Setting up and configuring KMS for Server 2012 R2 and MS Office 2010

I have added the Volume Activation Services (VAS) role and also installed the Volume Activation (VAMT)Management Toolkit.

With regards to the VAS, I ran through the initial wizard and when prompted pointed to the KMS server, entered the KMS Host Key (which I assume was the KMS key from MS Volume licencing) and completed the final steps changing the port from 0 to 1688.

Q/

Is the KMS host key the KMS key for the particular MS product in question, in my case the KMS key for Server 2012 R2 or something completely different?

Q/

When I ran VAMT for the first time, I created a database as request and that was OK.

In the VAMT snap-in, under Product Keys, I tried to add the same KMS key I used for the initial VAS setup but this has been rejected.

What key should I be using here the KMS or KMS client keys?

Q/

Do I need to re-run the VAS wizard and re-enter the KMS host key again if I need to support office 2010 as well

Q/

How do the clients automatically pick the relevant licence keys?

Q/

Do I need to configure this for AD based activation?

Any advice would be appreciated.




  • Edited by Icebun Friday, January 31, 2014 1:20 PM
January 31st, 2014 4:17pm

Hi,

Q1:

Volume Activation (KMS, MAK, ADBA, AVMA)

http://social.technet.microsoft.com/wiki/contents/articles/22510.volume-activation-kms-mak-adba-avma.aspx

Q2:

KMS client keys are  already embedded in VAMT so you never need to add them.

Manage Product Keys Using Volume Activation Management Tool 2.0

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ff686877.aspx

Q3:

If your KMShost key can be used to active Office, then it should work for office.

Q4:

A KMS client can be configured to search for a KMS host using DNS.

More methods:

Configuring KMS Clients

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ff793406.aspx

Q5:

AD is not needed for KMS.

Regards,

Yan Li

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February 4th, 2014 8:46am

Guys,

Thanks for all the advice. Here is an update.

I ran the slmgr /dli and could see that Windows serverStandard editon was licenced.

Now onto the Offfce 2010 Activation.

I ran the Office 2010 KMS Host Licence Pack and went through the wizard without issue.

Ran the slmgr /dli all command and the results tell me that MS Office 2010 KMS Host Edition licence status is Licenced but for all editions of Windows server it is not licenced.

So how do I know if KMS works for Server 2012 R2?

By the way, what is the purpose of the rearm which I have read is related to KMS?

  • Edited by Icebun 20 hours 44 minutes ago
February 4th, 2014 9:10am

I have added the Volume Activation Services (VAS) role and also installed the Volume Activation (VAMT)Management Toolkit.

With regards to the VAS, I ran through the initial wizard and when prompted pointed to the KMS server, entered the KMS Host Key (which I assume was the KMS key from MS Volume licencing)........

<snip>
Q/

Do I need to configure this for AD based activation?


You can run the VAS wizard again, and this time, select ADBA, this will create the ADBA objects in your AD for you. You can have both KMS and ADBA active in your environment at the same time, and, may need to do so, since ADBA is only suitable for servicing domain-joined clients, and, ADBA only works for Win8/WS2012/Office2013.

For older VA products (Win7/Off2010 etc), ADBA does not work, so you would use KMS for those.
You can alternatively use KMS for everything, and not use ADBA at all, since KMS is suitable for all past and present VA products (at this

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February 4th, 2014 9:20am

I ran the slmgr /dli and could see that Windows serverStandard editon was licenced.

Now onto the Offfce 2010 Activation.

I ran the Office 2010 KMS Host Licence Pack and went through the wizard without issue.

Ran the slmgr /dli all command and the results tell me that MS Office 2010 KMS Host Edition licence status is Licenced but for all editions of Windows server it is not licenced.

"slmgr.vbs /dli all" will display all possible windows licenses (even those which are not installed/not licensed), and if an Office KMShostpack is installed, that will also be displayed.

"slmgr.vbs /dli" will only display the currently installed windows license.

So, it is not expected that "slmgr.vbs /dli" will show any different status from "slmgr.vbs /dli all".

Can you execute "cscript slmgr.vbs /dli all > kmsout.txt", this will output the licensing information to the text file, post the text file here for us to examine for you, to assist with your question.

February 4th, 2014 3:17pm

By the way, what is the purpose of the rearm which I have read is related to KMS?

rearm is not specific to KMS, it is a general utility, it is used to reset the activation status of a product (revert from activated to be not-activated), and the purpose is for when you are performing setup > sysprep > image-capture.

This is because the sysprep utility does not reset/remove/rearm the product activation status, and, when capturing an image (which you would then use for deploying to multiple machines), the licensing activation status inside the image must be not-activated. You cannot capture an image of an activated machine and then deploy that, because the activation would not be valid on any other machine. When activation occurs, a unique CMID is generated, and every machine must be unique in this CMID aspect. Duplicate CMIDs are a problem, particularly in KMS scenarios.

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February 4th, 2014 3:22pm

Guys,

Thanks for all the advice. Here is an update.

I ran the slmgr /dli and could see that Windows serverStandard editon was licenced.

Now onto the Offfce 2010 Activation.

I ran the Office 2010 KMS Host Licence Pack and went through the wizard without issue.

Ran the slmgr /dli all command and the results tell me that MS Office 2010 KMS Host Edition licence status is Licenced but for all editions of Windows server it is not licenced.

So how do I know if KMS works for Server 2012 R2?

By the way, what is the purpose of the rearm which I have read is related to KMS?

  • Edited by Icebun Tuesday, February 04, 2014 2:40 PM
February 4th, 2014 5:04pm

Thanks again.

Here is the contents of the output:-

Microsoft (R) Windows Script Host Version 5.8
Copyright (C) Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.


Name: Windows(R), ServerStandard edition
Description: Windows(R) Operating System, RETAIL channel
This license is not in use.
License Status: Unlicensed


Name: Windows(R), ServerStandard edition
Description: Windows(R) Operating System, OEM_COA_NSLP channel
This license is not in use.
License Status: Unlicensed


Name: Windows(R), ServerStandard edition
Description: Windows(R) Operating System, VOLUME_MAK channel
This license is not in use.
License Status: Unlicensed


Name: Windows(R), APPXLOB-Server add-on for ServerStandard,ServerStandardEval,ServerDatacenter,ServerDatacenterEval,ServerStorageWorkgroup,ServerStorageWorkgroupEval,ServerStorageStandard,ServerStorageStandardEval,ServerSolution,ServerWinFoundation,ServerHyperCore,ServerCloudStorage
Description: Windows(R) Operating System, VOLUME_MAK channel
This license is not in use.
License Status: Unlicensed


Name: Windows(R), ServerStandard edition
Description: Windows(R) Operating System, VOLUME_KMS_WS12_R2 channel
This license is not in use.
License Status: Unlicensed

Key Management Service is enabled on this machine
    Current count: 2
    Listening on Port: 1688
    DNS publishing enabled
    KMS priority: Normal

Key Management Service cumulative requests received from clients
    Total requests received: 11
    Failed requests received: 0
    Requests with License Status Unlicensed: 0
    Requests with License Status Licensed: 0
    Requests with License Status Initial grace period: 0
    Requests with License Status License expired or Hardware out of tolerance: 0
    Requests with License Status Non-genuine grace period: 0
    Requests with License Status Notification: 11


Name: Windows(R), ServerStandard edition
Description: Windows(R) Operating System, VOLUME_KMSCLIENT channel
This license is not in use.
License Status: Unlicensed
Configured Activation Type: All
Please use slmgr.vbs /ato to activate and update KMS client information in order to update values.


Name: Microsoft Office 2010, KMSHost edition
Description: Microsoft Office 2010 KMS, VOLUME_KMS channel
Partial Product Key: TYMCJ
License Status: Licensed

Key Management Service is enabled on this machine
    Current count: 2
    Listening on Port: 1688
    DNS publishing enabled
    KMS priority: Normal

Key Management Service cumulative requests received from clients
    Total requests received: 8
    Failed requests received: 0
    Requests with License Status Unlicensed: 0
    Requests with License Status Licensed: 0
    Requests with License Status Initial grace period: 8
    Requests with License Status License expired or Hardware out of tolerance: 0
    Requests with License Status Non-genuine grace period: 0
    Requests with License Status Notification: 0


Name: Windows(R), ServerStandard edition
Description: Windows(R) Operating System, OEM_COA_NSLP channel
This license is not in use.
License Status: Unlicensed


Name: Windows(R), ServerStandard edition
Description: Windows(R) Operating System, OEM_SLP channel
This license is not in use.
License Status: Unlicensed


Name: Windows(R), ServerStandard edition
Description: Windows(R) Operating System, OEM_SLP channel
This license is not in use.
License Status: Unlicensed


Name: Windows(R), ServerStandard edition
Description: Windows(R) Operating System, VOLUME_KMS_WS12_R2 channel
Partial Product Key: 8XR3Y
License Status: Licensed

Key Management Service is enabled on this machine
    Current count: 2
    Listening on Port: 1688
    DNS publishing enabled
    KMS priority: Normal

Key Management Service cumulative requests received from clients
    Total requests received: 11
    Failed requests received: 0
    Requests with License Status Unlicensed: 0
    Requests with License Status Licensed: 0
    Requests with License Status Initial grace period: 0
    Requests with License Status License expired or Hardware out of tolerance: 0
    Requests with License Status Non-genuine grace period: 0
    Requests with License Status Notification: 11


Name: Windows(R), ServerStandard edition
Description: Windows(R) Operating System, VIRTUAL_MACHINE_ACTIVATION channel
This license is not in use.
License Status: Unlicensed
Guest IAID: {49c27749-4629-45d5-ad53-2b4a4f85b8c5}

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February 5th, 2014 5:05am

......

Name: Microsoft Office 2010, KMSHost edition
Description: Microsoft Office 2010 KMS, VOLUME_KMS channel
Partial Product Key: TYMCJ
License Status: Licensed

Key Management Service is enabled on this machine
    Current count: 2
    Listening on Port: 1688
    DNS publishing enabled
    KMS priority: Normal

Key Management Service cumulative requests received from clients
    Total requests received: 8
    Failed requests received: 0
    Requests with License Status Unlicensed: 0
    Requests with License Status Licensed: 0
    Requests with License Status Initial grace period: 8
    Requests with License Status License expired or Hardware out of tolerance: 0
    Requests with License Status Non-genuine grace period: 0
    Requests with License Status Notification: 0

......
Name: Windows(R), ServerStandard edition
Description: Windows(R) Operating System, VOLUME_KMS_WS12_R2 channel
Partial Product Key: 8XR3Y
License Status: Licensed

Key Management Service is enabled on this machine
    Current count: 2
    Listening on Port: 1688
    DNS publishing enabled
    KMS priority: Normal

Key Management Service cumulative requests received from clients
    Total requests received: 11
    Failed requests received: 0
    Requests with License Status Unlicensed: 0
    Requests with License Status Licensed: 0
    Requests with License Status Initial grace period: 0
    Requests with License Status License expired or Hardware out of tolerance: 0
    Requests with License Status Non-genuine grace period: 0
    Requests with License Status Notification: 11

Ok, so the way to understand the output is:
discarding all the sections which contain " License Status: Unlicensed", leaves you with the current configuration of your KMShost.

This shows, that you have successfully registered/installed your WS2012R2 server OS as a Windows KMShost using your CSVLK KMShost product key (8XR3Y).Also, that you have successfully registered/installed Office2010 KMShost functions using your CSVLK KMShost product key (TYMCJ).

Your current-count, for both of these KMShost functions (KMS-for-Windows-clients, and KMS-for-Office-clients) is = 2, which is too low for any clients to successfully become activated. KMSclients must be a count of 5, or a count of 25, to become activated. You must build/configure more KMSclients, so that your client_count exceeds the minimum threshold quantities of 5 or 25.

For Office KMSclients, you need 5 or more.
For Windows Server OS as KMSclients, you need 5 or more.
For Windows Client OS as KMSclients, you need 25 or more. 

So, you have 2 KMSclient machines, which are completely correctly/successfully configured and are communicating with your KMShost. These 2 machines, have in total, contacted your KMShost 11 times (Total requests received=11), and they were/are in the licensing state=Notification, but, will not become activated until there are 5 or 25 KMSclients all in contact with your KM

February 5th, 2014 11:32pm

Don,

Thanks for taking the time to decipher the output.

Guess when I saw all the unlicensed comments I thought something was amiss.

Now I understand the purpose of rearm which is effectively a de-registration of the licence key.

Just a couple of more things if you don't mind:-

Q1/

Does the KMS server itself need access to the internet to complete any future registrations and if so what ports do I need to open etc?

Q2/

I understand that through this method I can also register Windows Server 2008 R2 as well?

Q3/

So long as I use the volume licence version of the OS and Office ISOs all should be well. Is that right?

Q4/

Is the purpose of the Volume Activation (VAMT)Management Toolkit just really for monitoring purposes as everything is automatically activated once the minimum licence request is reached? I saw the option to add keys to objects, would that be for non KMS situations?


  • Edited by Icebun Thursday, February 06, 2014 8:50 AM
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February 6th, 2014 11:50am

Now I understand the purpose of rearm which is effectively a de-registration of the licence key.

Kind of, but not ;)
a) input/install the product key
b) activate the license instance (present the pkey + CMID to an activation service, the service validates that submission and returns what is effectively an ACKnowledge)
 

Just a couple of more things if you don't mind:-

Q1/

Does the KMS server itself need access to the internet to complete any future registrations and if so what ports do I need to open etc?

No/None. Once a KMShost is itself activated with MS webservice or via telephone, that KMShost never needs to communicate with MS again. The KMShost becomes a listener on TCP:1688 (KMSclients contact your server). A KMShost never initiates contact with MS, nor with KMSclients.
 

Q2/

I understand that through this method I can also register Windows Server 2008 R2 as well?

Yes. Refer to the TN wiki article linked above by Yan Li, for the required/possible combinations for KMS. When I wrote that wiki article, the matrix/table seemed to be able to answer "which can do what upon where?".
In your case, your WS2012R2 KMShost can issue activations for all VL Windows versions/editions at and below your OS version/edition.
 

Q3/

So long as I use the volume licence version of the OS and Office ISOs all should be well. Is that right?

Yes, VL channel product ISOs are pre-keyed as KMSclients. Your current KMS scenario can't activate OFF2013 but can do all other VA products.
 

Q4/

Is the purpose of the Volume Activation (VAMT)Management Toolkit just really for monitoring purposes as everything is automatically activated once the minimum licence request is reached? I saw the option to add keys to objects, would that be for non KMS situations?

VAMT allows you to discover/audit/inventory/monitor/report-upon your estate, and, you can use VAMT to push a change of pkey out to computers if you need to do that. (e.g. change from MAK to KMSclient).
VAMT also allows you to perform MAK-proxy activation, should you need to handle that situation for a secured/isolated network of clients. VAMT has a few requirements, e.g. your VAMT computer and credentials upon it, need to have access to remoting protocols so VAMT can query the client computers, and/or write, via DCOM/RPC/WMI on those client compu
February 6th, 2014 12:40pm

Thanks again Don.
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February 7th, 2014 3:50am

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