KMS Query

[Jawloms]

Hi all,

 

I am going to be ugrading a primary school to Office 2010 from 2003 soon. They have an EES agreement, 2 servers and about 60-70 computers running XP. They currently don't use KMS as everything they are running was purchased before they got their EES agreement and all the product keys were typed in manually.

 

I believe I am right in this, but just wanted to check;

 

They have a DC running Server 2003 R2 and a new member server running Server 2008 R2. I am planning on setting up the 2008 server to do their KMS with their Office 2010 key. That will work once they have 25 clients requesting activation won't it? The fact that it's not activating any OSs and there aren't 5 servers is irrelevant?

 

Thank you

 

Stuart

[FN-GM]

For Microsoft Office the count is 5 not 25. Office will work still but will not be activated until you get more than 5 machines.

 

Is Office 2010 installed on your image?

Edited February 14, 2013 by FN-GM

[Jawloms]

Nope. I did wonder about upgrading one computer, using the MAK and making a new image, but I would like to do something with KMS as I never have before and at some point in the future they're going to want everything on Windows 7. Just seemed like a good opportunity to have a play.

[FN-GM]

If you put a MAK in it will be removed when you sysprep the machine.

 

If you install Office 2010 on the image you will need to use a script to reset the SID of office so it will activate.

[camel]

@FN-GM : just beat me too it.*

 

 

You've got the right idea but I would go straight for KMS. Am I right that you would activate the computer you are imaging with a MAK key?

 

KMS is extremely easy to setup. Install the server or client KMS key on the 2008 R2 server. Install the Microsoft Office 2010 KMS Host License Pack on the same server, install the Office key and then wait for the clients to activate. Use "slmgr.vbs /dlv" to check how many activation requests have been submitted.

 

*One caveat: on the image you are creating, Office 2010 will need to be rearmed immediately before imaging so that when the new installation has finished set up it will generate a new office installation ID. The issue will be that Office wont activate using KMS if multiple copies of Office request activation where they all have the same generated installation ID.

 

There isn't this issue with Windows as you will run sysprep before imaging. Think of rearming as "sysprep for Office".

[Jawloms]

You've got the right idea but I would go straight for KMS. Am I right that you would activate the computer you are imaging with a MAK key?

 

Yes.

 

If KMS works for me when I do it, then I'll worry about setting it up for Windows etc, and then setting up WDS/MDT when they do eventually want everything upgraded. The existing image they use is just a Ghost image, so no sysprepping is involved.

 

Thank you both very much for your help.

[RabbieBurns]

Ive never done any of the rearming office 2010 stuff, just install it on the image without a serial number, deploy the image, and its all activated by kms?

 

Have i been doing it wrong all these years?

[LeMarchand]

Ive never done any of the rearming office 2010 stuff, just install it on the image without a serial number, deploy the image, and its all activated by kms?

 

Have i been doing it wrong all these years?

 

Me too!

 

I'd have to check, but I thought that putting the MAK in survived a sysprep as well (for one of my schools where I don't think the server will run KMS).

[camel]

Me too!

 

I'd have to check, but I thought that putting the MAK in survived a sysprep as well (for one of my schools where I don't think the server will run KMS).

 

I found that when deploying office in our environment that each Office installation stated that it could not activate. We have KMS set up correctly and it was receiving activation requests, but very few (less than 5) however, I was made aware of the need to rearm Office for use in a KMS environment. Maybe it is different for an Office MAK key installed before sysprep?