Migrate from KMS to embedded license activation

[CHiLL]

We have migrated from A1 to A3 licensing and this have the caveat that we are no longer licensed via VLSC for Windows Education, activated by our Active Directory KMS activation services. Instead, we need to utilise embedded licenses that come with the devices, which appear to be Windows Pro Edu if I inspect the shiny Windows sticker.

 

I know that we need to use a command line/script to switch the activation over to the embedded version, but I am unsure what to do with our volume activation services. It's currently installed as a role on a server with Active Directory integration. I cannot seem to find any GPO or other configuration that specifies our clients to use the volume activation services. My concern is that if I just remove that role, it's going to break licensing on clients that either have not taken the new licensing or don't have a valid embedded license.

 

What would be the best way to approach this?

[TechMonkey]

Been a while since I did activation services but I seem to recall it is either DNS based or an Active Directory field that sets the server. Best way to check is to look up a "how to remove..." guide, or find a "how to install..." guide and see what might need removing. My suggestion would be to just leave it as it won't cause any issues and eventually will be redundant and will get removed when you update servers.

[CHiLL]

Been a while since I did activation services but I seem to recall it is either DNS based or an Active Directory field that sets the server. Best way to check is to look up a "how to remove..." guide, or find a "how to install..." guide and see what might need removing. My suggestion would be to just leave it as it won't cause any issues and eventually will be redundant and will get removed when you update servers.

Since we don't appear to have any direct configuration to tell clients how/where to activate, I just wondered if I made the change to embedded keys on a client, would it try and change back to the KMS key automatically, based on AD configuration?

[TechMonkey]

Again, this is all a bit fuzzy but I'm pretty sure KMS is only used if the KMS key is entered to the device. It may generate an error in event viewer, but no adverse issues or over rights

[CHiLL]

Again, this is all a bit fuzzy but I'm pretty sure KMS is only used if the KMS key is entered to the device. It may generate an error in event viewer, but no adverse issues or over rights

That's what I would have thought, but we actually don't specify any keys in our TS and we don't use a custom/captured image. It's just an ISO from Microsoft that's deployed by an SCCM TS and the product key section is blank. I believe the AD activation is tied with DNS, which is probably how the clients know how to access Windows must have some baked in method to know to check for activation servers.

 

I'm going to try it on a couple of test stations and slowly expand from there if successful, I just wanted to gauge where any issues might arise, if any.

[computer_expert]

Remove the DNS srv record which points to KMS/ADBA. Set the device to use the firmware licence afterwards to stop it obtaining the licence from KMS/ADBA. KMS/ADBA will still be active if you need to switch back but you will either need to set the KMS details manually on each device or reinstate the srv record.