Some useful notes about KMS and VDI

Here are some very useful links and commands to implement and troubleshoot Microsoft KMS (Office and Windows).

Steps to install KMS for Windows (Link: here):

1. Install KMS Server, install the KMS Key:
   slmgr.vbs /ipk kms-key
   You should get an success-message after a few seconds. If not, maybe the key is not an KMS Key or the wrong key.
2. Activate the KMS Server online:
   slmgr.vbs /ato
3. Check Information about the service
   – slmgr.vbs /dlv (less information)
   – slmgr.vbs /dli (more information)

Steps to install KMS for Office 2010 (Link in german: here):

1. Download Office 2010 KMS Host License Pack here and install it on KMS Server. During the installation you fill in you KMS Key for your Office 2010 license.
2. Check Information about the service
   – slmgr.vbs /dlv all (for Windows and Office)
   – slmgr.vbs /dlv bfe7a195-4f8f-4f0b-a622-cf13c7d16864 (just for Office)

Stuff for troubleshooting:

• Install Volume Activation Management Tool (VAMT) in KSM Server
• For Windows you need at least 25 devices that tries to activate using KMS to bring KMS to work. For Office you need at least 5.
• slmgr.vbs /dlv shows this counter (Current counter). It stops counting at the double of the limit (50 respectively 10). It can go down again, if no more unique devices try to activate for some time.
• These devices have to be unique! Just enrolling 5 View desktops to enable KMS will not work, because the Office-ID for every device is the same!
  •  Display this ID: cscript "C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\Office14\OSPP.VBS" /dcmid
  • Rest/Rearm Office 2010: C:\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\OfficeSoftwareProtectionPlatform\ospprearm.exe
• For VDI, one way to keep KMS working (it stops working when for 180 day the counter of unique devices is beneath the limit of 20 respectively 5) is to enroll your desktops and rearm them afterwards.
• Event ID 12290 gives information about whats going on, it shows also the ID. More information on this you can find here.
• When you want to use a master for a different domain using a different KMS server, you should be aware of that KMS client is caching its server.
  • To disable caching, run: slmgr /ckhc
  • To remove caches server, run: slmgr /ckms

  in master VM. So KMS client should use DNS to resolve KMS server again.