With the release of Windows Vista, Microsoft
introduced two new license key types for Volume License customers: Key
Management Service (KMS) and Multiple Activation Key (MAK). Because you
can use both KMS and MAK in your environment, you need to understand how
both keys work.
When you want to decide which license key to use for your Windows, you have to answer two main questions:
For Windows, license keys
are organized in product groupings and generations. There are four
product groupings that cover all the Windows client and Windows Server
operating systems. One grouping is for the client editions; the other
three cover the server editions. Currently there are two generations,
the Vista/Windows Server 2008 generation and the Windows 7/Windows
Server 2008 R2 generation. Table 1 gives an overview of the product groupings and generations for the Windows operating system.
Table 1. Volume License product groupings and generations
| Generation: | Generation: |
---|
Volume License Product Key Group | Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2 | Windows Vista and Windows Server 2008 |
---|
Windows Client VL | Windows 7 Professional
Windows 7 Enterprise | Windows Vista Business
Windows Vista Enterprise |
Server Group A | Windows Web Server 2008 R2
Windows Server 2008 R2 HPC Edition
Windows HPC Server 2008 R2
Windows Client VL | Windows Web Server 2008
Windows HPC Server 2008
Windows Client VL |
Server Group B | Windows Server 2008 R2 Standard
Windows Server 2008 R2 Enterprise
Systems from Server Group A
Windows Client VL | Windows Server 2008 Standard
Windows Server 2008 Enterprise
Systems from Server Group A
Windows Client VL |
Server Group C | Windows Server 2008 R2 Datacenter
Windows Server 2008 R2 for
Itanium-based systems
Systems from Server Group B
Systems from Server Group A
Windows Client VL | Windows Server 2008 Datacenter
Windows Server 2008 for Itanium-based
systems
Systems from Server Group B
Systems from Server Group A
windows Client VL |
Volume License customers
will receive a key for each product grouping, corresponding to the
products that they are entitled to use based on their Volume License
agreement. If a customer is entitled to use all Windows operating
systems, the customer should see eight available Windows keys. The keys
can be retrieved from the Microsoft Volume Licensing Service Center
website at:
www.microsoft.com/licensing/servicecenter/home.aspx
If your environment has a
Windows Server 2008 R2 datacenter license, you can use this key on your
KMS host to activate all the Windows versions that are lower in version
and generation—even Windows Vista and Windows Server 2008, because those
operating systems belong to an earlier generation.
|
Deciding to use KMS, MAK, or a
combination of these methods mainly depends on the type of environment
and the number of systems for which you want to use product activation.
As a best practice, always try to go for the KMS solution, because it's
the solution that puts you in control of your volume licensing. However,
in some scenarios the KMS solution isn't suitable and you must use MAK
activation.
There are a few questions that need to be answered in order to determine the best activation method:
How many clients am I going to activate?
The KMS activation
method only works when the activation threshold is reached. For the
client OS the threshold is 25 and for the server OS it's 5. If the
activation threshold cannot be reached, you must use the MAK activation
method.
For example, if you have 3
servers and 3 clients, you will be able to activate the server OS
because the activation count is greater than 5, but you will not be able
to activate the client OS because the threshold is below 25.
Note that with the latest
version of the KMS software there is no longer the requirement that the
to-be-activated OS must be physical in order to count for the activation
count limit.
How much risk to product key exposure do I want to take?
When you're using
MAK activation, a unique product key for your organization is used to
activate each product individually. This key could potentially be
extracted by one of the many product extraction utilities circulating
across the Internet and be used to activate other installations of the
same product but not owned by the company. When using KMS, the product
key that is used on the to-be-activated client is a generic one that is
publicly known and indicates to the client that it should use a KMS
infrastructure for its activation. The product key unique for your
organization can only be found on the KMS server.
How often do my clients connect to the corporate network?
When using KMS for product
activation, the clients using KMS try to contact the KMS host every 7
days; if after 180 days this attempt is still unsuccessful, the client
will go into reduced functionality mode (RFM) When using MAK, clients connect to the Microsoft
activation services over the Web directly or by using a Volume
Activation Management Tool (VAMT) proxy scenario.
Does the environment that hosts my clients have Internet access?
When your environment
doesn't have any Internet access and the number of clients is above the
KMS activation threshold, you should use KMS in order to activate your
clients. If the KMS activation threshold can't be reached, the MAK proxy
scenario provided by the VAMT can help you activate your MAK clients.
Or you could use MAK activation by phone. If your environment provides
Internet access, you can use either method for activation.
As mentioned earlier,
there's also a hybrid solution using both KMS and MAK. You could, for
example, choose to use MAK activation for clients that aren't connected
to the internal network within the required time frame, while using KMS
for clients that are located within your internal network.
Microsoft developed
the VAMT to help you activate clients centrally; while the first version
could only help you activate KMS clients, version 2 can also help you
configure KMS clients.
With the release of
Microsoft Office 2010, Microsoft announced that Office 2010 will use the
SPP as its activation method. This means that both MAK and KMS are
available as activation methods for Microsoft Office 2010, Microsoft
Project 2010, and Microsoft Visio 2010 as well. When using a KMS server,
you have to extend that server with an update to support activation of
Office 2010. The Office KMS server can run beside the KMS server you
already have for your Windows Activation.