VLMCSD(7)                    KMS Activation Manual                   VLMCSD(7)



NAME
       vlmcsd - a guide to KMS activation using vlmcsd


SYNOPSIS
       vlmcsd [ options ]


DESCRIPTION
       This  manual  describes  the concepts of Microsoft KMS activation using
       vlmcsd. For detailed usage of vlmcsd see vlmcsd(8).


   What is KMS?
       KMS is a way to activate  Microsoft  products  that  was  designed  for
       medium and large businesses. In a standard SOHO environment you enter a
       product key during installation and then activate your product over the
       Internet.  This  is  done  by  sending  a request to a server at micro‐
       soft.com which then either grants or refuses activation.

       By entering a special key called General  Volume  License  Key  (GVLK),
       a.k.a "KMS client key", the product no longer asks the Microsoft server
       for activation but a user-defined server (called the KMS server)  which
       usually  resides in a company's intranet. vlmcsd is an independent open
       source implementation of a KMS server that is  available  for  everyone
       while Microsoft gives their KMS server only to corporations that signed
       a so called "Select contract". In addition vlmcsd never refuses activa‐
       tion  while  the  Microsoft  KMS server only activates the products the
       customer has paid for.

       Product activation using vlmcsd is performed in three easy steps:

       1) Run vlmcsd (or any other KMS emulator) on a computer  in  your  net‐
          work.  This will be your KMS server. New users should simply run the
          program without any parameters. The defaults should fit the needs of
          most users.

       2) Install your product and enter the GVLK when you are asked for a key

       3) Configure your client (the machine where you installed your product)
          to use your KMS server.

       However, when it comes to the details, some things turn out to be  more
       difficult than you might think.

       The  most  important thing to know is that KMS activation is not perma‐
       nent. The computer remains activated for 180 days (30 or 45  days  with
       consumer-only  products).  KMS  activation however is not an evaluation
       license. You can repeat the activation anytime and as often as you like
       to  extend  activation to another 180 days. This normally happens auto‐
       matically. For this to work, you have to ensure that a  KMS  server  is
       always reachable for the clients on your network.

       Beginning  with Windows 8.1 the KMS server must be a different computer
       than the client. You cannot use vlmcsd on the same computer  where  you
       want  to activate a product. If you have only one computer, you can run
       vlmcsd in a virtual machine. vlmcsd is also designed to run on "always-
       on  devices",  for example a router. The router becomes your KMS server
       then.


   How to get a GVLK?
       That is relatively simple. The GVLKs are published on Microsoft's Tech‐
       net web site.

       Windows: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/jj612867.aspx
       Office              2010:              http://technet.microsoft.com/en-
       us/library/ee624355(v=office.14).aspx#section2_3
       Office 2013: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dn385360.aspx

       These lists only include products that Microsoft sells to  corporations
       via  volume  license  contracts. For Windows there are inofficial GVLKs
       that work with consumer-only versions of Windows. Here is a list:

       789NJ-TQK6T-6XTH8-J39CJ-J8D3P - Windows  8.1  Professional  with  Media
       Center
       M9Q9P-WNJJT-6PXPY-DWX8H-6XWKK - Windows 8.1 Core
       7B9N3-D94CG-YTVHR-QBPX3-RJP64 - Windows 8.1 Core N
       BB6NG-PQ82V-VRDPW-8XVD2-V8P66 - Windows 8.1 Core Single Language
       NCTT7-2RGK8-WMHRF-RY7YQ-JTXG3 - Windows 8.1 Core Country Specific
       GNBB8-YVD74-QJHX6-27H4K-8QHDG  - Windows 8 Professional with Media Cen‐
       ter
       BN3D2-R7TKB-3YPBD-8DRP2-27GG4 - Windows 8 Core
       8N2M2-HWPGY-7PGT9-HGDD8-GVGGY - Windows 8 Core N
       2WN2H-YGCQR-KFX6K-CD6TF-84YXQ - Windows 8 Core Single Language
       4K36P-JN4VD-GDC6V-KDT89-DYFKP - Windows 8 Core Country Specific

       The above keys require activation renewal every 45 days (Win 8.1) or 30
       days  (Win  8).  All  GVLKs from the Microsoft Technet web site require
       renewal every 180 days.


   What are SLMGR and OSPP and how to use them?
       You will need these utilities later. So please  continue  reading  this
       section.

       These  are  two  Visual Basic script utilities that are used to control
       Microsoft's Software Protection system. To use them open a Windows Com‐
       mand  Prompt. slmgr.vbs is for Windows. ospp.vbs is for Office 2010 and
       2013. These utilities are installed with Windows  and  Office  and  you
       don't need to download them.

       slmgr.vbs  resides  in the system32 directory. So you just have to type
       "slmgr" in the Windows Command prompt to use it. To use ospp.vbs you'll
       have  to change the current directory to your Office installation. This
       is usually something like "C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\Office14".
       You  may  type  "slmgr" or "cscript ospp.vbs" without parameters to see
       help for these commands but this produces some rather confusing  output
       for newbies.


   How to get the GVLK into the product?
       Normally  every product asks you to enter a key during installation. At
       this time simply enter the GVLK. If you skipped this  step  or  entered
       some  other  key  which later turned out to be non-working, you can use
       "slmgr /ipk GVLK" (Windows) or "cscript ospp.vbs /inpkey:GVLK" (Office)
       at any time.

       Examples
              slmgr /ipk GCRJD-8NW9H-F2CDX-CCM8D-9D6T9
              cscript ospp.vbs /inpkey:YC7DK-G2NP3-2QQC3-J6H88-GVGXT


   Why doesn't Office accpet a GVLK?
       You'll  have to install a volume license (VL) version of Office. Office
       versions downloaded from MSDN and/or Technet are non-VL.


   How to configure a client to use a KMS server?
       After you have installed a GVLK you can set your product  to  use  your
       KMS  server.  vlmcsd  or  another KMS server must already be running on
       your server machine.

       Windows

       Type           "slmgr /skms kms-server[:tcp-port]".            Example:
       "slmgr /skms 192.168.1.17:1688"


       Office

       1) Type   "cscript   ospp.vbs /sethst:kms-server".   Example   "cscript
          ospp.vbs /sethst:192.168.1.17"

       2) Type   "cscript   ospp.vbs /setprt:tcp-port".    Example:    cscript
          ospp.vbs /setprt:1688

       tcp-port  is usually 1688 unless you instructed vlmcsd to use a differ‐
       ent port which is rarely necessary.


   How to activate my product?
       If you have installed a product with GVLK and pointed it to working KMS
       server  like  vlmcsd,  activation occurs automatically. This may take a
       while.

       You may type
              slmgr /ato
              -or-
              cscript ospp.vbs /act

       at any time to speed up that process. You  may  repeat  these  commands
       later to extend your activation for another 180 (45) days.


   Does vlmcsd work correctly?
       If  something does not work, it may have the cause that vlmcsd does not
       work correctly although this is unlikely. You can test  this  with  the
       KMS  client  vlmcs(1). First type "vlmcs" on the same machine where you
       started vlmcsd. If things are ok, you should see something like this:

              Connecting to 127.0.0.1:1688 ... successful
              Sending activation request (KMS V4) 1 of 1 ->
              06401-00206-296-206344-03-5179-9600.0000-3432013

       If  anything  goes  wrong, you'll see an error message. Next try "vlmcs
       kms-server" from another machine where kms-server is the hostname or IP
       address  of  your  KMS  server.  If  that fails while it works locally,
       you'll most likely have to configure  your  firewall  that  it  accepts
       incoming connections on TCP port 1688.


   Is there an easier way than using OSPP and SLMGR?
       Yes  and  no.  KMS activation was designed for large corporations. Thus
       Microsoft designed KMS in a way that corporations can  configure  their
       network  infrastructure  to  fully  automate KMS activation. Since this
       involves DHCP and DNS, it is not that easy to accomplish that for  home
       users.  However,  if  you are using an open source router firmware like
       OpenWRT or DD-WRT, it is easy to customize DHCP and DNS.

       1) Configure DHCP that it assigns a DNS domain name to your clients (if
          it doesn't already), e.g. my-home-net.local

       2) Create  zone  my-home-net.local  in  your  DNS server (if it doesn't
          exist already).

       3) Add the following records to your DNS

          _vlmcs._tcp.my-home-net.local. 10800 IN SRV  100  100  kms1.my-home-
          net.local.
          kms1.my-home-net.local. 10800 IN A 192.168.1.17

          Replace  192.168.1.17 with the IP address of your KMS server. If you
          don't like a cache time of 10800 seconds (3 hours), replace it  with
          another number.

       This causes that clients will find the KMS server automatically.


AUTHOR
       This manual page was written by Hotbird64.

SEE ALSO
       vlmcsd(8), vlmcs(1)



Hotbird64                          June 2014                         VLMCSD(7)
