Today we’ll deal with setting up a Microsoft Key Management Server (KMS). a KMS is used to activate Microsoft Volume Licensed products such as Windows 7, Office 2010 and Windows server 2008 R2, amongst others.
a KMS server activates a client for a period of 180 days. The activated machine will communicate with the KMS every 7 days to renew it’s activation information. It then resets the license counter back to 180 days if successful. If not it attempts to background connect to the KMS every 2 hours.
If, after 180 days, the machine has not been able to contact the KMS it will go into the 30 day grace period and notify the user. After that the machine will enter a reduced functionality mode until it can again connect to a KMS.
That was quite a mouthful – so let’s get down to setting up a KMS on a Windows 2008 R2 host. In addition we’ll also set it up so that it can activate Office 2010 clients.
Setting up a KMS
- Activate Windows with a KMS key. This will automatically configure the server as a KMS
- Download the Office 2010 KMS Host License Pack
- Enter your KMS host key when prompted (you will get this key from your Microsoft Volume Licensing website)
- Make sure to allow the Key Management Service through the Windows Firewall
Verify that KMS is published in DNS
nslookup -type=srv _vlmcs._tcp.<your DNS domain>
Checking the KMS status on your KMS
From an elevated command prompt, type SLMGR.vbs /dlv
Checking the license and activation status on a client
slmgr.vbs –dli
a KMS goes a significant way to easing administrative burden, so go ahead and set it up, it’s as easy-peasy!
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