Volume Licence Key Protection
Hi, Can anyone please advise on how to protect the Volume Licence Key in a Hosted environment? If we deploy a Server 2008R2 installation what will stop someone ripping the product key and then we get charged for more activations? Is a KMS setup required?
Thanks
May 21st, 2012 12:02pm
I fairly sure someone intending to retrieve the key from a system would have to have administrative rights to the machine. In a hosted environment, rights management is complicated and a huge
undertaking, but worth the time to the administrators. Clients (the people leasing the server) should have user rights, and be given any additional rights needed on demand, on a case by case basis.
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May 21st, 2012 12:37pm
Hi, thanks for your reply, just to explain a bit further we have a dedicated server which we would like to use for KVM virtualisation offering users a windows server environment so they would have admin rights to start with. What can stop these users ripping
the key?
May 21st, 2012 12:58pm
Hello,
KMS would protect the key. The KMS host key is only installed on the few machines that will be KMS host, all the KMS client machines use the generic setup keys which are posted on TechNetThanks, Darrell Gorter [MSFT] This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights. VAMT - Volume Activation Management Tool - Download link http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=ec7156d2-2864-49ee-bfcb-777b898ad582&displaylang=en
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May 21st, 2012 1:01pm
Hi Darrell, am I correct in thinking we would use our KMS key on a host on the same lan and then a completely different key that is freely available?
May 21st, 2012 1:17pm
Hello,
The KMS clients use VL media which defaults to installing the key you need to use.
the keys are posted on TechNet, while different per edition, all users get the same KMS client keys:
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ff793421.aspxThanks, Darrell Gorter [MSFT] This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights. VAMT - Volume Activation Management Tool - Download link http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=ec7156d2-2864-49ee-bfcb-777b898ad582&displaylang=en
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May 21st, 2012 4:00pm
Hi, Thanks for the advice. We have setup the KMS Server and it started activating on the 5th try which seems to be the norm. It did raise some additional questions:
1. The Volume activation expiration on the server we activated through the KMS states 180 days, what happens after this?
2. What will be the maximum number of activations?
3. The activation interval states 120 minutes, what happens if the KMS Server is unavailable?
Any more info would be greatly appreciated. Thanks
May 23rd, 2012 12:12pm
Hello.
1) The client is activated for 180 days, it attempts to renew after 7 days time, which would set it back to 180 days. If the machine is unable to contact a KMS host for 180 it will go into a Notifications state( unactivated)
2) there is no limit
3) It will retry in 120 minutes or with a network status change notificationThanks, Darrell Gorter [MSFT] This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights. VAMT - Volume Activation Management Tool - Download link http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=ec7156d2-2864-49ee-bfcb-777b898ad582&displaylang=en
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May 23rd, 2012 2:40pm
Hi, Thanks for clearing this up. We are still a bit confused with the correct licensing of the products however:
If we activate the KMS licence on one of the servers, do we still need to report usage of any other servers which are activated agains this server.
Considering they would be allocated with the generic keys that requires activation every 180 days?Does the increments seen within the KMS Host signify an additional server which will have to be reported as usage through SPLA even though we are not using our volume License Key (MAK)Do we need to report usage at all for servers that do not use our VLK.
Many thanks if you can clear this up.
May 24th, 2012 11:33am
Hello,
KMS is an activation technology only, it is not a compliance technology, any reporting through KMS is for your benefit.
I am not familiar with the requirements for compliance reporting.Thanks, Darrell Gorter [MSFT] This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights. VAMT - Volume Activation Management Tool - Download link http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=ec7156d2-2864-49ee-bfcb-777b898ad582&displaylang=en
Free Windows Admin Tool Kit Click here and download it now
May 24th, 2012 3:36pm