33 Comments

1. Hi Ingmar,

   The procedure you describe here is actually only needed when you want to use your vDisk to reach the required KMS count.

   If your KMS server is already activated (which it probably already is if you activate all your supporting server), the only thing you have to do in a vDisk is a slmgr /ipk for windows and a volume license install of Office.

   We’ve been doing it like this for years for all our hosted customers in our datacenters.

   Reply

   1. Hi Michel,

      While this probably will work, I doubt if you’re compliant. With the rearm a unique CMID is created for each machine and thus a license claimed. Skipping this process would mean the KMS server will not claim a license for all machines, violating the license terms.

      See KB929829 – http://support.microsoft.com/kb/929829/en-us
      “To reset the activation timer and to set a unique CMID, the Rearm process must run on the destination computer. This process is used to reset the activation state.”

      PS: It’s worth mentioning there’s a threshold to qualify for KMS activation. A minimum of 5 machines for Windows Server and 25 machines for Windows Client machines.

      Reply

2. Hi Ingmar,

   Large service providers license per socket, so in our case (SPLA) it doesn’t matter how many VM’s (windows instances) we run.

   Reply

   1. Hi Michel,

      If your environment is licensed with the SPLA per-socket use-right then yes, it might not be required to assign each machine a unique CMID. But in all other cases this is a requirement, so I would recommend everyone do so. Do you agree Michel?

      Reply

      1. No, I’m not a MS licensing expert, but I highly doubt that Microsoft is going to check the count on your KMS server and base your licensing around that.

         That would also mean that if you (accidently) misconfigure your vDisk, or Citrix bugs the mechanism, you would automatically be in license violation. Seems very strange to me.

         Reply

3. Ingmar, thanks for again a great article!

   Just to respond to the discussion, Microsoft actually does use KMS output for license audits. Being in license violation is not the same as misusing KMS. Like you said, you license on host level so who cares about Windows virtual machine licensing anyway.

   Although there is little need to do proper KMS licensing when you are doing datacenter licensing on the host this is different when you are licensing by Windows instance.

   There is one thing Michel seems to forget, which is logical since he’s doing SPLA and therefore a client OS is no option.
   When you are working with stateful images like assigned VDI this will actually hurt your users since there is a license time out. In a stateless scenario this will reset but obviously this is not going to work when you are doing stateful.

   Reply

4. Hi Ingmar,

   Thanks for your article!

   I had the problem that my Windows 7 VM was not able to rearm anymore.
   I was getting the error:
   “Error: 0xC004D307 The maximum allowed number of re-arms has been exceeded. You must re-install the OS before trying to re-arm again”.

   In your article you have the following solution:
   This can be solved by setting the following registry key: HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\SoftwareProtectionPlatform\SkipRearm = 0×1 (REG_DWORD).

   This regkey is not right. It must be:
   HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Software\ProtectionPlatform
   “SkipRearm”=dword:00000001″

   Reply

   1. Hi Patrick,

      Thanks for the correction, I forgot the “CurrentVersion” key in the path, I’ve updated it.

      PS: Your path is incorrect, there’s no \ between Software and ProtectionPlatform 😉

      Reply

      1. Hi Ingmar,

         You are right! Sorry that was my mistake 🙂

         Reply

5. Very Helpful article.. I’m wondering if you can further explain process for updating an image created with steps above? We are copying PVP and VHD files and getting WGA errors on subsequent updates to our vdisk (looking for a product key/etc). Prior to shutting down a vdisk in private mode should we be doing a -rearm or is that only in the Master? This specific vdisk doesnt have office on it.

   Thanks

   Reply

   1. Eric, each time you change the image from private to standard mode you should rearm the image (to ensure each machine has an unique CMID)

      Reply

      1. Thanks, That is what I thought. Do you know why that isnt well documented? Is there another way we should be doing images that doesnt require us to do this?

         Specifically scenario 3-A which has no mention of re-arm.
         http://support.citrix.com/article/CTX128276

         Reply

         1. Unfortunately I don’t understand what Citrix is trying to explain in their article. Whenever your distributing an image to multiple machines a rearm is required to ensure they receive a unique CMID. You can compare the CMID with a computer’s SID, both are a unique identifier for the computer. Since the SID is managed by PVS there’s no need to run sysprep, in newer versions PVS will probably manage the CMID as well (or so I hope!).

            Reply

            1. Hello,

               I did confirm with Citrix the correct procedure if you are copying VHD and PVP files is to remove KMS licensing when doing updates and then turn it back on when finished. There is no re-arm required.

6. Ingmar,

   Great article. There’s not much info out there that clarifies the subject the way you do here. Great work! 🙂

   Reply

   1. Thanx Atle!

      Reply

7. Hi Ingmar,
   thanks for this great article. You are my hero of the day!
   I’ve been looking for a clear explanation of the thing for quite some time because the CTX article 128276 and eDocs confused me more than clearing things up.

   Reply

8. Great article and much better than the CTX doc’s. I do have one problem though. After preping the VHD on my dev server and streaming to the Prod ones everything goes as expected, until the prod servers are rebooted. They then revert to grace period and have to re-authenticate. Is this right?

   Reply

   1. Hi Glenn,

      Glad you like the article and thank you for the compliment 🙂
      What do you mean with “re-authenticate”? Each machine should contact the KMS server and to request/verify it’s license. After a reboot the machine is “clean” again so this procedure should be repeated.

      Cheers,
      Ingmar

      Reply

      1. Thanks for the reply Ingmar. Sorry i didn’t make myself clear. The production servers revert to “out of the box grace period” on reboot then I either have to run slmgr /ato or let them automatically authenticate themselves (usually within an hour or so. I’m assuming from your reply this is natural behavior

         Reply

         1. Thanks Ingmar for such a nice article. We are having issue with machines not able to activate from KMS even after days and ultimately prompting to activate. Manual activation of each machine works fine. We are following these steps when we update a vDisk;

            1. Shutdown all machines.
            2. Put vDisk in Private mode.
            3. Leave KMS Vol Licensing in KMS.
            4. Power on one machine.
            5. Apply necessary updates.
            6. Shutdown the machine.
            7. Change VDisk to Standard mode.
            8. Verify vol Licensing is in KMS
            9. Power ON all Machines.

            The machines do not activate even after 20 minutes but can be activated manually.

            What step am i missing?

            Thanks.

            Reply

9. Hi Ingmar,

   Which can be done when the amount of rearms the office 2010 expired?

   Reply

10. Is step 3 and 6 necessary? Since KMS server already present in the same network.

    Reply

    1. Step 3 and 6 are required if you didn’t provide the KMS key during installation (for instance an OEM key).

       Reply

11. Great article. First one who wrote that the vhd is mounted when the access mode is changed from private to standard AND the the MVL is set to KMS.

    What I still don’t understand:
    In our environment we rearm the OS and Office, shut down the device with the private image and use this vhd to overwrite another vhd (set to standard mode).
    Then we start all devices from the vhd in standard mode.
    There is no need to set the MVL to KMS on any of the disks.
    We leave it to “none”.

    This makes sense because every device will start with a random CMID.

    It works here…

    Initially I thought that the MVL set to KMS will mask the CMID during the streaming process (like it masks the host name).
    In such a case, there would be no need to rearm the OS and Office.

    Reply
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13. Hi Ingmar,

    Out of interest, what version of PVS is this related to. We currently use v6.1 and have had trouble getting Office 2013 to activate correctly using the procedure above and in addition several tweaks found on the web (setting registry key NoReReg etc).

    Thanks,

    Rob

    Reply
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18. Please post an article or an update that involves PvD. This feature is a major PITA when it comes to KMS.

    Reply

19. Hey Ingmar, this guide works like a charm till the current versions of PVS and Office. Do you know where I have to put in the access or visio client kms keys? I mean for example installing office standard and at a day adding visio or project. The program path is the same, but other client kms key. Ospp does not accept the keys, don’t know why. Product is installed like office.

    Thanks in advance and regards
    Julian

    Reply

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