Moving from MAK to KMS

[bicec]

Hi All!

 

We are currently planning on switching from MAK to KMS on our desktop computers to make the imaging process smoother. Before I install the KMS server I wanted to verify some things.

 

1. We have netbooks and laptops that we want to keep their MAK keys. Will the KMS server overwrite the MAK keys or will they keep their MAK keys and act like normal.

 

2. Will inserting a Windows 7 KMS key on a kms server mess up licensing on our Windows Servers? I know this is probably a stupid question but I want to make sure I don't break stuff.

 

3. Will I need to do anything special to activate our desktops to the kms server?

 

I was planning on running it on Windows Server 2003 with VAMT

[robk]

I think you can set up a kms server and then change machines from mak to kms as you want.

 

Should not affect anything else.

 

You can still use mak if you need even when kms is installed

[ZeroHour]

For all the clients you want to switch to KMS you will need to use one of these keys to switch licensing mode as such (keys: http://www.edugeek.net/forums/licensing-questions/50536-kms-client-setup-keys.html). These keys tell the OS to license from KMS and the servers/desktops you enter that in will look for the KMS to activate. You need a count of 25 clients for the KMS to activate Vista/W7 desktops and 5 server clients for server OS activation. These numbers are combined though, so if you had 4 w7 and 1 server thats a count of 5 so that would allow the server OS to activate but not w7 as its not at the count of 25. The first time you activate a device it will fail because your count of clients (server and desktop) is not at the required number. Just continue to use the kms key and then when you hit 5/25 the existing clients will eventually activate fully as they check the kms. If they dont you can just renter a KMS key and they will activate.

When you build a new desktop/server note they by default activate with kms when they have no key supplied, all you do to switch to MAK is change to a MAK key and it will be fine.

There is a KMS tool but I cant remember the name and it allows you to remotely switch clients over and check licenses.

 

Hope this helps a little.