Licensing Issue with App Volumes

[robg2312]

I am having an issue with Office 2013 with App Volumes. When I assign the appstack to the desktop and open office 2013 I get the activation window. I activate Office and it runs fine until I log out. When I log back in to the desktop I have to re-activate Office every time.

Is there a way to permanently activate Office on App Volumes?

Thanks.

[Whisker58]

You should have a KMS server with the Office KMS key installed.  Then you would setup Office to use KMS for activation.  You need to do a re-arm on Office before you capture the layer.  I had to work it out with a pool that had Office installed in the base image before moving into layers.  Also, the KMS for Office needs to have at least 15 activation requests for KMS before it actually starts working correctly.  The whole Office KMS thing is a bit of a pain, but it does work.

[Jason_Marshall]

There is a specific way to set up Office with KMS. See page 47 for additional details.

https://www.vmware.com/pdf/app-volumes-user-guide.pdf

[fatmike900]

Would you be able to recall your steps for provisioning Office 2013 with kms key with vmware app volumes? I've followed the steps in the use guide, removed view agent from my image first, installed office 2013 pro plus, set kms server and activated via command prompt before opening any office program, ran windows update, installed all office updates, rebooted, opened word to verify activation status, captured install.   after completing the app stack and assigning to a machine with view agent, it comes up with error that the controller had trouble verifying activation, unable to repair license, please see admin, etc..   any help would be much appreciated

[Whisker58]

I don't remember all the exact steps, but I do remember some of the pain-points.  I'll try to highlight the important stuff.

1. The Office KMS key needs to be installed into the KMS server.  It's important to know the difference between the KMS keys used by the KMS server, and the GVLK's used for installing Windows or Office.

2. After you install and verify Office, you need to "rearm" Office, otherwise you end up cloning the machine ID that Office created; those ID's have to remain unique for KMS to count the Office installations as separate machines.  Every time you open Office to update the stack or image, you must rearm Office before capturing.

3. You need at least 15 Office installations running at the same time in order for KMS to start activating them (even then, it's not instant).  I did this by creating a VDI pool, logging into every guest and starting Office.

4. The DNS must be correct for KMS; execute:

ipconfig /flushdns

nslookup -type=srv _vlmcs._tcp.[your_domain].local

It should return only one KMS record.

5.  You can use the SLMGR commands in the KMS server and in the guest OS to help figure out what's going on.

6.  Look into the "Volume Activation Management Tool" which helps keep track of KMS license inventory.

Hope that helps.

[fatmike900]

Thanks, Step 2 helped me, I did not rearm office before capturing previously, that was my problem I believe.   much appreciated.