Key Management Server

[Firefox]

Ok, forgive me if these anwsers to these questions are obvious, but here goes.

 

We have recently created a Windows 2008 R2 virtual server. We then installed VAMT 2.0.

 

We ran the cscript \windows\system32\slmgr.vbs -ipk (key) command

 

follows by the cscript \windows\system32\slmgr.vbs -ato command

 

both of these reported as successful.

 

I check DNS and the relevant SRV record had been created.

 

We are then asked to restart the Software Licensing Service...which we don't appear to have :-s

 

was this renamed to Software Protection under the R2 version of windows?

 

Also I have no HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\SL key :-s

 

I have created this manually on the KMS host...I guess this will be fine?

 

Finally within the KMS host itself there are not really many options to play with, Do my machines not auto populate on the KMS host as they request a key? I can run a search and it picks them up fine....but surely you're not meant to do this every time?

 

I know they won't activate until I meet the minimum requirements, but I thought I would atleast see them appear.

 

Also when I run a search and pick up all my machines, I can then obviously do an "Update Status" which moves the machines to the relevant subgroups, but then I seem to have to save this view, otherwise all changes are lost :-s also it then doesn't load this view as default next time I open the console.

 

So I guess my main question is, is the console supposed to be static, as it's not looking very dynamic at the moment

 

thanks

[Firefox]

Anyone?

[ZeroHour]

I dont use a MMC for our KMS so its CLI for me.

To see the status you hit slmrg -dli and that will give you details. The imporant number is "Current Count" which give you the tally. I am not sure how you audit that count but it is the number that matters for activation.

To get clients/servers to activate against this KMS you need to change the keys on the clients/servers to one of the following:

http://www.edugeek.net/forums/licensing-questions/50536-kms-client-setup-keys.html

 

When you do that it will try to find the KMS server and activate (which it wont be able to do until count is up)

The count for servers to activate is 5 (and that is 5 of either server or client, it does not care what activated on the count)

The client count is 25

 

One trick you can do is wipe a PC 25 times and each time you try to activate the count will increment. This is fine for 6 months until KMS starts to go down as prior count's expire after 6 months if they are not renewed.

 

Hope this helps

[Firefox]

Hey,

 

Thanks for the reply.

 

Have another issue\question if I may?

 

I have a number of machines that I wish to convert from MAK to KMS, doing so would allow me to get to the 25 count. It is my understanding that if they are MAK activated, I can Install the GVLK key, which in turns would allow them to be KMS activated? sure I have managed to do this once already

 

but when I try to install the GVLK key now I get the following error

 

"The software licensing service reported that the license is not installed"

 

I can confirm that the key is the relevant one from the list on the link you previously provided. I removed this key from the VAMT tool and re-added, but still get the same error :-s

 

I am a little unsure as to what key it thinks is uninstalled

[ZeroHour]

I have a number of machines that I wish to convert from MAK to KMS, doing so would allow me to get to the 25 count. It is my understanding that if they are MAK activated, I can Install the GVLK key, which in turns would allow them to be KMS activated? sure I have managed to do this once already

 

So just to clarify your putting one of the keys (say the W7 Ent KMS key) from the link I gave you into the client and not the actual KMS server?

Those keys are only for servers/clients that are going to use the KMS and you can change the key on existing MAK clients and they will switch over to allow you to get your account up (but they WONT activate and will have an error until the count is up)

You KMS key you get from volume licensing only needs to be entered once (aka not one for server and another for clients) if you use a ring C KMS key. I for example used a Windows 2008 R2 KMS key that is ring C/class C and what the class c bit means it will allow KMS to activate ALL KMS supported prior OS versions, aka it will activate 2008/vista/w7/2008 r2 all thanks to that one KMS key.

If you enter slmgr -dli on your KMS server it should tell you the class of key installed (ours is "VOLUME_KMS_R2_C Channel") and that should help you see if you have a ring C r2 key which would allow KMS to activate everything including servers.

Can you tell me what you get from -dli?

[Firefox]

Ok seems I made a slight error, I was using the Enterprise E key to try and change the MAK code on the client, all worked ok when just using the Enterprise key for Windows 7.

 

But on another point our KMS key is VOLUME_KMS_R2_B Channel we are also running this from a Windows 2008 R2 virtual server.

 

 

So just to clarify your putting one of the keys (say the W7 Ent KMS key) from the link I gave you into the client and not the actual KMS server?

 

all the keys you provided in our link are entered into the VAMT tool on the KMS server, it means we can centrally change keys without having to contact 1 machine at a time. For example I can change 25+ pc's all over to the GVLK key at exactly the same time, meaning I can wait until we have sufficient devices to meet the count.

Edited March 24, 2010 by ZeroHour

[ZeroHour]

But on another point our KMS key is VOLUME_KMS_R2_B Channel we are also running this from a Windows 2008 R2 virtual server.

 

Class B will be fine, it wont allow you to activate Datacenter editions of server but everthing else should activate.

Are you having anymore issues or are you kinda *there* with it all now?

[Firefox]

So just to clarify your putting one of the keys (say the W7 Ent KMS key) from the link I gave you into the client and not the actual KMS server?

Those keys are only for servers/clients that are going to use the KMS and you can change the key on existing MAK clients and they will switch over to allow you to get your account up (but they WONT activate and will have an error until the count is up)

You KMS key you get from volume licensing only needs to be entered once (aka not one for server and another for clients) if you use a ring C KMS key. I for example used a Windows 2008 R2 KMS key that is ring C/class C and what the class c bit means it will allow KMS to activate ALL KMS supported prior OS versions, aka it will activate 2008/vista/w7/2008 r2 all thanks to that one KMS key.

If you enter slmgr -dli on your KMS server it should tell you the class of key installed (ours is "VOLUME_KMS_R2_C Channel") and that should help you see if you have a ring C r2 key which would allow KMS to activate everything including servers.

Can you tell me what you get from -dli?

 

Think just about there with it now *crosses fingers* thanks for all your help