Activating Windows 7 Professional and Office 2013 using KMS

[draytonIT]

Hello,

 

Our KMS server had been running without any issue for months on Windows Server 2008 R2, until recently when I tried to activate 25+ Windows 7 Machines and 25+ Office 2013 machines, and it just wouldn’t activate, giving the error “Error: 0xC004F074 The Software Licensing Service reported that the computer could not be activated. The Key Management Service (KMS) is unavailable”. We are currently able to activate Office 2010 without issues.

 

I have updated VAMT to version 3.1, reinstalled VAMT on a fresh installation of Server 2008 R2 and also on Server 2012 R2, however this also gave the same error messages and I am still unable to activate Windows 7 Professional or Office 2013 using KMS.

 

I have used the Volume Licencing Keys from the Microsoft Website (https://www.microsoft.com/Licensing/servicecenter/default.aspx) and am fairly confident that our keys are correct.

 

I would be grateful for any assistance.

 

Thank you.

Edited May 8, 2014 by draytonIT

[jamesreedersmith]

You mention VAMT and KMS - they are different systems and use different keys - which system are you using at the moment.

[draytonIT]

We are using VAMT 3.1 installed on Windows Server 2008 R2

[fiza]

You mention VAMT and KMS - they are different systems and use different keys - which system are you using at the moment.

 

i thought that if you had both installed you could use VAMT to administer your KMS clients?

[caffrey]

DNS issue, time issue or port issue ? KMS key is installed on the KMS server I assume ?

[draytonIT]

DNS issue, time issue or port issue ? KMS key is installed on the KMS server I assume ?

 

As mentioned we are able to activate Office 2010 without issues.

The time is the same on the server and the clients. All correct keys have been used.

[caffrey]

tried a nslookup -type=srv _vlmcs._tcp to see what KMS servers are available ?

[draytonIT]

tried a nslookup -type=srv _vlmcs._tcp to see what KMS servers are available ?

 

Yes, tried that also and the server details are correct.

[free780]

Is the office 2013 key installed in kms? Is kms updated to support office 2013? Does it activate if you do a manual activation specifying the kms server using ospp.vbs or slmgr.vbs for win7.

[ADMaster]

There are patches required to support Office 2013 and server 2012 have you applied those?

However I kept getting the same errors as you and switched to active directory activation for server 2012 and office 2013. The KMS still works great for windows 7 and office 2010.

 

Yes you can use VAMT and KMS together, when you scan your network for clients and chose activate, you have the option of installing a key or using volume activation (KMS).

I scan the network once in a while to find clients that haven’t checked in for a while and force an activation with VAMT.

 

Not the answer you wanted, but it will get them activated.

[dhicks]

I have updated VAMT to version 3.1, reinstalled VAMT on a fresh installation of Server 2008 R2 and also on Server 2012 R2, however this also gave the same error messages and I am still unable to activate Windows 7 Professional or Office 2013 using KMS.

@rickjames set our new KMS server up (Server 2012 R2), and had some similar-sounding issues along the way - I think he possibly set the clients to activate via Active Directory in the end, but he might be able to provide more details.