Solved: Unable to activate Windows server 2016 though GUI. getting error "This Edition Cannot Be Upgraded"

Issue:

1:

Windows server 2016 was rebooting again and again

2:

Unable to activate Windows server 2016 "Microsoft Windows Server 2016 Standard Evaluation" Edition, though GUI to Standard edition. getting error "This Edition Cannot Be Upgraded"

Solution:

Dism /online /Set-Edition:ServerStandard /AcceptEula /ProductKey:12345-qwert-asdfg-zxcvb-qazws

Other findings:

1. The server was running in VMWare environment.
2. The server was rebooting again and again.
3. After looking into the event viewer for the reboot cause found the error "The kernel power manager has initiated a shutdown transition.  Shutdown Reason: Kernel API"
4. The Dism /online set-edition:serverstand.... command took more than 30 minutes to complete
5. The server rebooted more than one time after running the DISM command.
6. the cleaning up process took few hours to complete