For Enterprises, Microsoft has created a central licensing system to avoid the need of every company PC to connect to Microsoft Servers on the Internet to activate the software. One or more KMS Servers can be used inside the company to activate all clients.

You cannot only activate Operating Systems such as Windows 7 and Windows 2008 R2, but also other applications from Microsoft such as Office 2010 with a Volume License.

The KMS server is the only server that needs to connect to Microsoft over the Internet once. But many company don’t allow direct Internet connections to server for security reasons. So the only possibility left is to activate over the phone, which is a bit a cumbersome process, which I will describe here:

1. Access the Windows 2008 R2 Server that you have chosen as the KMS server.
2. Check that the "Software Protection" (sppsvc.exe) service is running.
   
3. Open a cmd box as Administrator and run the following command:
   slmgr -ipk xxxxx-xxxxx-xxxxx-xxxxx-xxxxx
4. Replace the x's with the KMS key for Windows Server 2008 R2 Std/Ent. This installs the key locally (no activation has happened yet).
   
5. In the cmd box, type
   slmgr -dti
6. · This displays the Installation ID for activation over the phone
   
7. Write the installation ID down in sets of 6 numbers each
8. Call the following phone number: 044 800 9201 (This is valid for Switzerland, other country numbers can be found in the phone.inf on the server’s system32\slui folder)
9. When asked, type the Installation ID on the phone keyboard (in blocks of 6 numbers)
10. You will get 8 number blocks with 6 numbers each (Block A to H). This is the Confirmation ID
11. In the cmd box, type slmgr -atp xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
    
12. Now you can check the license with
    slmgr -dli
    

DNS Publishing of KMS Service

The DNS entry that is needed can be tested with the nslookup tool:

nslookup -type=srv _vlmcs._tcp.company.com

If the SRV entry cannot be resolved, the missing bit can be entered manually in the DNS Server:

• Name of Service: _vlmcs._tcp
• Type: SRV
• Priority: 0
• Weight: 0
• Port: 1688
• Hostname: kmshost.company.com

Open KMS port on Windows Firewall

TCP Port 1688 (incoming) has to be opened on the Windows Firewall of the KMS server to allow incoming connections from the KMS clients.

Activate KMS clients

At least 5 KMS clients (Windows 2008 R2 servers) or 25  Windows 7 clients need to be registered with the KMS host before the activation is accepted. To initiate activation on the KMS clients, run a command box as Administrator and type

slmgr -ato