Own KMS server allows to make Microsoft products activation in a corporate network easier and in contrast to a usual activation process doesn’t require granting each computer access to the Internet to Microsoft activation servers. KMS infrastructure is rather simple, reliable and easily scalable (a single KMS server can maintain thousands of clients).
In this article, we describe how to install and activate the KMS server on Windows Server 2012 R2 on the corporate network.
Installation and Configuration the Volume Activation Services Role
KMS requires installation and configuration of a separate role – Volume Activation Services. You can do it in Server Manage console or PowerShell:
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Install-WindowsFeature -Name VolumeActivation -IncludeAllSubFeature |
After the installation is over, start Volume Activation Tools console. An activation service installation wizard will start. Specify that you are going to install Key Management Service (KMS) server.
Next you need to get your corporate KMS key (GVLK – Generic Volume License Key) on Microsoft website (https://www.microsoft.com/Licensing/servicecenter/home.aspx). You can find it in the section Downloads and Keys –> Windows Server –> Windows Server 2012 R2.
Find the key with type KMS (not MAK) and copy it to the clipboard.
Paste the GVLK key in the corresponding field of the wizard (Install your KMS host key).
If the system accepts the key, you will immediately be suggested to activate it. The system will define a product by the key you entered and suggest two ways of activation (by phone or online).
After the key is activated, you have to configure Key Management Service options: activation and renewal intervals, port (by default, KMS listens on port 1688) and Windows Firewall exceptions. To automatically create a DNS record necessary to automatically search a KMS server in the domain (SRV record _vlmcs._tcp), check the option DNS Records – Publish.
Now the configuration is over. Make sure that a special DNS record pointing to your KMS server was created:
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nslookup -type=srv _vlmcs._tcp.corp.woshub.com |
Then get the information on the KMS server status:
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slmgr.vbs /dlv |
Pay attention to the following fields:
- Partial Product Key – the last 5 symbols of the key are shown
- License status – license activation status (it should be Licensed)
- Total requests received – the number of activation requests (0 yet)
Now the KMS server can activate its clients.
Hi and thanks for the nice article. I actually have a question. We did the Volume_KMS_2012-R2_Win10 channel because we are deploying windows 10 in our environment. The server has been up for a couple of days, and we have hundreds of Win 10 clients and probably 40 Win 2012 R2 servers that would be requesting a license and yet we are not getting any activations. We also installed VAMT 3.1. We tried MS Activation support but they kept bouncing us between activation and activation support several times and we got no where.
Can you give us some help?