Hi

In this two part article series, I am going to to talk about the new operating system and Office products licensing methods of Microsoft and give details about the Key Management Services (KMS) method. Also I will explain how we can activate Office 2010 products with this method. Lets start with the explanation of what these new licensing methods are.

Microsoft uses VLK (Volume License Key) licensing method in Windows XP operating systems for it’s corporate customers. But it changed this licensing model with the release of Windows Vista and Windows Server 2008 products. With these operating systems, two new methods appeared. These are MAK (Multiple Activation Key) and KMS (Key Management Services). MAK is almost similar to the old Windows activation method. The operating system is activated via Microsoft web site. But a limited number of activation is permitted and a verification mechanism is utilized by Microsoft in this method. In MAK activation method, there are alternative ways for activation. You can either activate the operating system directly from microsoft.com online / by telephone or you can use a MAK Proxy machine to activate the operating system. This proxy machine is hosting a software called VAMT (Volume Activation Management Tool) and this tool manages the whole process of activation of MAK client machines. Figure 1 shows the MAK activation processes in detail.

The numbers in orange color are representing the direct activation of operating system from Microsoft web site:

1-      MAK product key is entered to the client machine

2-      Each client activate itself from Microsoft web site online or via telephone.

The numbers in Green color are representing the activation process which is handled by MAK Proxy machine:

1-      The machines on the network are searched by using Active Directory or network discovery APIs

2-      MAK Product key is applied and installation IDs (IID) are collected using WMI

3-      Optinally, the machine information is exported to XML file (Computer Information List – CIL)

4-      Microsoft web site is connected over SSL and corresponding confirmation IDs are obtained

5-      MAK Proxy client(s) are activated by using the confirmation IDs. A significant hardware change requires re-activation.

KMS is a different activation method. First of all, a machine called “KMS Host” is activated via microsoft.com by using a KMS product key (this machine can be either a Windows Server 2008 / 2008 R2 machine or Windows Vista/7 machine). After this KMS Host machine installation and activation process, all the activations of operating systems in corporate network is handled by this machine and none of the clients will connect to Microsoft web site for activation. Figure2 shows the activation steps in a KMS infrastructure.

The numbers in yellow color show KMS host setup. The activation steps of client machines are shown with numbers in blue color. Here are the details:

KMS Host setup

1-      Using SLMGR command, KMS Product key is entered to the KMS Host machine

2-      KMS Host is activated via Microsoft Hosted Activation Services

3-      KMS Service registers the _vlmcs SRV record in the DNS server

Activation Steps of a client

1-      KMS Client discovers KMS Host by registry entry or DNS server

2-      KMS Client sends a RPC request to KMS Host on 1688 TCP port

3-      KMS Host creates a CMID (Client Machine ID) and adds it to the CMID table

4-      KMS Host returns the activation count to the client

5-      KMS client evaluates count vs. license policy and activates itself if the activation threshold is met

Now, it is time to talk about the license status types of a windows machine in a certain time. The followings are the license states of a windows machine:

Licensed: The fully functional state of an operating system

Out-of-box Grace: This is the period between operating system installation and activation

Out-of-tolerance Grace: The condition that an activated machine falls into after a major hardware change

Non-genuine Grace: This is a condition where WGA ActiveX control could not achieve Genuine Activation

Unlicensed: This is a condition where operating system could not realize its activation status

The grace period of a Windows Vista / 7 machine is 30 days and of a windows Server 2008 / 2008 R2 machine is 60 days. After the grace period if the machine is not activated, the desktop turns into black and a non-genuine warning appears at the right-bottom corner of desktop.

Before get into the installation and activation phases of KMS Host, I want to mention few topics. These are; the explanation of few technical terms, the server groups and activation threshold. Here are some of the terms that you can face during the article:

KMS host: The machine that gives the activation service and activated the machines on network

KMS client: Installed and waiting for activation windows machine on the network

Activation Threshold: The minimum number to be reached for activation to start

_VLMCS: The SRV resource record to be registered on DNS which serves on port RCP 1688

Among these terms, “Activation Threshold” may not be understood clearly. Microsoft determined a threshold number for client and server operating systems (OS) in KMS method. These are 25 for client OS and 5 for server OS. Let me give you an example:

Assume that you setup the KMS Host and install your first Windows 7 machine in your network. When the client machine learn where the KMS is running and request for an activation, KMS Host generates a CMID for this machine and gives an activation count of 1 to this client, and activation does not occur for this Widows 7 machine. As you continue to install client machines on your network, the same procedure happens and the client machines are given increased activation count numbers.  Therefore, the 25th Windows 7 computer will activate itself first. Similar to this, the servers start to activate themselves at the number of 5. This activation number is not counted separately for clients and servers. It is cumulative. What I mean is that, for example, you install 4 Windows 7 machine and the fifth machine is installed as Windows Server 2008 R2. As the activation count number is cumulative and reached 5, therefore the first server operating system but the fifth machine on the network is automatically activated. Table 1 is more clear I think :)

Table 1: KMS activation threshold examples

And also there are a operating system groups :) Microsoft grouped the product line into 4. The top group is Server Group C. The others are Server Group B, Server Group A and Client VL. The upper groups can activate the lower groups. Table 2 and Figure 3 demonstrate the groupings. Let me give an example: If you activate the KMS Host on a Windows Server 2008 R2 Datacenter Edition operating system, you can activate all of the operating system product line of Microsoft. If KMS Host is a Windows 7 machine, you can only activate Windows 7 and Windows Vista operating systems. But a Windows Vista KMS Host can not activate a Windows 7 machine.

Table 2: Operating system groups

After all these information, we can start to build our KMS Host. We do all the job about KMS with the executable file slmgr.vbs . When we run the slmgr command (which is under C:\Windows\System32) at the command prompt with administrative privileges, a help screen will occur. All the parameters of slmgr command is represented in this help screen. I want to finish here for this part and continue with the installation of KMS Host in the next part of the article.

In this first part of the article, we talked about the KMS and MAK licensing models. We also explained the operating systems product key groups, license status of an operating system and the threshold value for activation process. In the next part of the article, we will install the KMS Host machine, talk about the mostly used parameters of slmgr command and Office KMS activation. Bye for now.

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