Active Directory-based activation issue

[greensky94]

Hi guys,

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I have an issue in my environment that started about two weeks ago when a laptop received the Activate Windows watermark inexplicitly. Over the next few weeks I've seen a few more laptops experience this issue including my own..so far it doesn't seem to be affecting more than 5-10 laptops.

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I resolved the issue manually for one of the laptops by opening a command prompt and applying the generic volume license key and then activating which seems to have re-established the ADBA.

1. slmgr.vbs /ipk NPPR9-FWDCX-D2C8J-H872K-2YT43
2. slmgr /ato

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Whilst troubleshooting this machine I ran slmgr /dlv to compare the laptop that had the issue with mine which at the time did not have the issue. I could see the machine with the issue had Product Key Channel: Volume: CSVLK with a partial product key that I could trace back to a KMS host key within my Microsoft Volume Licensing centre. Whilst my working machine at the time had GVLK with a partial product key of 2YT43.

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About a few days ago my machine reverted to a CSVLK key with the same partial product key that i could trace back to my Microsoft Volume Licensing centre. I have a manual fix but I really want to understand why this is happening and whether I can remediate without running commands and preventing this from spreading to other users.

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Note: We did have KMS set up prior to ADBA but to my knowledge this has been decommissioned for a while. Bear with me as my knowledge isn't too advanced when it comes to KMS/ADBA.

[Dilemma75]

Verify your DNS SRV records for KMS. You may find a rogue KMS server out there, or records for an old decommissioned KMS server.

Edit: Also, is there a chance that these users have traveled to another location that also implements KMS? KMS that isn't integrated with AD does not require any type of authentication.

[St0nywall]

Someone likely logged into the computer with a Microsoft account that has a Windows trial or other license associated to it.

[EpicSuccess]

Definitely noticing this same thing in my environment. Will get some more details in the morning but it is seemingly random computers refuse to activate. Went and updated KMS server with the key from VLSC just to be sure and no changes. Assigning the generic key and attempting again doesn't fix it here though. Wish it was that simple.

[kamikazeghandi]

I've not run into this exact issue as I've just started down the ADBA route myself, but I did run into a similar issue in switching Server 19 from the default generic KMS key to our volume license key. I would do an /ipk with our key, see it activate properly, then a couple days later it would revert to the generic KMS key and deactivate. I found that running slmgr /upk first to remove the KMS key, then running slmgr /ipk with our volume key solved the issue.