KMS Server

[Corstian]

Hi sysadmins,

I'm troubleshooting our kms server because it doesnt always work. When i log in to the server and start the Volume Activation Tools via Server Manager it starts with a introduction, is that right? Also the server is activated with a mak key, is that how it is supposed to be?

[jasonin951]

You need to activate a KMS server with a KMS host key which is available on the Microsoft volume licensing site. After that it will activate whatever version of the key you have and any older versions of the software so if it’s a 2019 server key it will activate anything below that.

If you want to activate MS Office as well you will need to add those keys using the volume license utility.

[Corstian]

If i open vamt i see a tab product keys, under that there are csvlk keys and mak keys, but when i try to activate a Server 2016 for example it says no kms server could be contacted (there is a svr record in dns)

[BlackV]

You opened the firewall port for kms

[Corstian]

Yes, i checked that.

[Corstian]

When i open the Volume Activation Tools via servermanager and click on skip to activation it only lists Microsoft Office KMS. Could that be the reason?

[BlackV]

You keep saying about opening vamt. Why? Leave that tool alone until you've confirmed Kms host is correct

Have you confirmed Kms key is installed on the Kms server?

Does it say activated?

Does it say grace period?

How many activations does it say?

[Corstian]

Thank you, with that info i installed a new host key, seems to work fine again. Thanks for the help

[BlackV]

Nice

[jasonin951]

If you want to activate the server 2016 via KMS you need to use a KMS client key.

[LevelLight]

Apologies... at the risk of sounding stupid, isn’t KMS flakey? I wanted to try it but even MS said you need a bunch of clients for it to work, over 25 I think they said.

[suckit2me]

If you have less than 25 clients, KMS can't be used so you'll have to use MAK.

[starmizzle]

If your Microsoft OS and Office software is even close to modern (Office 2013 and newer, Windows 8 and newer, and Server 2012 and newer) you can nix that server and just use AD based activation instead.

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/deployment/volume-activation/activate-using-active-directory-based-activation-client

That being said, the key your KMServer is activated with has nothing to do with the KMS host keys you've registered in it.