linked clones activated via KMS... gold image not

[Anthony_ADS]

Hi everyone,

I have a VMware Horizon View 6 deployment and have linked clones working well. One little niggle I have is the gold image VM (Windows 7 Pro, domain joined, Office Pro Plus 2013) - it has the GVLK configured and although the linked clones activate just fine (there are around 30 of them so they activated OK), the gold image still gives a 'non-genuine' message. This is for the Windows activation, not Office.

I don't want to activate it with a MAK key, as that change will I assume will be passed on to the linked clones once recomposed, and they will become non-licenced instead.

Is it OK to keep running the gold image running as unlicensed, or do I have to do something else? I am just fearful that it will fall out of its' grace period and it will prevent me from accessing it.

The KMS server is located in another office and they trust requests from our domain name.

Thanks in advance

Anthony

[kgsivan]

It is better to activate the Parent VM, (though we can handle any technical situation if not)

1. Go to "c:\windows\system32\"
2. Run "cscript slmgr.vbs -skms <kms server Ipaddress or hostname>" -- This step might be already done , that's why the clones are getting activated
3. Run "cscript slmgr.vbs -ato"  -- This must be a pending step in the parent VM

Notes:

You should have elevated privilege

You also need to ensure proper time zone and time on the parent VM, prior to activation

[Anthony_ADS]

I know there are enough licenses on the KMS server but this is what I get when I try to activate (and I have tried to activate this in the past to no avail):

As I mentioned before, I don't really know how this one won't activate, but the linked clones do.

Edit: I have also started all 30 linked clones and tried to activate the gold image in case I needed a minimum 25 machines to contact the KMS server.

Thanks

[Gaurav_Baghla]

http://kb.vmware.com/kb/2048742

[kgsivan]

How is the parent VM prepared ? -- Cloned from another. Whether  it has been  switched between snapshot of different activate staged

May be client machine ID duplication.. Please run slmgr/rearm and try reactivate again.

If no luck, I would advise to prepare a new parent VM and try activation freshly, so that you can safely change the default image to the newly activated parent VM

[mcasekar]

Hi,

If you face issue while activating from the client, you can log-in into your KMS server and search the golden machine ->Right-click-> assign the desired product key->activate 

Hope this would help you to activate your golden image via KMS.

[JackMac4]

Anthony_ADS wrote:

Is it OK to keep running the gold image running as unlicensed, or do I have to do something else? I am just fearful that it will fall out of its' grace period and it will prevent me from accessing it.

Yes, this is completely ok. The parent image technically doesn't even need to be joined to the domain, but in my environments I always do both.

[Anthony_ADS]

The gold image is a clone of a blank Windows 7 VM, which is not on the domain, has a default hostname, DHCP configured etc. Once I added the gold image to the domain I assume that the SID would have changed, so there is no need for sysprepping in this respect.

I don't have access to the KMS server unfortunately.

slmgr /rearm does not fix the problem.

JackMac4, I think I'll go with your suggestion and just leave it. As long as the gold imagine doesn't expire and allows me to log in to reimage then I'm ok with that.

Thanks everyone for all your help

Anthony

[JackMac4]

FYI - Adding the machine does not change the SID, nor does cloning via View Composer. Only a full sysprep in this case would actually change the SID.

[chalkynz]

KMS activation threshold?  

https://kb.vmware.com/s/article/2009481

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/deployment/volume-activation/activate-windows-10-clients-va...