Microsoft Licensing with VMware View Composer

October 8, 2012 0 By Eric Shanks

I know the subject of Microsoft licensing makes most administrators want to crawl under a desk and hide when the topic comes up, but it’s important to understand a few things if you’re going to be standing up a VMware View deployment, or any VDI project.

During the install of a Windows 7 operating system you of course have to enter a license key. Once the OS has been installed and booted up, it needs to activate. Product activation is necessary so that Microsoft can make sure that the software is only installed on the number of PCs that were licensed to use it. This product activation can be done via a network connection or via telephone. When you enter your assigned volume license keys during installation you have two types of keys that you can enter:

Media Access Key (MAK)

Key Management Server Keys (KMS)

Media Access Keys activate by communicating directly with Microsoft either over the Internet or via Telephone. Microsoft then keeps track of the number of licenses that have been activated. The other option involves standing up your own Key Management Server which will handle the activation for you. A Key Management Server can be very useful if you don’t have Internet access for your desktops to activate with Microsoft. KMS is the only supported way to do product activations for a View deployment. http://kb.vmware.com/selfservice/microsites/search.do?language=en_US&cmd=displayKC&externalId=1026556

Spinning up VMs over and over again will require product activations which will likely throw of a flag with Microsoft due to the numbers of activations coming from a single product key. MAK licensing does have limits.

From the VLMK FAQ. http://www.microsoft.com/Licensing/existing-customers/product-activation-faq.aspx

Are there usage limits on MAKs?

Yes. MAKs allow a predetermined number of activations. This number depends on the type of agreement you have. The number of activations can be revised (at the request of the customer or of Microsoft) to accommodate your regular usage.

You can find the number of activations remaining on a MAK by going to the VLSC, or by using theVolume Activation Management Tool (VAMT). If the existing activation limit on your MAK is inadequate for your deployment, contact the Microsoft Activation Center.

Setting up the KMS server is beyond the scope of this post, but it should be mentioned that once you’ve got the activation server you just need to enter your KMS code into the license key section during the Windows installation. If you’re looking for the KMS key for your operating system, you can find them on the technet site. http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ff793406.aspx

If you’ve just found this article and you’ve already created your golden image, there is good use. You can use slmgr to modify your product key.

First check to see if your OS is using MAK by opening a command prompt and run slmgr /dli