If you are planning a Windows deployment of Windows 7, Windows Server 2008 R2, Windows 8, or Windows Server 2012, you probably have the same considerations for Windows as for Office 2013. To help determine which activation method to use for Windows, see the Windows Volume Activation Planning Guide. Most likely, Office 2013 will use the same method.

A volume activation deployment includes the following steps:

1. Learn about product activation.

2. Review available activation models.

3. Evaluate client connectivity.

4. Map the physical computer or virtual machine to an activation method.

5. Determine product key needs.

6. Determine monitoring and reporting needs.

Most of the information about these steps is covered in the Windows Volume Activation Planning Guide. This article describes an overview of the technology.

When you plan for Office Activation Technologies, think about the following information:

• The KMS activation threshold for Office 2013 is five computers. This means that Office 2013 client computers will be activated only after five or more client computers have requested activation.

• You do not have to enter a product key for Office 2013 KMS clients. You only have to enter a KMS host key on your KMS host computer.

• If you decide to use MAK, enter the product key either through the Office Customization Tool (OCT) or the Config.xml file. After Office 2013 installation, you can change the product key by using the Volume Activation Management Tool (VAMT) or the Office Software Protection Platform script (ospp.vbs). For more information about ospp.vbs, see Configure client computers for volume activation in Office 2013.

Note:
The latest version of VAMT is 3.0. For information about VAMT 3.0, see Volume Activation Management Tool (VAMT) 3.0.

Office Activation Technologies provides three activation methods for Office 2013 (KMS, MAK, and Active Directory-Based activation).

• Key Management Service (KMS)   A server-client model in which a computer serves as the KMS host. A KMS host key must be installed and activated. This establishes a local activation service in your environment. Office 2013 client computers connect to the local Office 2013 KMS host for activation.

• Multiple Activation Key (MAK)   If you use a MAK key, Office 2013 client computers are activated online by using the Microsoft hosted activation servers or by telephone.

• Active Directory-Based activation   Available only for Office 2013 on Windows 8 and Windows Server 2012. Active Directory-Based activation can activate all Office 2013 volume license clients throughout a domain. Active Directory-Based activation is set up through Active Directory Domain Services (AD DS) from either a Windows 8 volume license edition computer or a Windows Server 2012 computer,

The kind of key that is installed determines the activation method. All Office 2013 volume license editions have the KMS client key pre-installed. You do not have to enter a product key if you are deploying KMS clients. If you want to use MAK activation, you have to enter the correct MAK key.

You can also use a combination of KMS and MAK. For example, Office 2013 running on desktops has the KMS client key installed, whereas Office 2013 running on portable computers has the MAK key installed.

The model that you choose depends on the size, network infrastructure, connectivity, and security requirements. You can choose to use only one or a combination of these activation models. Typically, the same activation method for a particular instance of Windows would also be used for Office. For more information about how to decide which activation method to use, see the Windows Volume Activation Planning Guide.

Key Management Service (KMS)

KMS is a server-client model in which a computer serves as the KMS host. KMS activation requires TCP/IP connectivity. By default, KMS hosts use DNS to publish the KMS service. Client computers connect to the KMS host for activation by using anonymous remote procedure calls (RPCs) through TCP communications port 1688, which is the default port number when you enable the firewall on a KMS host. You can either use the default settings, which require little or no administrative action, or manually configure KMS hosts and clients based on network configuration and security requirements.

To be licensed, the KMS client must be activated. The following table describes the license state of the Office 2013 KMS client with respect to activation.

License state of the Office 2013 KMS client

License state	Description
Licensed	By default, the KMS client tries activation with the KMS host one time every seven days. (The number of days is configurable.) This design allows the maximum possible time for the client to be in the licensed state. After the KMS client is successfully activated, it remains in the licensed state for 180 days. When in the licensed state, users do not see any notification dialog boxes prompting them to activate the client. After 180 days, the activation attempt process resumes. If activation is continually successful, the whole activation experience is transparent to the end-user.
Out-of-tolerance	If activation does not occur during the 180-day period, Office 2013 goes into the out-of-tolerance state for 30 days. Users then see notifications that request activation.
Unlicensed notification	If activation does not occur during the out-of tolerance state, Office 2013 goes into the unlicensed notification state. Users then see notifications that request activation and a red title bar.

You must install the KMS host by using a KMS host key and then activate the host before it can accept activation requests from KMS clients. For information about how to set up a KMS host, see Prepare and configure the Office KMS host in Deploy volume activation of Office 2013.

Important:
The KMS host key for Office 2013 is not specific to a particular operating system. It is designed to be used on any of the operating systems supported as an Office 2013 KMS host, including both 32-bit and 64-bit editions: Volume License editions of Windows 7 Volume License editions of Windows 8 Windows Server 2012 Windows Server 2008 R2

Publication of the KMS service

The KMS service uses service (SRV) resource records (RRs) in DNS to store and communicate the locations of KMS hosts. KMS hosts use dynamic updates, if available, to publish the KMS SRV RRs. If dynamic updates are not available, or if the KMS host does not have permissions to publish the RRs, you must publish the DNS records manually or configure client computers to connect to specific KMS hosts. This might require changing permissions on DNS to let more than one KMS host publish SRV records.

Note:
DNS changes might take time to propagate to all DNS hosts, depending on the complexity and topology of the network.

Client discovery of KMS

The first time that a KMS client queries DNS for KMS information, it randomly selects a KMS host from the list of SRV RRs that DNS returns. The address of a DNS server that contains the SRV RRs can be listed as a suffixed entry on KMS clients. This enables advertisement of SRV RRs for KMS in one DNS server and KMS clients that have other primary DNS servers to find it.

You can add priority and weight parameters to the DnsDomainPublishList registry value for KMS hosts on Volume License editions of Windows 7 or Windows Server 2008 R2. Doing so enables you to establish KMS host priority groupings and weighting within each group, which specifies the order in which to use KMS hosts and balances traffic among multiple KMS hosts. If you are using priority and weight parameters, we recommend that KMS caching be disabled on the client. This allows the client to query DNS every time that activation is tried, which will honor the priority and weight parameters, instead of directly contacting the cached KMS host that last resulted in successful activation.

If the KMS host that a client selects does not respond, the KMS client removes that KMS host from its list of SRV RRs and randomly selects another KMS host from the list. If the priority and weight parameters are set, the KMS client will use them while finding another KMS host. Otherwise, KMS hosts are selected randomly. After a KMS host responds, the KMS client caches the name of the KMS host and, if caching is enabled, uses it for successive activation and renewal attempts. If the cached KMS host does not respond on a later renewal, the KMS client discovers a new KMS host by querying DNS for KMS SRV RRs.

KMS activation thresholds

The minimum requirement for Office 2013 KMS activation is a KMS host and at least five KMS clients in a network environment. Five or more computers that are running Office 2013 volume editions must contact the KMS host within 30 days for their activation requests to succeed. When five clients have connected to a KMS host, clients that later connect to the KMS host receive responses that allow the clients to be activated. Due to the re-activation schedule, the original five clients also become activated when they request activation from the KMS host again.

After initializing KMS, the KMS activation infrastructure is self-maintaining. The KMS service can be co-hosted with other services. A single KMS host can support hundreds of thousands of KMS clients. Most organizations can deploy merely two KMS hosts for their whole infrastructure (one main KMS host and one backup host for redundancy).

KMS activation renewal

KMS activations are valid for 180 days. This is called the activation validity interval. To remain activated, KMS clients must renew their activation by connecting to the KMS host at least one time every 180 days. By default, KMS client computers attempt to renew their activation every seven days. After a client’s activation is renewed, the activation validity interval begins again.

Use KMS for computers that run Windows and Office 2013 client products

When you use KMS to activate computers that run both Windows and Office 2013, you have the following options for Office 2013:

• Use the same KMS host on a computer that runs Windows Server 2003 (Standard, Enterprise, and Datacenter editions [32-bit and 64-bit] only), Volume License editions of Windows 7 or Windows Server 2008 R2. We recommend this option.

• Use separate KMS hosts for computers that run Windows and Office 2013.

Important:
If you already have a KMS host that is set up to activate Windows products, you still have to install the Office 2013 KMS host license files, enter the Office 2013 KMS host key, and activate the key. To do this, go to the Microsoft Office 2013 Volume License Pack website, and then download and run KeyManagementServiceHost.exe.

The following operating systems are supported as an Office 2013 KMS host:

• Volume License editions of Windows 7

• Volume License editions of Windows 8

• Windows Server 2012

• Windows Server 2008 R2

If you already use a computer that runs as your Windows KMS host and you want to co-host the Office 2013 KMS host, follow the steps in Prepare and configure the Office KMS host in Deploy volume activation of Office 2013.

Multiple Activation Key (MAK)

Active Directory-Based activation

The latest update to the Volume Activation Management Tool (VAMT) is version 3.0. VAMT 3.0 is designed to manage volume activations for Windows Vista, Windows 7, Windows 8, Windows Server 2008, Windows Server 2008 R2, Windows Server 2012, Office 2010, and Office 2013. In addition, VAMT 3.0 supports Active Directory-Based activation.

The following features are either new, or updated, in VAMT 3.0:

• User interface.   The updated user interface makes volume activation and license management an easy, one-console process.

• Data storage.   Data storage in a SQL Server database provides greater scalability and speed.

• Licensing reports.   Five new Volume Licensing reports provide instant views of the licensing status of every computer in the database:

  • At Risk Products Report

  • Duplicate Computer Management ID (CMID) Report

  • MAK Usage Report

  • Unlicensed Products Report

  • Volume Activation by Authority Report

• PowerShell commandlets (cmdlet).   A PowerShell module for VAMT replaces the vamt.exe command line interface.

• Support for Proxy Authentication.   If you are on a network that requires a user name and password to reach the Internet, VAMT enables you to log on and perform proxy activation.

• Active Directory-Based activation.   VAMT can online or proxy-activate an Active Directory-Based activation object. When Active Directory-Based activation is deployed, any new qualifying computers that are joined to the domain are automatically activated.

The following features that existed in previously released versions of VAMT are deprecated or removed in VAMT 3.0:

• Data storage in Computer Information Files (CIL).   Data is no longer stored in Computer Information Files (CIL), but is instead stored in a SQL Server database. You can import data that is currently stored in CIL files into VAMT. Data that is exported from VAMT is saved in a CILX file.

• The vamt.exe command-line interface.The vamt.exe command-line interface is no longer available. It is replaced by a Windows PowerShell module.

For detailed information about VAMT 3.0, see Volume Activation Management Tool Technical Reference.

The KMS service does not require a dedicated server. The KMS service can be co-hosted on a server that also hosts KMS for Windows. Specifically, you can configure a computer that runs Windows 7 VL edition, Windows Server 2008 R2, Windows 8 VL edition, or Windows Server 2012 to act as a single KMS host that responds to both Windows and Office 2013 KMS client activation requests. This works as long as the appropriate Office 2013 KMS host licenses are installed and a valid KMS host key is installed, and the key is activated against Microsoft hosted activation servers. You can install Office 2013 KMS host licenses by running the Microsoft Office 2013 Volume License Pack.

Note:
You can set up an Office 2013 KMS host on the same computer that contains an Office 2010 KMS host if you are using any of the following operating systems: Volume License editions of Windows 7 Volume License editions of Windows 8 Windows Server 2012 Windows Server 2008 R2

Plan DNS server configuration

Activate the KMS host

Prepare KMS clients

Activate as a standard user

Similar to KMS activation, which activates all Office VL clients that are connected to a KMS host, Active Directory-Based Activation activates all Office VL clients in an Active Directory domain. For more information about Active Directory-Based Activation, see Active Directory-Based Activation Overview.

We recommend MAK for computers that rarely or never connect to the corporate network and for environments in which fewer than five physical computers need activation (the Office 2013 KMS activation threshold is five computers. You can use MAK for individual computers or with an image that can be installed by using Microsoft or third-party deployment solutions. You can also use MAK on a computer that was originally configured to use KMS activation. This is useful for moving a computer off the core network to a disconnected environment.

For more information about how to install a MAK key, see Deploy volume activation of Office 2013.

No authenticated proxy server support