Activating MS Office 2013 Standard via KMS running on the same server

Question

Given: Microsoft Windows Server 2008 R2 Enterprise 64-bit, all the latest security updates applied.

KMS service set up and running, all the recommended updates applied (to handle possible activation issues for Windows 8 etc)

Microsoft Office 2013 Standard deployed on the server mentioned above and on workstations on intranet, volume licensing in effect (proper KMS key for activation of Microsoft Ofice 2013 has been entered).

Problem: I can't activate MS Office 2013 installation running on the same server where KMS service is being run.

There are no entries in KMS event log related to this failure.

Everything was restarted, reinstalled etc several times already (including installing 32-bit and 64-bit versions of the Office).

Note that KMS service works fine. All the workstations activate their MS Office 2013 without a single glitch. However, the installation on the server itself refuses to use KMS.

Firewall is set up correctly. Host name is provided correctly (via 'cscript ospp.vbs /sethst:hostname', I tried all the hostnames relevant, starting with that working for activating from workstations). All the other documented required checks/actions are performed as well prior to activating.

Judging by what I include below, ospp.vbs hints the above can't be activated via KMS. Is it indeed the case (i.e., I should use MAK activation instead), or I am still missing something?

I followed the KMS troubleshooting hints and related articles, and currently on Technet there are no advice pieces whether the above is at all possible.

Output of slmgr.vbs /dlv 2E28138A-847F-42BC-9752-61B03FFF33CD:

---------------------------
Windows Script Host
---------------------------
Software licensing service version: 6.1.7601.17946

Name: Office 15, KMSHostVL edition
Description: Office 15, VOLUME_KMS channel
Activation ID: 2e28138a-847f-42bc-9752-61b03fff33cd
Application ID: 0ff1ce15-a989-xxxx-xxxx-xxxxxxxxxxxx
Extended PID: 55041-00206-234-486666-03-xxxx-xxxx.xxxx-xxxxxxx
Installation ID: 01683679734050124078134659xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Processor Certificate URL: http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkID=88342
Machine Certificate URL: http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkID=88343
Use License URL: http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkID=88345
Product Key Certificate URL: http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkID=88344
Partial Product Key: xxxxx
License Status: Licensed
Remaining Windows rearm count: 4
Trusted time: 2/05/2013 10:00:12 AM

Key Management Service is enabled on this machine
    Current count: 5
    Listening on Port: 1688
    DNS publishing disabled
    KMS priority: Normal

Key Management Service cumulative requests received from clients
    Total requests received: 6
    Failed requests received: 0
    Requests with License Status Unlicensed: 0
    Requests with License Status Licensed: 0
    Requests with License Status Initial grace period: 6
    Requests with License Status License expired or Hardware out of tolerance: 0
    Requests with License Status Non-genuine grace period: 0
    Requests with License Status Notification: 0

---------------------------
OK   
---------------------------

Output of cscript ospp.vbs /act

Microsoft (R) Windows Script Host Version 5.8
Copyright (C) Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.

---Processing--------------------------
---------------------------------------
Installed product key detected - attempting to activate the following product:
SKU ID: b13afb38-cd79-4ae5-xxxx-xxxxxxxxxxxx
LICENSE NAME: Office 15, OfficeStandardVL_KMS_Client edition
LICENSE DESCRIPTION: Office 15, VOLUME_KMSCLIENT channel
Last 5 characters of installed product key: xxxxx
ERROR CODE: 0xC004F074
ERROR DESCRIPTION: The Software Licensing Service reported that the product could not
be activated. No Key Management Service (KMS) could be contacted. Please see the
Application Event Log for additional information.
To view the activation event history run: cscript ospp.vbs /dhistorykms
---------------------------------------
---------------------------------------
---Exiting-----------------------------

Output of cscript ospp.vbs /dstatus

Microsoft (R) Windows Script Host Version 5.8
Copyright (C) Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.

---Processing--------------------------
---------------------------------------
SKU ID: b13afb38-cd79-4ae5-xxxx-xxxxxxxxxxxx
LICENSE NAME: Office 15, OfficeStandardVL_KMS_Client edition
LICENSE DESCRIPTION: Office 15, VOLUME_KMSCLIENT channel
LICENSE STATUS:  ---NOTIFICATIONS---
ERROR CODE: 0xC004F056
ERROR DESCRIPTION: The Software Licensing Service reported that the product could
not be activated using the Key Management Service (KMS).
Last 5 characters of installed product key: xxxxx
        DNS auto-discovery: KMS name not available
        KMS machine registry override defined: xxxxxx:1688
        Activation Interval: 120 minutes
        Renewal Interval: 10080 minutes
        KMS host caching: Enabled
---------------------------------------
---------------------------------------
---Exiting-----------------------------

Answer 1

http://blogs.technet.com/b/odsupport/archive/2013/10/17/unable-to-kms-activate-office-running-on-windows-8-1-or-windows-server-2012-r2.aspx

Installing the Hotfix from KB2885698 worked for me. Do give it a try.

Answer 2

Office 2013 seems to use DNS lookups exclusively for identifying its KMS server. That was not the case with earlier KMS-activated versions of Office. What that means is that you cannot use names like localhost or 127.0.0.1 as your KMS server. You actually have to use the full ActiveDirectory/DNS name of your KMS server even if it happens to be the same machine. Oddly enough the Windows 7 activation script does not exhibit this behaviour... I haven't tested Windows 8 or 8.1 yet.

Before you attempt Office 2013 activation, please make sure that you can DNS look up your KMS host (even if it's the same machine!) with the nslookup command on the host where you're trying to activate Office 2013 (yes, even if it's all on the same machine).

Finally, do not specify the port number with cscript ospp.vbs /sethst. The command isn't smart enough to understand that ":1688" is a port number reference and will literally use "hostname:1688" as the hostname, instead of "hostname" as the hostname and 1688 as the port number. I believe there's a separate command-line switch that sets the port, but you don't need to set it explicitly unless you actually attach the KMS service to a TCP port other than the default 1688.

Answer 3

I had to open the firewall on the kms server. The default port is 1688 tcp, but i found an inactive application available in the firewall settings. After enabling this option the kms worked as expected and armed the office installations after 5 successfull connections.