Licensing on Microsoft Office 2010 on RDS servers

[MrWu]

Hi all,

 

Any advice on how to licence Microsoft Office 2010 on RDS server farm? I tried our EES version of Office 2010 and it asks for activation for every user...doh I should have looked into this but did find out it needs Volume Licence Key to work...is there another way our do I now need to buy VLK version of Office 2010 as well?

 

Thanks as always

[Cache]

Hi all,

 

Any advice on how to licence Microsoft Office 2010 on RDS server farm? I tried our EES version of Office 2010 and it asks for activation for every user...doh I should have looked into this but did find out it needs Volume Licence Key to work...is there another way our do I now need to buy VLK version of Office 2010 as well?

 

Thanks as always

 

Ours is activated via KMS from the EES agreement and the EES version you have should be the VLK version.

 

Have you tried activating it while the RDS is in install mode to see if that makes any difference? ("change user /install" on a command prompt, activate it and then "change user /execute")

[localzuk]

You have to use a volume license edition for RDS, as every client which connects must have a license - not just a single one for the server.

 

EES is a volume license, but you need to ensure it is using a KMS server, as otherwise you'd need loads of MAK keys, which it isn't designed for.

[MrWu]

Ours is activated via KMS from the EES agreement and the EES version you have should be the VLK version.

 

Have you tried activating it while the RDS is in install mode to see if that makes any difference? ("change user /install" on a command prompt, activate it and then "change user /execute")

 

Thank you, will try doing this in install mode, I pretty much did a standard install of 2010 onto the RDS server, left it for a while and then changed the licence key to my EES and activated it. My account had domain admin access. When logging in ad a teacher it asks to activate again..at that point I looked at MS forums and stated it needs a VLK key

 

The licence number we use at the school is EES and we activate each PC using the VAMT tool

[MrWu]

You have to use a volume license edition for RDS, as every client which connects must have a license - not just a single one for the server.

 

EES is a volume license, but you need to ensure it is using a KMS server, as otherwise you'd need loads of MAK keys, which it isn't designed for.

 

Thank you

 

So do I use the EES Volume key and build a KMS server or do I need to buy the proper VLK licence from MS?

[MrWu]

Hi guys

 

Just found a MS document that might help too, it looks like I could co host a KMS server on the RDS server and use KMS version of Office 2010. Will give that a bash! :-)

 

FAQ: Volume activation of Office 2010

[localzuk]

An EES key is a proper volume license key, FYI. I'd not put the KMS on your RDS server though, as effectively you'd be putting a server on your 'client'.

 

You use the KMS key that came with your EES licenses to set it up on a server, and then all copies of office on your network will be able to check in and authorise against it - you never need to put any keys into the clients.

[MrWu]

Thanks for the help again.

 

Managed to build a VM remotely in a Caravan near Hastings in the freezing cold, on an iPad tethered to my iPhone via 3G lol

 

So now I install Office KMS host Licence Pack on the KMS server according to this link:

 

Configure a KMS Host for Office 2010 Volume Activation

 

So once done would I need to uninstall Office 2010 with the MAK key off my RDS server and reinstall a KMS version of Office 2010? Or would the RDS server with unactivated user profiles now look for the KMS server to auto activate?

 

Thanks as always

[localzuk]

Personally, I'd remove your previous Office install and reinstall without putting a MAK key in anywhere. Then it just all automatically works with the KMS server. Would probably be the simplest way of getting to the setup that you want.

[eddyc]

Personally, I'd remove your previous Office install and reinstall without putting a MAK key in anywhere. Then it just all automatically works with the KMS server. Would probably be the simplest way of getting to the setup that you want.

 

This is exactly how I set our terminal server up and it works really well.

[MrWu]

Thank you!

 

Have installed the KMS 2010 server and crack on with reinstalling Office 2010 tomorrow. Have activated my KMS Lic key on the Server, so just double check I don't need to put in any licence keys (even KMS) at all on the RDS servers when I reinstall office 2010?

 

Thank you

[localzuk]

Indeed, no code needs to be entered. We don't enter a code anywhere on our network except our kms server.

[MordyT]

Thank you!

 

Have installed the KMS 2010 server and crack on with reinstalling Office 2010 tomorrow. Have activated my KMS Lic key on the Server, so just double check I don't need to put in any licence keys (even KMS) at all on the RDS servers when I reinstall office 2010?

 

Thank you

 

No cracks allowed...

J/K, I know you meant check.

[MrWu]

LOL MordyT, Crack on is us old Brits way of saying 'Get Going with it' !

 

I feel a bit of a Newbie actually, bit stuck :

 

1) I have installed the KMS server (a Win2008 r2 VM) no Firewall,on a MAK key since I do not need activations for Win 7 or Windows 2008 R2, just Office 2010.

2) installed the MS Office 2010 KMS Host Licence Pack.

3) Entered my KMS Key and activated it successfully.

4) Removed Office 2010 MAK from my RDS Server

5) Rebooted

6) Reinstalled Office 2010 without MAK key on RDS Server (using change user /install)

7) Logged in as administrator ...immediately asks to activate Office 2010 when opening say Word 2010.

8) Then tried the command on my RDS Server : csript OSPP.vbs /act

 

 

C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\Office14>cscript ospp.vbs /actMicrosoft ® Windows Script Host Version 5.8

Copyright © Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.

 

---Processing--------------------------

---------------------------------------

Installed product key detected - attempting to activate the following product:

SKU ID: 6f327760-8c5c-417c-9b61-836a98287e0c

LICENSE NAME: Office 14, OfficeProPlus-KMS_Client edition

LICENSE DESCRIPTION: Office 14, VOLUME_KMSCLIENT channel

Last 5 characters of installed product key: H3GVB

ERROR CODE: 0xC004F074

ERROR DESCRIPTION: The Software Licensing Service reported that the computer cou

ld not be activated. No Key Management Service (KMS) could be contacted. Please

see the Application Event Log for additional information.

To view the activation event history run: cscript ospp.vbs /dhistorykms

---------------------------------------

---------------------------------------

---Exiting-----------------------------

 

When I run cscript slmgr.vbs /dlv on my KMS Server

 

C:\Windows\System32>cscript slmgr.vbs /dlv

Microsoft ® Windows Script Host Version 5.8

Copyright © Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.

 

Software licensing service version: 6.1.7601.17514

 

Name: Windows Server®, ServerStandard edition

Description: Windows Operating System - Windows Server®, VOLUME_MAK_B channel

Activation ID: 6a4bd364-4b60-4856-a727-efb59d94348e

Application ID: 55c92734-d682-4d71-983e-d6ec3f16059f

Extended PID: 55041-00168-262-058499-03-2057-7600.0000-0962013

Installation ID: 014466123610714754050682061316496230545395307890946750

Processor Certificate URL: http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkID=88342

Machine Certificate URL: http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkID=88343

Use License URL: http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkID=88345

Product Key Certificate URL: http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkID=88344

Partial Product Key: GY66V

License Status: Licensed

Remaining Windows rearm count: 4

Trusted time: 07/04/2013 22:26:37

 

Now according to Microsoft it should say KMS server is running as a status, mine as above does not.

 

Which does not indicate the server I built is running as a KMS server anyway, Googling some site the advice was I could just install the Office 2010 KMS Host Licence Pack on a Vanilla Windows 2008r2 and it should just activate Office...but the Microsoft Video suggest I also need to install Windows 2008 r2 as a KMS key as well? Or would it only work when 5 users tries to activate Office 2010 at the same time? Sorry for all these questions :-(

Edited April 8, 2013 by MrWu

[MrWu]

I have also tried the following:

 

ospp.vbs /sethst:MY KMS Server

 

That went ok

 

Then I ran ospp.vbs /act

 

---Processing--------------------------

---------------------------------------

Installed product key detected - attempting to activate the following product:

SKU ID: 6f327760-8c5c-417c-9b61-836a98287e0c

LICENSE NAME: Office 14, OfficeProPlus-KMS_Client edition

LICENSE DESCRIPTION: Office 14, VOLUME_KMSCLIENT channel

Last 5 characters of installed product key: H3GVB

ERROR CODE: 0xC004F038

ERROR DESCRIPTION: The Software Licensing Service reported that the computer cou

ld not be activated. The count reported by your Key Management Service (KMS) is

insufficient. Please contact your system administrator.

---------------------------------------

---------------------------------------

---Exiting-----------------------------

So what I think the above means is my KMS server is running but something funky is going on with Autodiscovery (although I only finished building the KMS server today so might take a bit of time.

 

Now I forced the Client to point to my KMS Server it has the above error maybe indicating I haven't met the minimum user count (5?) to go and use KMS Activation?

 

Hopefully I'm getting my head around this ....

[Cache]

Yup, your almost there and there is nothing wrong with your KMS at the moment, it's just not activated yet. You need a minimum number of clients in order to activate the KMS server, for Office 2010 it is 5.

 

How many RDS servers do you have in your farm which need Office 2010 installed? If it's 5, just crack on and when the 5th is installed it will chug away quite happily. If you haven't got 5, if you've a couple of workstations you can install Office 2010 and get to activate via KMS to make up the shortfall from your servers, that will achieve the same result.

 

For reading if you want: Volume activation quick start guide for Office 2010