Hi
In the first part of the article, we talked about the KMS and MAK licensing models. I explained the operating systems product key groups, license status of an operating system and the threshold value for activation process. In this part of the article, we will install the KMS Host machine, talk about the mostly used parameters of slmgr command and Office KMS activation. Lets start with the KMS Host setup.
As I mentioned before, KMS Host role can be hosted either on a server operating system or client operating system. I will setup the KMS role on a Windows Server 2008 R2 Standard Edition operating system which is a member of Server Group B product key group. With this machine, we can activate all but the Server Group C member operating systems. I logon to the KMS Host candidate machine first with my domain account (which is a local administrator) and open a command prompt with administrative privileges.
The command that we use is slmgr for the setup. Without any parameter, a help screen appears as it is seen in Figure 1.
Figure 1: slmgr help screen
The first command that we use is:
slmgr /ipk <Windows_2008_KMS_product_key>
After entering this command, we install the 25 character KMS product key into the operating system. The second command is:
slmgr /ato
With this command, we activate the host machine via Microsoft web site (I assume the machine has an internet connection). That is it :) We have to check two things by the way. First one is the DNS record that KMS Host has to create (which is _vlmcs TCP 1688 SRV Resource record) and the second one is whether KMS host is really activated or not by using slmgr /dli command (details are later). Figure 2 and 3 show DNS Record and the answer screen for slmgr /dli command.
Figure 2: Related DNS record
Figure 3: Answer screen for slmgr /dli command
As we ended the KMS Host setup, all we have to do is install the client machines and wait them to be activated by KMS. We can check the client machines that request activation from KMS Host by slmgr command and by controlling the Event Viewer of KMS Host machine. Therefore to begin activation, Windows Vista / Windows Server 2008 and above operating systems have to be installed widely. Because the threshold value has to be exceeded.
Lets have a look at the mostly used parameters of slmgr command. As it is seen in Figure 1, there are lots of parameters that can be used by the slmgr command. /dli and /dlv parameters are more or less the same but /dlv gives more details about the statistical information and licensing as in Figure 3 and 4. If we run the same commad on KMS client machine, the output will be slightly different (Figure 5).
Figure 4: slmgr /dlv output screen (on KMS Host machine)
Figure 5: slmgr /dlv output screen (on KMS Client machine)
/upk parameter is used to delete the product key. For example, you can have a MAK activated client machine and want to turn the licensing to KMS. Therefore you delete the product key first and then by using /ipk parameter you enter a new KMS product key to the client and activate it.
/skms parameter is a client side parameter. The usage is as follows:
slmgr /skms <KMS_Host>:<port>
Instead of <KMS_Host>, we can write FQDN of the host machine or IP address of it. <port> is 1688 by default but during the KMS Host setup, another port number can be defined to serve therefore the number may differ. With this parameter we impose to the client that KMS host is as written in the command. We can do this in a situation that DNS is not working correctly. The KMS Host discovery process for a client starts with the registry by the way. If a KMS Host value is written in the registry, client will not ask KMS Host name to the DNS server.
/rearm parameter is used to extend the out-of-box grace period of a client. For example, if you have a test machine in your testing environment, you can use it for 120 days without activating it. In other words, Microsoft let the user to extend the grace period for 3 more times (each extension add 30 days to the period) and for testing environments, there is no need to activate the machines.
With all these explanations, I hope the KMS topic is clear now. So we can talk a little bit about Office KMS activation.For this purpose, we can either use a different KMS Host machine or we can add the Office KMS activation capability to the already installed KMS Host. Also this is the recommended method by Microsoft. I will stick with that and use the same host machine.
For Office activation processes to occur, we have to download a file called KeyManagementServiceHost.exe (Microsoft Office 2010 KMS Host License Pack). The download link is (http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?displaylang=en&FamilyID=97b7b710-6831-4ce5-9ff5-fdc21fe8d965). After downloading the file, I run the executable on our KMS Host machine and a screen which is asking whether I want to enter product key or not appears (Figure 6). After pressing YES button, a new screen appears and I enter the Office KMS product key (which is learned from Volume Licensing Service Center (VLSC) -http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=184280- web site). After pressing OK button (Figure 7), another screen tells me that product key is successfully entered and activated. I press the OK button and finish the installation (Figure 8).
To control only the Office 2010 license status, we use the following command (Figure 9):
slmgr.vbs /dlv bfe7a195-4f8f-4f0b-a622-cf13c7d16864
So this ends the Office 2010 KMS Host machine setup. The threshold value for Office products are also 5. After the activation count of 4, Office 2010 products will be activated without user intervention.
This is the end of our article. In this two part article series, I talked about the new operating system and Office products licensing methods of Microsoft and give details about the Key Management Services (KMS) method. Also I explained how we can activate Office 2010 products with this method. I hope it is helpful to you. Bye for now.
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