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.