How do I get a KMS Host Key for testing Volume Activation role on Windows Server 2012 R2 on premises?

Question

Hello,

I am an employee of a Microsoft Partner and I am currently building a test forest that currently has 5 server VMs running Windows Server 2012 R2.

I am testing out the Volume Activation role on one of the servers.

The configuration for this role requires the entry of a KMS Host Key value. I don't know if our partner benefits include a KMS host key as I couldn't find it listed anywhere in our license allocations in the partner portal or MSDN.

All these servers are strictly in a test environment and will be decommissioned once testing is complete. This is for exam studying for certification.

Do our Microsoft Partner benefits include some test keys for the volume activation host? I know about the KMS client keys because those are well known and publicly advertised for the various operating systems.

How do I find out about how to test our KMS server role?

Thank you,

Andre Marion

P.S. I have already asked this question on the Microsoft Partner Network forums and was redirected by a Microsoft employee to the MSDN forums.

Here's the initial response from Microsoft on the Partner Network regarding this question:

RaySJ83        replied on     <button aria-label="Date" class="msaActionText msgHistoryBtn" title="See post history">September 12, 2014</button>                                  

Microsoft          Support Engineer                

Hello Andre Marion,

Thank you for your post.

I am happy to assist you regarding KMS Host Keys.

Unfortunately, there are no KMS Host Keys for testing provided through the Partner Network. You may contact the MSDN Team or MSDN Forums to verify if they are able to provide you with these type of keys, since this is for a testing or demonstration environment.

Let me know if besides this, there is something else I can assist you with.

Thank you for using the Partner Community Support and have a great day!

RaySJ83

Answer 1

RaySJ83,

Looking through the types of keys we include: http://msdn.microsoft.com/subscriptions/cc137104.aspx, look for the section titled "Product Key Types listed in Subscriber Downloads"

It looks like MSDN Subsriptions doesn't provide KMS keys.  I'm asking internally about this and I'll let you know if/when I get a more details response about their omission.

Thanks,
Mike

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MSDN and TechNet Subscriptions Support

posting from the right account!

Answer 2

RaySJ83,
Also, check out the links in the section titled Resources for Product Keys and Activation here: http://msdn.microsoft.com/subscriptions/cc137104.aspx 

You may find them of some use.

Thanks,
Mike

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MSDN and TechNet Subscriptions Support

Answer 3

Hi Mike,

Thank you for responding and providing the link. Clicking on that link fails as it simply re-directs to the default MSDN subscriptions page.

It appears that are some garbage characters embedded at the end of your link. If I type in the URL manually into a browser, it goes to the correct page.

In any case, that page has some good information and I discovered that we couldn't use a KMS Host anyway because the activation threshold is 5 *physical* servers. We only have 3 physical servers as our Hyper-V hosts and all the rest are Virtual servers running on those Hyper-V hosts. That is a real shame.

Also, I still couldn't find definitive information on how to obtain KMS Host keys for testing purposes. As far as I can determine, the KMS Host keys are only obtained through the Volume Licencing Service Center? Is that correct? If so, how does a Microsoft Partner test this capability if they want to learn it for exam/certification purposes and set up customer environments?

Thanks,

Andre Marion

Microsoft Partner

P.S. It is actually Andre Marion (me) that has opened this forum discussion and not RaySJ83. RaySJ83 is actually a Microsoft employee that responded to my other forum question and I simply copied his response inside this forum posting and that's why you see his name at the bottom of my posting. I should've probably copied his response inside my posting and signed it with my own signature to make it more clear who made this posting.

Answer 4

For the record it is documented here: 

Windows Activation in Development and Test Environments

https://technet.microsoft.com/en-gb/library/dd981009.aspx

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Key Artefacts