop Connection. Administration and configuration of the host OS and the guest virtual machines is generally done over the network.