MS KMS Server Host / Client Tutorial Full version with MS misconceptions (Office Products)

Hello, I wanted to write a tutorial on the Microsoft KMS server, one of the oldest products out to date. This is meant for the office product line but can be applied to Windows 7/8/10 servers 2k8, 2012, etc. Here I will discuss

VAMT tool 3.1 2.0 1

KMS Server

Client Activation

VAMT tool is to be installed only on 2k8 R2 or volume license edition of Windows 7, this allows you to remotely send keys to the clients. which is a manual task. adding each computer to it and sending off the keys, defeats the purpose of KMS servers.

Now to get to the KMS server misconception. and all of its bugs

Let’s assume you have your basics covered with your firewall disabled, or correctly configured to allow port 1688 for communication as well as your SRV records are in place for the DNS to pick up the server name and communicate with the server correctly.

First, you need to install what’s called an MS Office activation pack (2010 / 2013 /  2016) a quick Google you can find the link to download and install it, it has important hidden KB updates. This installs and upgrades your KMS host. though it does not take your KMS Key and will give you an error saying that you have the wrong key. First terrible MS thing.

Secondly, open an elevated CMD prompt and type this in script c:\windows\system32\slmgr.vbs /ipk AAAAA-BBBBB-CCCCC-DDDDD-EEEEE

add your KMS key here, you will notice that in the licensing center in Microsoft, it says the KMS server needs no key, but you should use the KMS key for the product, and not the KMS host section of the stupidly, Indian-written MS website.

Once you have that check that it was successful script c:\windows\system32\slmgr.vbs /deli 2E28138A-847F-42BC-9752-61B03FFF33CD <- this hash is for office 2013, I will try to update and grab the other IDs for you. but you can do a script c:\windows\system32\slmgr.vbs /deli all and see everything. it won’t hurt.

The output should look something like this

c:\Windows\System32>cscript slmgr.vbs /dli 2E28138A-847F-42BC-9752-61B03FFF33CD

Microsoft (R) Windows Script Host Version 5.8

Copyright (C) Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.

Name: Office 15, KMSHostVL edition

Description: Office 15, VOLUME_KMS channel

Partial Product Key: XXXXX

License Status: Licensed

Key Management Service is enabled on this machine

    Current count: 4

    Listening on Port: 1688

    DNS publishing enabled

    KMS priority: Normal

Key Management Service cumulative requests received from clients

    Total requests received: 11810

    Failed requests received: 0

    Requests with License Status Unlicensed: 0

    Requests with License Status Licensed: 1111

    Requests with License Status Initial grace period: 119

    Requests with License Status License expired or Hardware out of tolerance: 484

    Requests with License Status Non-genuine grace period: 0

    Requests with License Status Notification: 10096

Now that you have your KMS server ready for activation, you must go past the 5 minimum limits for KMS activation for office products, and the 25 limits for Windows products, Currently I have counted 4  Current counts: 4

To do that there is an online script that has a hardware changer if you don’t have 5 current counts you will get the following error: 

C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\Office15>cscript ospp.vbs /act

Microsoft (R) Windows Script Host Version 5.8

Copyright (C) Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved

—Processing————————–

—————————————

Installed product key detected – attempting to activate the following product:

SKU ID: b13afb38-xxxx-xxxx-9f7f-xxxxxxxxxxxx

LICENSE NAME: Office 15, OfficeStandardVL_KMS_Client edition

LICENSE DESCRIPTION: Office 15, VOLUME_KMSCLIENT channel

Last 5 characters of installed product key: 92CD4

ERROR CODE: 0xC004F038

ERROR DESCRIPTION: The Software Licensing Service reported that the product coul

d not be activated. The count reported by your Key Management Service (KMS) is i

nsufficient. Please contact your system administrator.

NOTICE: A KB article has been detected for activation failure: 0xC004F038

FOR MORE INFORMATION PLEASE VISIT: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2870357#Error

0xC004F038

—————————————

—————————————

—Exiting—————————–

To increase the count I suggest you turn up a few VMs and try activating. The assumption that your previous IT guy used an image to image your desktops that has been cleared of the HW key might not be true. So a bunch of new VMs to bypass the minimum count of 5 is ideal or you can get the Sysprep tool for your desktops as if they are going to be imaged. 

Another misconception is that the ops (Bullshit) tool is supposed to be given the KMS key, nop, it only takes the MAK key …. don’t waste your time trying to solve a license issue. To install your MAK first remove the old key

and get the status with cscript ospp.vbs /dstatus

cscript ospp.vbs /unpkey: LAST5numbersgiven ByDstatus

C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\Office15>cscript ospp.VBS /inpkey: MAK_KEY_ONLY

If you want to activate all of your machines with this MAK method go ahead and create a startup script in your GPO and add the above lines to a Batch file *.bat. 

Otherwise, What’s not documented is that you have to uninstall the MS Office and install the version from the website as that comes prepackaged with the CDKEY that allows for KMS activation through your KMS server, any old or previous installations and you are out of luck. 

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