Key Management Services (KMS)

KMS clients (computers running Windows desktop or server operating system) use an on-prem KMS host to activate Windows. The KMS client’s activation process should be transparent to the user, occurring in the background, and requiring no input. A KMS client can be activated manually if needed.

An activation is good for 120 days and, regardless of the amount of time until an activation expires, the client will attempt to reactivate every 7 days.

The KMS host is not accessible from off campus. Clients that are not on campus must connect to the VPN at least once every 120 days to reactivate. After 120 days the user may see a watermark on the desktop saying that Windows is not activated.

Auto-discovery

An SRV record (_vlmcs._tcp) exists in the wolftech.ad.ncsu.edu DNS zone that directs clients to the KMS server for activation. All Windows computers that are joined to the Wolftech Active Directory domain should automatically discovery the SRV record in the internal wolftech.ad.ncsu.edu DNS zone.

Manual activation

Situations may arise where Windows needs to be activated manually. From an elevated CMD prompt or elevated PowerShell session, run

cscript C:\Windows\System32\slmgr.vbs -skms kms.ncsu.edu
cscript C:\Windows\System32\slmgr.vbs -ato

Generic Volume License Keys

Generic Volume License Keys are used by clients that activate with a KMS host. The university uses volume licensing editions of Windows desktop and server. These editions are pre-configured to use KMS for activation, having a Generic Volume License Key installed and being on the VOLUME_KMSCLIENT channel.

Activation channels

An activation is configured for one of three main channels. Retail, OEM, or, Volume Licensing.

Managed Windows devices must be configured for volume licensing to be able to activate.

To set the volume licensing channel, install a GVLK using slmgr.vbs.

cscript C:\Windows\System32\slmgr.vbs /ipk <GVLK>

Troubleshooting

View activation details

To view activation details run:

cscript C:\Windows\System32\slmgr.vbs -dli

In the example output below we can see that the client is configured to use the VOLUME_KMSCLIENT channel, last 5 characters of the GVLK, amount of time until activation expiration, and information about the configured KMS host.

Microsoft (R) Windows Script Host Version 5.812
Copyright (C) Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.


Name: Windows(R), ServerDatacenter edition
Description: Windows(R) Operating System, VOLUME_KMSCLIENT channel
Partial Product Key: 6VM33
License Status: Licensed
Volume activation expiration: 259097 minute(s) (180 day(s))
Configured Activation Type: All

Most recent activation information:
Key Management Service client information
    Client Machine ID (CMID): 92e3628b-8e10-44c8-a994-a935d93ceee9
    KMS machine name from DNS: kms.ncsu.edu:1688
    KMS machine IP address: 152.7.113.51
    KMS machine extended PID: 03612-04573-000-127462-03-1033-20348.0000-0552022
    Activation interval: 120 minutes
    Renewal interval: 10080 minutes
    KMS host caching is enabled

Consult logs

Activations are logged to the Windows Application log. In Event Viewer, filter the log for event IDs 12288-12290.