Win 2012 R2 KMS 13: A Guide to Key Management Services (KMS) Client Setup Keys

A KMS host running on Windows Server 2019/2016/2012R2 can activate all Windows versions, including Windows Server 2019 and Windows 10 all the way down to Windows Server 2008R2 and Windows 7. Semi-Annual and Long-Term Service Channel (LTSC) are both supported by the KMS.

I just added a new Windows Server 2019 KMS key using a Volume Activation Tools on a Windows Server 2012 R2.After installing the KBs I mentioned in the post, the new key was recognized by the server without any issue.

win 2012 r2 kms 13

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IMPORTANT Windows 8.1 and Windows Server 2012 R2 have reached the end of mainstream support and are now in extended support. Starting in July 2020, there will no longer be optional, non-security releases (known as "C" releases) for this operating system. Operating systems in extended support have only cumulative monthly security updates (known as the "B" or Update Tuesday release).

For information about the various types of Windows updates, such as critical, security, driver, service packs, and so on, please see the following article. To view other notes and messages, see the Windows 8.1 and Windows Server 2012 R2 update history home page.

This update extends support of the Key Management Service (KMS) for Windows 8 and Windows Server 2012, in order to enable the activation of clients running Windows 10 Anniversary Update-based long-term servicing branch (LTSB) and Windows Server 2016 clients, when they become available.In addition to installing this update on the KMS Host, a KMS generic volume license key (GVLK) that is designed to support the Windows 10 Anniversary Update-based LTSB or Windows Server 2016 clients also needs to be installed. Information about the associated KMS GVLKs for these products will be listed in Appendix A: KMS Client Setup Keys, when they become available.The KMS GVLKs that support the new versions of Windows will also support previous volume licensing editions of Windows that are acting as KMS clients. For more info about using a Customer Support Volume License Key (CSLVK) for installation, see this article.

When you enable BitLocker on the volume and then expand the volume on Windows Server 2012 R2, there cache manager errors are shown and the commands fail. These are logged in the System log with error 141 - STATUS_MEDIA_WRITE_PROTECTED.

When you configure Windows Server 2012 R2 for cloud based authentication, there is a high latency on the tenants for authentication and provisioning which causes the CPU usage to drop to less than 10%.

If you installed the May 2016 update rollup for Windows 8.1 and Windows Server 2012 R2 (KB3156418), the DFSRS.exe process may consume a high percentage of CPU processing power (up to 100 percent). This may cause the DFSR service to become unresponsive and you may be unable to stop the service. You must hard-boot affected computers to restart them.

Computers that are running volume licensing editions of Windows 10, Windows 8.1, Windows Server 2012 R2, Windows 8, Windows Server 2012, Windows 7, Windows Server 2008 R2, Windows Vista, and Windows Server 2008 are, by default, KMS clients with no additional configuration needed.

Key Management Services (KMS) is a way to manage Windows Activation centrally for a networking infrastructure. Installations of Windows Server 2016 with Volume License (VL) media are the first installations of a released Microsoft Windows Server product that are not configured by default with a KMS client key since a long time (as opposed to Windows Server 2008, 2008 R2, 2012 and 2012 R2). Therefore, in the KMS scenario, the following requirements need to be met:

Windows Server 2012 is the sixth version of the Windows Server operating system by Microsoft, as part of the Windows NT family of operating systems. Windows Server 2012 is the server version of Windows based on Windows 8 and succeeds Windows Server 2008 R2, which is derived from the Windows 7 codebase, released nearly three years earlier. Two pre-release versions, a developer preview and a beta version, were released during development. The software was generally available to customers starting on 09-04-2012, by Microsoft. A successor was released on 10-18-2013, entitled Windows Server 2012 R2. Microsoft ended mainstream support for Windows Server 2012 on 10-09-2018, and extended support will end on 10-10-2023.

Several people in Citrix Discussions reported the following issue: If you see a message about RD Licensing Grace Period has expired even though RD Licensing is properly configured, see Eric Verdumen No remote Desktop Licence Server availible on RD Session Host server 2012. The solution was to delete the REG_BINARY in HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Terminal Server\RCM\GracePeriod only leaving the default. You must take ownership and give admin users full control to be able to delete this value.

For Linux clients or older Mac clients, from CTX140208 Client printing from Mac and Linux clients on Windows 10, Server 2012 R2, and Server 2016. By default, non-Windows clients cannot map printers due to a missing print driver on the VDA machine.

Since I upgraded VDA from 2009 to 2012, direct ICA file (old fashion connection) stopped working for users.it is still working for for users with admin privileges but for standard users, it is not working anymore.

Here is a quick few steps to get your KMS server ready to activate Windows Server 2019. Note that a Windows KMS key will also continue to Activate old servers such as Windows Server 2016 and Windows Server 2012 R2. It will not require a reboot or cause any production downtime.

For example, if you activated your KMS server with the Windows Srv 2012R2 key, you cannot activate Windows 10 or Windows Server 2016. The maximum supported versions of Windows to activate in this case are Windows 8.1 and Windows Server 2012 R2.

I purchase Windows 10 Enterprise Licenses and would like to deploy "Win10 Ent LTSC 2019" for all client PCs. May I know which type of Windows 10 Enterprise KMS Key is suitable for my Windows 2012 R2 KMS Host server? Thanks!

We are using SQL server 2016 sp1 enterprise edition. The problems we are facing are our realtime issues, those are not received by surfing any websites.When come to performance majority of the stored procedures are running behind 2008 and 2012 in 2016.

Thanks for agreeing. When we are planning to go with latest version the features projected by product vendors will not produce incorrect results. Cardinality estimation is one of the major problem. We have 1500 objects works well up to 2012 after 2016 execution durations increased and tempdb and db logs are running out of storage, enabling legacy estimation on or change db compatibility level to 2012 resolving our problem. Now SQL server released 2017 and also preparing for 2019. In that case we all prefer to go with 2019, think about companies migrated to 2017 will pay additional cost for 2019. Microsoft should consider their customers when releasing latest versions. Releasing cu is different than version release. If possible kindly refer niko post and search my name I was describing my problem and niko also agreed..

Great Article!We have some Databases in 2012 and 2014, and were in the final phase of testing with SS2019, and in one particular database we use a lot of UDF and TVF, the performance in these database is in average 1.5 slower than in the current production environment. Already tried every configuration possible in the server, disabling inling in some functions helped, but most of the functions are lot inlineable! Probably will Go to SS2017!

AAct - KMS-activator for operating systems Windows VL editions: Vista, 7, 8, 8.1, 10, Server 2008, 2008 R2, 2012, 2012 R2 and Office 2010, 2013, 2016. Also, you can activate Office 2010 VL on Windows XP. The program is written with use of original technologies and implements a different ideology design of such software tools.Read the included text file for usage. 2ff7e9595c