Today, I have stumbled upon a fact that is worth being documented.
TL;DR: Use the “Windows Srv 2016 DataCtr/Std KMS” host key (CSVLK), if you want to activate Windows 10 Enterprise LTSB 2016 using KMS. Or use AD-based activation. For more information read the blog post of the Ask the Core Team: Windows Server 2016 Volume Activation Tips.
A customer wants to deploy Windows 10 Enterprise LTSB 2016. A Windows Server 2012 R2 is acting as KMS host, and successfully activates Windows Server 2012 R2 and Microsoft Office 2013 Professional Plus. The “Windows Srv 2012R2 DataCtr/Std KMS for Windows 10” CSVLK was successfully installed. Nevertheless, the “current count” value does not increase. The client logged the event 12288:
1 2 3 4 | The client has sent an activation request to the key management service machine. Info: 0xC004F042, 0x00000000, kms.domain.tld:1688, eda39663-0611-4906-b443-47e937c969d5, 2016/11/29 12:49, 0, 5, 0, 2d5a5a60-3040-48bf-beb0-fcd770c20ce0, 25 |
On the server-side, I found the event 12290:
1 2 3 4 | Description: An activation request has been processed. Info: 0xC004F042,25,client.domain.tld,07c496ea-1a4e-487e-8668-38eff198dd97,2016/11/29 10:50,0,5,0,2d5a5a60-3040-48bf-beb0-fcd770c20ce0 |
Error 0xC004F042 means:
The Software Protection Service determined that the specified Key Management Service (KMS) cannot be used.
It took a time to find the root cause, because I knew that Windows 10 Enterprise LTSB 2015 can successfully activated with this key. At the end it’s a question of the right search terms… Finally, I found the Ask the Core Team blog post. With the rightkey, the “current count” value increased, and finally the deployed Windows 10 Enterprise VMs were successfully activated.
Patrick Terlisten
Feel free to follow him on Twitter and/ or leave a comment.
Latest posts by Patrick Terlisten (see all)
- Poor performance with Windows 10/ 2019 1809 on VMFS 6 - May 23, 2019
- Make your life easier – KeeAgent for KeePass - April 28, 2019
- Vembu CloudDR – Disaster Recovery as a Cloud Service - April 24, 2019
I emailed VLSC to get a “Windows Srv 2016 DataCtr/Std KMS” key so that we could activate Windows 10 Enterprise 2016 LTSB using our windows server 2012R2 server as the host and I got this reply:
“Daniel, I will not be able to provide you a Windows Srv 2016 DataCtr/Std KMS because your license (OLP id removed) is only entitled for the Windows Server 2012 R2 version. You may verify this information in the VLSC under Licenses > Relationship Summary where you will find your license details.”
Are we screwed over?
Hi Daniel,
do you have a software assurance for your 2012 R2 licenses? If not, you are not entitled to get a Server 2016 key.
We did have SA but it ran out. I just found that I can set up one of our win 10 machines to be a KMS host so I will do that as a work around.