Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Kms Server 2003
Kms Server 2003
Kms Server 2003
2003
Purpose
This supplemental guide provides planning, deployment, and operational
guidance for activating Key Management Service for Windows Server 2003.
The Windows Vista Volume Activation 2.0 Step-By-Step Guide is essential
reading and a prerequisite for understanding this document.
Information in this document, including URL and other Internet Web site references, is subject to
change without notice.
Unless otherwise noted, the companies, organizations, products, domain names, e-mail
addresses, logos, people, places, and events depicted in examples herein are fictitious. No
association with any real company, organization, product, domain name, e-mail address, logo,
person, place, or event is intended or should be inferred.
Complying with all applicable copyright laws is the responsibility of the user. Without limiting the
rights under copyright, no part of this document may be reproduced, stored in or introduced into
a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means (electronic, mechanical,
photocopying, recording, or otherwise), or for any purpose, without the express written
permission of Microsoft Corporation.
Microsoft may have patents, patent applications, trademarks, copyrights, or other intellectual
property rights covering subject matter in this document. Except as expressly provided in any
written license agreement from Microsoft, the furnishing of this document does not give you any
license to these patents, trademarks, copyrights, or other intellectual property.
© 2006 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.
Microsoft, Active Directory, ActiveX, Windows, Windows 2000, Windows Server, Windows Vista,
and Windows XP are either registered trademarks or trademarks of Microsoft Corporation in the
United States and/or other countries.
The names of actual companies and products mentioned herein may be the trademarks of their
respective owners.
Contents
Key Management Service for Windows Server 2003 ................................................. i
Supplemental Step-By-Step Guide......................................................................... i
Introduction ...................................................................................................... 1
Problem ....................................................................................................... 1
Volume Activation 2.0 Solution........................................................................ 2
Benefits of Volume Activation 2.0 .................................................................... 2
Key Management Service for Windows 2003 Server Overview................................... 3
Differences between Windows 2003 Server and Windows Vista KMS
Versions ...................................................................................................... 3
Package Installation.................................................................................. 3
No Graphical User Interface (GUI) .............................................................. 3
KMS Keys and Activation ........................................................................... 3
No Out-of-Box Grace Period ....................................................................... 4
KMS for Windows 2003 Release Notes .............................................................. 4
Available Versions .................................................................................... 4
KMS and OS Language Versions Must Match................................................. 4
KMS for Windows Server 2003 Will Not Run in a Virtual Machine ..................... 4
Known Issues .......................................................................................... 4
Obtaining Volume License Keys ....................................................................... 5
Activation Limits ...................................................................................... 5
Important Note ........................................................................................ 5
Deployment Guidance......................................................................................... 6
General Considerations .................................................................................. 6
KMS Activation Technical Overview ............................................................. 6
Prerequisites for KMS Activation ................................................................. 6
KMS Host Sizing....................................................................................... 7
Administrative Credentials ......................................................................... 7
Steps for Installing the KMS package on Windows Server 2003............................ 8
Install a KMS Package............................................................................... 8
Remove a KMS Package ............................................................................ 8
Steps for Configuring a KMS Activation............................................................. 9
Configuring KMS Hosts.............................................................................. 9
Operational Guidance ....................................................................................... 12
Built-in Scripting Support ............................................................................. 12
Microsoft Key Management Service MOM Pack ................................................. 13
Known Issues with the MOM Pack ............................................................. 13
KMS Health Monitoring............................................................................ 13
KMS Activity Reporting............................................................................ 13
Backup Requirements .................................................................................. 14
Group Policy Support ................................................................................... 14
Troubleshooting ............................................................................................... 14
KMS Activation Troubleshooting Steps ............................................................ 14
Mapping Error Codes to Text Messages........................................................... 15
Reviewing Activation Events ......................................................................... 15
WMI Software Licensing Classes and Properties ............................................... 15
Appendix 1: Installing the MOM 2005 Agent on 64-bit Systems............................... 16
Additional Resources ........................................................................................ 17
Key Management Service for Windows Server 2003 1
Introduction
Problem
Software asset and license management pose continual challenges for both
enterprise customers as well as software developers. The issue of genuine
software (running legitimately licensed operating systems and applications as
opposed to illegitimate software) not only impacts the software vendors but the
consumers, corporate users and partners. Yankee group (sponsored by Microsoft)
in its research concluded that consumers and businesses that deploy counterfeit
software put themselves, their end users, business partners and suppliers at
serious risk for:
• Network downtime and lost data increases when the counterfeit software
malfunctions.
• Technical service and support and interoperability issues involving
counterfeit software typically take longer to resolve because either the
gray market source is long gone or the legitimate software vendor will
spend more time trying to troubleshoot.
• Businesses that knowingly or unwittingly use counterfeit software are at
increased risk of litigation from business partners, suppliers and
customers in the event their network operations are adversely affected
when something goes awry with the pirated software.
• Non-genuine software also raises the risk of incompatibility with legitimate
Windows and Office patches, fixes and updates.
Finally the previous versions of Microsoft Windows didn’t provide tools and
solutions to enterprise customers that are necessary to protect and manage the
software and the associated license keys. Enterprise customers had no ability to
track the key usage or control its use within as well as outside of their managed
environment.
2 Windows Vista Volume Activation 2.0 Technical Guidance
Package Installation
The KMS for Windows Server 2003 service (sppsvc) is installed as a package over
the existing operating system. Installation is based on the familiar Software
Update Installer and is fast and easy. KMS can be removed using Add or Remove
Programs in the Control Panel.
Although both online (Internet) and offline (telephone) activation of the KMS
service are supported, offline activation of KMS for Windows Server 2003 can only
be done using the slmgr.vbs script.
Known Issues
On installing or using KMS activation, you may encounter the following known
issues:
• KMS must be uninstalled and reinstalled in order to repair an installation.
• KMS must be uninstalled prior to upgrading the Windows 2003 system to
any version of Windows Server codename “Longhorn”.
• The KMS installer reports that installation was successful, even if the
installation was cancelled.
Key Management Service for Windows Server 2003 5
• Uninstalling the KMS host service (sppsvc) while it is running indicates that
the service should be stopped. Clicking Abort instead of Continue leaves
the system in a confused state, necessitating a reboot of the system.
• Sysprep on Windows Server 2003 does not reset the KMS service state.
Remove the package before running sysprep and then reinstall and
reconfigure it.
Activation Limits
By default, a KMS key can be used on up to 6 different KMS hosts, with up to 10
activations on the same hardware. The KMS key can be used on any combination
of Windows Vista KMS or KMS for Windows Server 2003 KMS hosts. Customers can
request an override or special exception to extend the activation limit by calling
their Microsoft Activation Call Center.
Important Note
You are responsible for both the use of keys assigned to you and the activation of
products using your KMS hosts.
• You should not disclose keys to third parties.
• You may not provide unsecured access to your KMS hosts over an
uncontrolled network such as the Internet.
6 Windows Vista Volume Activation 2.0 Technical Guidance
Deployment Guidance
The Deployment Guidance section provides step-by-step instructions for installing,
configuring and activating the Key Management Service for Windows Sever 2003.
For installing and configuring the KMS package, read the following
sections:
• Steps for Installing the KMS package on Windows Server 2003
• Steps for Configuring KMS Activation
General Considerations
This section provides general considerations on implementing and deploying the
Key Management Service for Windows Server 2003.
Co-Hosting KMS
To minimize cost, many organizations prefer to co-host KMS along with other
functions. KMS is designed to support co-hosting. KMS can easily coexist with
common server roles, including domain controllers. It has a small resource
footprint during normal operation, although it can become compute-bound as
noted in the previous section. This is most likely to occur after a large deployment
of KMS clients or if most users start their computers in a short period. If CPU
consumption is an issue, KMS supports a low priority option.
Administrative Credentials
To complete any of the following procedures, you must be a member of the
Administrators group. All script functions must be run from a command prompt as
a local administrator.
8 Windows Vista Volume Activation 2.0 Technical Guidance
Operational Guidance
This section of the Step-by-Step guide provides operational guidance on
implementing Volume Activation 2.0.
• Machine Expiration Chart: Shows the number of computers that are in OOB,
OOT/Exp, or non-Genuine grace, whose users could be locked out (Unlicensed)
in the next 30 days.
• Machine Expiration Detail: Lists the computers that are in OOB, OOT/Exp or
non-Genuine grace whose users could fall into Reduced Functionality Mode
(Unlicensed) in the next 7 days.
Backup Requirements
Back up is not required for KMS hosts. However, if you need to track the KMS
activations, you can periodically export the Key Management Service Event log
data under Applications for activation history.
Important note: This section contains information about how to modify the registry. Make sure to
back up the registry before you modify it. Make sure that you know how to restore the registry if a
problem occurs. For more information about how to back up, restore, and modify the registry, click the
following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base: 256986 Description of the
Microsoft Windows registry.
Key Management Service for Windows Server 2003 17
Additional Resources
• The Windows Vista Volume Activation 2.0 Step-By-Step Guide is
essential reading and a prerequisite for understanding the KMS on Windows
2003 Step-By-Step Guide. It is available at
http://www.microsoft.com/technet/windowsvista/plan/volact1.mspx
• Download Technical Documentation and Other Supporting Materials
http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkID=75674
• For answers to frequently asked questions about Windows Vista Volume
Activation 2.0, refer to the “Volume Activation 2.0 FAQ" in
http://www.microsoft.com/technet/windowsvista/plan/faq.mspx
• A management pack is available for the Key Management Service for Microsoft
Operations Manager 2005. It is available at
http://www.microsoft.com/technet/prodtechnol/mom/mom2005/catalog.aspx
• For a list of WMI methods, KMS registry keys, KMS events, KMS error codes,
and KMS RPC messages, refer to the “Volume Activation 2.0 Technical
Attributes.xls” in
http://www.microsoft.com/technet/windowsvista/plan/volact2.mspx
• For information about the Microsoft Solution Accelerator for Business Desktop
Deployment (BDD):
http://www.microsoft.com/technet/desktopdeployment/bdd/2007/default.mspx