is there a way to have multiple KMS on a single domain where fault tolerance can be eliminated. how can you configure the second KMS to automatically activate clients if the first KMS is unavailable?

Hello,see "Plannin a KMS Depoyment" in "Volume Activation 2.0 Planning Guide.doc":http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=9893F83E-C8A5-4475-B025-66C6B38B46E3&displaylang=enBest regards Meinolf Weber Disclaimer: This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights.

Hi, If a KMS host fails, you must install a KMS key on a new host and activate it. You then need to ensure that the new KMS host has an SRV resource record in the DNS database. If you install the new KMS host with the same computer name and IP address as the failed KMS host, the new KMS host can use the DNS SRV record of the failed host. If the new host has a different computer name, you need to manually remove the DNS SRV record of the failed host. If your network is using DDNS, the new KMS host automatically creates a new SRV record in the DNS server. The new KMS host then starts collecting client renewal requests and begins activating clients as soon as the KMS activation threshold is met. If your KMS clients are using auto-discovery, they automatically choose another KMS host if their original KMS host does not respond to renewal requests. If you are not using auto-discovery, you need to update the KMS client computers that were assigned to the failed KMS host. Multiple KMS hosts can be registered in DNS SRV resource records. If one KMS host is down, the KMS client computer will choose another from the list. If direct registration is used on the KMS client computer, you can use round-robin DNS or network load-balancing mechanisms (software or hardware) to increase KMS host availability. For more information, please refer to the following site: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc304369.aspx Hope it helps. Tim Quan - MSFT

Hi Man .W, How are things going? We have not heard back from you in a few days and wanted to check on the status of the issue. Please let us know how things turned out. Tim Quan - MSFT

Hello, What exactly am I doing wrong when I install a new Windows Server 2008 in my enviroment, and it adds itself as a KMS in DNS? We have over 20 Windows Server 2008 boxes and 7 of them think they are the main KMS server. ThanksJason

Hello Jason, You are using the KMS host key rather than the default KMS setup key, The images\media for VL default to the KMS setup key so the key was changed to the KMS host key which is why it attempts to register as a KMS hostThanks, Darrell Gorter This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights. Volume Activation documentation on TechNet http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/dd197314.aspx http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dd996588.aspx VAMT - Volume Activation Management Tool - Download link http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=ec7156d2-2864-49ee-bfcb-777b898ad582&displaylang=en

Darrell, Thanks for the reply. For now own when installing a new Windows Server, I should input one of these keys below? Are these KMS setup key's below? For KMS clients (actually, all of the other computers) including windows 2008 server and windows vista you'll need one of the corresponding keys as follows: Windows Vista Business - YFKBB-PQJJV-G996G-VWGXY-2V3X8 Windows Vista Business N - HMBQG-8H2RH-C77VX-27R82-VMQBT Windows Vista Enterprise - VKK3X-68KWM-X2YGT-QR4M6-4BWMV Windows Vista Enterprise N - VTC42-BM838-43QHV-84HX6-XJXKV Windows Server 2008 Datacenter - 7M67G-PC374-GR742-YH8V4-TCBY3 Windows Server 2008 Datacenter without Hyper-V - 22XQ2-VRXRG-P8D42-K34TD-G3QQC Windows Server 2008 for Itanium-Based Systems - 4DWFP-JF3DJ-B7DTH-78FJB-PDRHK Windows Server 2008 Enterprise - YQGMW-MPWTJ-34KDK-48M3W-X4Q6V Windows Server 2008 Enterprise without Hyper-V - 39BXF-X8Q23-P2WWT-38T2F-G3FPG Windows Server 2008 Standard - TM24T-X9RMF-VWXK6-X8JC9-BFGM2 Windows Server 2008 Standard without Hyper-V - W7VD6-7JFBR-RX26B-YKQ3Y-6FFFJ Windows Web Server 2008 - WYR28-R7TFJ-3X2YQ-YCY4H-M249D Jason

Hello Jason, Yes those are the default KMS setup keys, so yes you need to change to one of those keys to make a KMS host become a KMS client. After changing the key, you should either stop and start the Software Licensing Service or reboot the machine.Thanks, Darrell Gorter This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights. Volume Activation documentation on TechNet http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/dd197314.aspx http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dd996588.aspx VAMT - Volume Activation Management Tool - Download link http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=ec7156d2-2864-49ee-bfcb-777b898ad582&displaylang=en