About to setup KMS server for Volume activation

Question

I have searched and searched for any hints of how i should setup our KMS server for our coming installations of 2008(r2) servers and win7 clients. No luck, so here I am.

We've got around 20 developers switching to windows 7(about 50-80 more boxes when all apps are completely tested), and were using MAK keys at the moment, we got about 50-60 virtual servers(2003) for our test/demo environment that we could switch to 2008r2 without much fuss(data center licenses ftw).

My wish is for 1 server to handle all the KMS licenses, is it possible? We got bunches of 1srver 2008 KMS licenses, 4 Data center licenses, and 1 kms key with 150 client licenses for win7.

Answer 1

My wish is for 1 server to handle all the KMS licenses, is it possible?

Yes, but remember to backup/plan for replacing it.

KMS is a separate download (e.g. here for Server 2008). The download pages contain technet links (and technet search gives a lot of links as well).

Answer 2

As it turned out i was on the wrong track, and tought there would be som verification of the keys internally so we cannot overuse our license. Then i found this in the Volume_Activation _2.0_MAK_KMS_KEY.doc from Microsoft:

Each KMS key provides for the activation of six KMS host machines for up to 10 uses per host machine. Each host can activate an unlimited number of machines running Windows Server 2008, Windows Vista Business, and/or Windows Vista Enterprise editions.

And the Planning Guide explained that i only need the KMS license with the highest Access

Clients < Server Group A < Server Group B < Server group C(our Datacenter license)

So i'll just go with the Data center license.

Documents are found at the following link: http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=9893F83E-C8A5-4475-B025-66C6B38B46E3&displaylang=en