Windows 7 activation grace period after Quick Prep deploy of Linked Clone Pool

[JamesCMPTS]

Hi,

After setting up my golden master and creating a linked clone pool and deploying desktops from it, I notice that the grace period of Windows 7 activation does not start back at the 30 days for each new machine.   It seems that each day that goes by, the period is one day less, even on a newly deployed clone.   It is essentially keeping the date of when the initial install of the golden master was installed and the clock started ticking.

Is it supposed to reset?   I am using a KMS server and I have disabled the auto activation for QuickPrep via the registry, and I have not reached the 25 machine threshold yet.

Thank you

James Zeller

[Linjo]

Hi James and welcome to the forums!

What you see makes sense, the quickprep procedure basically changes the name on the virtual machine, creates the computer-account in the ad and then adds the desktop to the AD, it does not and should not reset any evaluation licensing.

The best way to get around the 25 machine KMS limit is to create a pool with 25 machines and let them activate properly, deleate the pool and then setup your smaller production-pool.

// Linjo

[JamesCMPTS]

Thanks.  I should have done that early on in the process.  We finally made the threshold from physical machines, but that made us notice another issue.  It appears that the VMs will now activate using the local KMS, but the count of machines that the KMS shows does not increase with a VM activation, only with physical machines.

I don't know if there is something I did wrong on the golden master.  I used the KMS key and the actual activation does work now that the KMS is active above the 25 count, but I am afraid that if they are not being counted correctly that perhaps in a few months they won't checkin correctly to maintain activation.

anyone got ideas?

James

[JamesCMPTS]

additionally, do you think its possible that QUickPrep is not changing the machine identifiers enough or in a way that the KMS is detecting it as a unique machine?

After I create the golden image, i simply do a shutdown and make the snapshot.

James

[iforbes]

You're correct. What happens is that the KMS host requires a unique CMID from each client before it will activate it. QuickPrep doesn't give each clone a unique CMID and hence they cannot get activated. I'm running into this issue now and don't have a resolution. I cannot get my KMS pool to 25.

Does anyone have a resolution?

[iforbes]

Linjo - The problem is that you cannot use QuickPrep to create the 25 machines. The CMID will be identical on all machines in the pool and KMS will see that as one machine.

[Linjo]

As a workaround you could use sysprep instead.

// Linjo