Ghost Imaging and KMS activation

[Guest]

Hello and thanks in advance to any answers.

I'm working on deploying Vista Enterprise on our campus using Ghost imaging
and KMS activation.

My question is, what do i need to do before I make an image of Vista. I want
it to be able to just pull the image down on a computer and have it go ahead
and activate. I know you can do this through Slmgr.vbs. I've been having
problems pulling the image down and having it activate through slmgr.vbs
-ato, i keep getting errors. Is there something i'm doing wrong?

Brian

 

[Darrell Gorter[MSFT]]

Hello,
What are the errors you are seeing?
If the image is using the correct key(default key that volume license ships
with) and DNS is publishing the KMS location it should just work.
You shouldn't have to do anything, not even run slmgr.
Thanks,
Darrell Gorter[MSFT]

This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights
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|> Thread-Topic: Ghost Imaging and KMS activation
|> thread-index: AcgAhRe3GT2jXmfHQF6sG/QOcALiEA==
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|> From: =?Utf-8?B?YnJpY2h0ZXI0NQ==?= <[email protected]>
|> Subject: Ghost Imaging and KMS activation
|> Date: Wed, 26 Sep 2007 14:35:00 -0700
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|>
|> Hello and thanks in advance to any answers.
|>
|> I'm working on deploying Vista Enterprise on our campus using Ghost
imaging
|> and KMS activation.
|>
|> My question is, what do i need to do before I make an image of Vista. I
want
|> it to be able to just pull the image down on a computer and have it go
ahead
|> and activate. I know you can do this through Slmgr.vbs. I've been having
|> problems pulling the image down and having it activate through slmgr.vbs
|> -ato, i keep getting errors. Is there something i'm doing wrong?
|>
|> Brian
|>
|>
|>
|>
|>

 

[Joe Morris]

I'm working on deploying Vista Enterprise on our campus using Ghost
imaging
and KMS activation.

My question is, what do i need to do before I make an image of Vista. I
want
it to be able to just pull the image down on a computer and have it go
ahead
and activate. I know you can do this through Slmgr.vbs. I've been having
problems pulling the image down and having it activate through slmgr.vbs
-ato, i keep getting errors. Is there something i'm doing wrong?

If you've stood up a KMS box and have made (or allowed the KMS box to make)
the appropriate entries in your DNS database, you don't have to do anything
for most systems.

A volume-licensed Vista installation for which you have *not* entered any
product key will use the product key that's canned on the Microsoft disk,
and will quietly locate the KMS server through a SRV record on your DNS and
activate itself. There's no need to use slmgr.vbs.

There are some exceptions. Systems which cannot attach to the network
(e.g., a remote campus where the network doesn't bridge back to yours,
systems at the president's house, etc.) unless they can set up a VPN
connection - and see the next note. If there is no connection possible at
all, you'll need to enter the MAK at some point and use the traditional
ET-phone-home activation.

There's one gotcha that I've never seen documented: Vista interrogates the
DNS server to locate the KMS box only during the boot procedure, so if at
boot time the computer isn't on the same net as the KMS (typical of a system
that uses VPN) Vista will report that it is unable to locate the KMS. All
is not lost, however, since you can tell Vista where to find the KMS.

Setting the KMS address is easy. From an elevated command prompt use the
following (assume that the KMS hostname is "KMS.FOOBAR.EDU"):

slmgr.vbs -skms kms.foobar.edu

You could set that before burning the Ghost image, but I would advise
against it since in the future you might want to use some other hostname.
Use the hard-coded KMS hostname and the MAK/activation process only where
necessary -- and consider making it somewhat painful for users to obtain.

Good luck!

Joe Morris

 

[Seth]

Hello and thanks in advance to any answers.

I'm working on deploying Vista Enterprise on our campus using Ghost
imaging
and KMS activation.

My question is, what do i need to do before I make an image of Vista. I
want
it to be able to just pull the image down on a computer and have it go
ahead
and activate. I know you can do this through Slmgr.vbs. I've been having
problems pulling the image down and having it activate through slmgr.vbs
-ato, i keep getting errors. Is there something i'm doing wrong?

Maybe try telling us what error you are getting?

If you didn't allow the KMS server (you do have a KMS server, correct?)
create it's DNS entries, you can force the client by executing...

cscript.exe slmgr.vbs -skms ip_address_of_KMS_server:1688

followed by...

cscript.exe slmgr.vbs -ato

to do the activation.

Also, forget about GHOST. Vista comes with ImageX.EXE which actually
performs better.

 

[Guest]

Alright after i pull the image down i do this

cscript.exe slmgr.vbs -skms vistakms


then
slmgr.vbs -ato

it keeps telling me that i don't have enough machines. I keep getting the
count up to 25 but then it keeps decreasing. Is there a reason for this? and
how do i keep activating these machines and keeping the count up?

 

[Seth]

Alright after i pull the image down i do this

cscript.exe slmgr.vbs -skms vistakms


then
slmgr.vbs -ato

it keeps telling me that i don't have enough machines. I keep getting the
count up to 25 but then it keeps decreasing. Is there a reason for this?
and
how do i keep activating these machines and keeping the count up?

So you've actually reached the 25 machine threshold and it has then dropped
below it again? I've never seen that. As long as you get up to 25 machines
within a 30 day period you should be good to go.

Yes, until you reach 25 machines you will get that message on the clients.
That's because activations don't happen till 25 is reached.

What I did was keep building the same couple of machines over and over and
attempting activation until the 25 was reached. Been fine ever since.

 

[Guest]

That's exactly what i'm doing. I keep pulling down the same image and
activating it until i get to 25. But then i'll come back the next day and the
count will be under 25. I don't understand why it would do this...

 

[Seth]

That's exactly what i'm doing. I keep pulling down the same image and
activating it until i get to 25. But then i'll come back the next day and
the
count will be under 25. I don't understand why it would do this...

Try getting to 26 and see what happens?

 

[Guest]

I think i found my problem. I imaged the machine after sysprep had run. I'm
going to through a image up before sysprep runs and see if that works.

 

[Seth]

I think i found my problem. I imaged the machine after sysprep had run. I'm
going to through a image up before sysprep runs and see if that works.

You are supposed to image it after running SYSPREP.

Or do you mean you imaged it after mini-setup ran? (mini-setup is what
happens on the first boot after SYSPREP).

 

[Guest]

I imaged it after minisetup ran....

You are supposed to image it after running SYSPREP.

Or do you mean you imaged it after mini-setup ran? (mini-setup is what
happens on the first boot after SYSPREP).