Office 2010 & KMS Server

[IDS]

I want to start testing Office 2010 for a rollout in the upcoming months.
What are the steps to setup a KMS server for Office 2010?

Thanks!

 

[neo]

Do you already have a KMS server established for Windows 7/Windows 2008 R2?

If yes to the above, is the KMS server installed on Windows 2003, Windows 7,
or Windows 2008R2? Reason I ask is that KMS on Vista & Windows 2008 isn't
supported.

If you do have a KMS server established for Windows 7/Windows 2008 R2, you
can extend your KMS host using:

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/...FamilyID=97b7b710-6831-4ce5-9ff5-fdc21fe8d965

As soon as you run this, you will need to supply your Office 2010 KMS host
license key.

What else... oh, the ProPlus version that was made available on 4/22 to
MSDN/TechNet isn't a volume license edition. It is a retail copy.
Therefore you will need to get the VL edition from your SA download area
which may go live today based on postings around the web.

 

[IDS]

Thanks Neo.

I do not have a KMS server. I was reading that KMS can run on a domain
controller without any problems. So I was planning to use a DC as a KMS
server. Do you see this as a problem?

Do I run KeyManagementServiceHost.exe on the server that I want to be the
KMS server?

Thanks

 

[neo]

You didn't specify if your domain controller is a Windows 2003 or Windows
2008R2 server. If it is a Windows 2003/2003R2 with SP2, you need to
download and install the KMS host software. You need two packages.

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/...89-13BD-4250-B624-2F8C57A1AE7B&displaylang=en

and

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/...0c-b7fd-44cf-bf81-11587adc599f&displaylang=en

You install KMS 1.1 and then apply the update (968915)

Reboot

Then run the Office 2010 KMS license pack exe and supply your key.

Not sure how big your site is, I'm working in a site that is 4500 devices
and we find that a dedicated KMS host (it is virtualized) that activates
Windows 7, Windows 2008R2, and Office 2010 will be perfect for us.

Just so you know, we dedicated a Windows 2008 R2 server to be our KMS host.
We activated the server with our Windows 2008 R2 KMS key. This in turn
automatically made it a KMS host that could activate Vista, Windows 7,
Windows 2008, and Windows 2008 R2. Just had to run the Office 2010 KMS
license pack on the Windows 2008 R2 host (and still waiting patiently for
our RTM KMS key for Office 2010).

Other than that, I don't see a problem running the KMS host on a domain
controller. Should work fine for smaller sites since your devices will only
check in once every 7 days. I don't think I missed anything, but you might
find this helpful.

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ee624358(office.14).aspx

 

[Peter Foldes]

Neo

What else... oh, the ProPlus version that was made available on 4/22 to
MSDN/TechNet isn't a volume license edition. It is a retail copy.
Therefore you will need to get the VL edition from your SA download area
which may go live today based on postings around the web.

Thanks for that info. I was not aware of those steps TechNet took

--
Peter

Please Reply to Newsgroup for the benefit of others
Requests for assistance by email can not and will not be acknowledged.
http://www.microsoft.com/protect

 

[IDS]

I like the idea of creating a Windows 2008 R2 VM for the KMS host. Just to
make sure I understand... So, if I wanted to do this, I would just create a
Windows 2008 R2 virtual machine and activate it using our Windows 2008 R2 KMS
key? After that I run the Office 2010 KMS license pack on the KMS server?
Office 2010 clients will then be able to activate?

Thanks again

 

[neo]

Yes to both questions. About the only thing that goes wrong with this game
plan is if the KMS service on the Windows 2008R2 box doesn't create the
necessary _VLMCS DNS SRV record or another host in your site ends up owning
it for some strange reason (e.g. you activate two or more Windows 7/Windows
20008R2 boxes with a KMS key).

If you end up in the later part with two or more Windows 7/Windows 2008R2
installed/activated with a KMS key, you can disable the registering the SRV
record in DNS by using SLMGR.VBS. This way you can ensure that your VM is
the responsible KMS host for your site and not anything else accidently or
otherwise installed with a KMS key.

 

[IDS]

Ok. I have created a Windows 2008 R2 VM and activated it with our KMS key.
I then download and ran the Office 2010 KMS license pack and used our Office
2010 license key. Verified only 1 _VLMCS SRV record that points to new KMS
host.

I have more than 5 Office 2010 Professional Plus clients (downloaded from VL
site, not TechNet or MSDN). Will they activate automatically? How will I
know?

Thanks.

 

[neo]

Yes, Windows 7/Office 2010 will activate quietly and quickly behind the
scenes.

Start any of the Office 2010 apps and select the File tab to enter the
Backstage interface. Pick Help along the left. On the right half you will
see the words Product Activated right under the Office logo.

Another cool way is using the OSPP.VBS file in the Office 14 folder.

cscript ospp.vbs /dstatus

What is cool about the above is that it shows you how many days of the 180
are left before Office 2010 must reactivate against the KMS host.

PS - From your workstation, I think you can check a remote machine by using:

cscript ospp.vbs /dstatus remote_computer_name

The only requirement is that Office 2010 has to be installed on both the
management workstation and the remote for it to work. I'm not in a place
where I can verify at the moment.

 

[IDS]

The vbs in the Office14 is very cool. Thanks for sharing. I verified my
workstation and a few remote workstations. It looks like our clients are
activating.

Regarding Windows 7, a MS rep told me that you have to manually enter the
key and activate the first 25 computers before KMS would activate any Windows
7 computers. It's all automatic after the first 25 are manually activated.
Does this make any sense?

Thanks!

 

[neo]

Yep and perhaps this will make more sense as it is a simple paraphrase of
the MS statement...

I'm not sure what type of Windows VL key you have so I'll tell you how it
goes when using a Windows 2008 R2 Enterprise (aka VOLUME_KMS_R2_B channel)
KMS product key. Keep in mind thru all of this that you are using volume
license media as this media type doesn't require product keys.

1) Install Windows 2008R2 using your KMS product key.
2) Activate Windows 2008R2

At this point, you just have to remember this...

For Windows 2008/2008R2 Servers (Enterprise or below):
Install 5 Windows 2008 or Windows 2008 R2 servers. Once the fifth one comes
up, they all activate. You must maintain 5 Windows Servers in order to
continue activating more servers.

For Windows Vista/Windows 7:
Install 25 Windows Vista/Windows 7 operating systems. Once the 25th one
comes up, all 25 activate. You must maintain a minimum of 25 workstations
in order to continue activating more workstations.


Office 2010 will require you to maintain a minimum of 5.

 

[Chris D]

Does anyone know if / when the VL edition will be released via technet? I've
done automated deployments of both 2003 and 2007 and would love to see this
one in action...