We are a college campus with a bunch (100s) of computers scattered around between labs and staff use. We've recently started getting notifications on some desktops that Windows is not activated, and checking our Volume License it looks like these desktops might have been imaged using an MAK key that is now fully spent, but we're not 100% sure about that. I do see a couple of our servers set up as KMS servers by running the slmgr.vbs /dlv command, but i'm wondering if the problem is that the key used on those servers is linked to the now full key. We do have a couple of other KMS keys on our volume licensing account that have 1000s of available licenses, but how can I change the license on the KMS server to one of these keys with available licenses? Does this question even make sense or am I way off?
Thanks for any input!
My understanding is that you're way off. KMS keys are not 'linked' to a MAK key; they do not have an 'activation total'. Any KMS server key will activate any number of clients, given the normal minimum requirements are met to trigger KMS to start activating client requests.
All you should need to do is switch your clients from MAK keys to the default KMS key, make sure KMS is working (correct DNS record, etc), and you should be golden.
Some places use MAK keys if the client computer may not be connected to activate using KMS (typically notebooks).
The KMS client keys are published on the Microsoft web site. If you run cscript slmgr.vbs /dlv, and it displays VOLUME_MAK or does not display VOLUME_KMSCLIENT, you aren't using KMS. KMS and MAK client setup keys are mutually exclusive.
You can try to change the product key to the KMS client key using cscript slmgr.vbs /ipk, then run cscript slmgr.vbs /ato to activate.
KMS Client Setup Keys
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/jj612867.aspx