Hello,
We are using KMS for our Vista desktops and I see a scaring problem, I installed
a PC 30 days ago and I can see in the KMS logs that it registered with it
at that time. But it appears only that day and not anymore in the logs. Today
the user got the message about "this copy is not activated" and when I try
to re-enter the ke ....2V3X8 I get an error c004f02a, the problem is that
I cannot even do a rearm or anyting with slmgr because all the operations
are locked !!!
Any ideas or debugging path before I reinstall the entire box ?


Thanks

Patrick

"Patrick Ambuhl" wrote:

We are using KMS for our Vista desktops and I see a scaring problem, I
installed a PC 30 days ago and I can see in the KMS logs that it
registered with it at that time. But it appears only that day and not
anymore in the logs. Today the user got the message about "this copy is
not activated" and when I try to re-enter the ke ....2V3X8 I get an error
c004f02a, the problem is that I cannot even do a rearm or anyting with
slmgr because all the operations are locked !!!
Any ideas or debugging path before I reinstall the entire box ?

Does this system have Service Pack 1 installed? (If not, why not?)

Are you certain that the connection to the KMS actually resulted in an
activation? The 30-day period from installation to failure is suspicious,
especially since a KMS activation is good for 180 days (plus a 30-day grace
period). Also, when you boot the Vista box, is it configured and able *at
that time* to use the DNS server containing the SRV record that points to
the KMS? Vista attempts to locate the KMS at boot time, not at activation
time.

There are two KB articles that refer to your error code:

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/931573
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/929818

931573 looks to be the more likely of the two since 929818 talks about BIOS
issues -- which I would suspect to be more related to OEM distributions and
not VLA ones (only VLA installations can use a KMS).

Joe Morris

Hi,
Thanks for the reply,

The SP1 is NOT installed because we have a compatibility issue with another
product, should be fixed within two months.

Certain that it was activated ? If I check the KMS server log I can see that
at that day i get 4 events "resulted in an activation" with a license status
of 1 and a time to expire around 259200, in fact it changed form 259194 to
259197 in two consecutive events that looks to me like a successfull activation.
It's hard to know if Vista can resolve DNS correctly at boot time, but I
have 60 PCs of the exact same model with the same image on them that activate
without issues.

Thanks for the KB articles but because I can't do anything on the PC I'll
reinstall it.....

What bothers me is that it is the second time that this happens to this user/PC...
(last time it worked from april to july before stopping), I will monitor
that PC/user closely !


Thanks for your help

Patrick

Does this system have Service Pack 1 installed? (If not, why not?)

Are you certain that the connection to the KMS actually resulted in an
activation? The 30-day period from installation to failure is
suspicious, especially since a KMS activation is good for 180 days
(plus a 30-day grace period). Also, when you boot the Vista box, is
it configured and able *at that time* to use the DNS server containing
the SRV record that points to the KMS? Vista attempts to locate the
KMS at boot time, not at activation time.

There are two KB articles that refer to your error code:

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/931573
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/929818
931573 looks to be the more likely of the two since 929818 talks about
BIOS issues -- which I would suspect to be more related to OEM
distributions and not VLA ones (only VLA installations can use a KMS).

Joe Morris

"Patrick Ambuhl" wrote:

[activationn problems; system apparently activated but 30 days later dies
unactivated]

Certain that it was activated ? If I check the KMS server log I can see
that at that day i get 4 events "resulted in an activation" with a license
status of 1 and a time to expire around 259200, in fact it changed form
259194 to 259197 in two consecutive events that looks to me like a
successfull activation.

I don't have access to our KMS log so I'm not familiar with its contents,
meaning that this may be a red herring...but every time a KMS box activates
a system the lifetime should be set to 180 days (which is 259200 minutes).
Also, if a box activates via KMS, it should not talk to the KMS again for 30
days, after which it starts to beg for a reactivation (and a reset of its
activation period to 180 days).

Do the event log records for other Vista boxes show a similar progression?


It's hard to know if Vista can resolve DNS correctly at boot time, but I
have 60 PCs of the exact same model with the same image on them that
activate without issues.

If you have *not* forcibly told a Vista box the hostname of the KMS (via
SLMGR -skms hostname ) and you issue an activation request (via
SLMGR -ato ), then either activation should succeed, or you'll see an error
message about DNS problems. Some of the machines at my POE are booted while
not on the network, then placed in standby or hibernate while they're being
carried to an office, where they are brought back to life. Vista boxes
handled this way will not be able to locate the KMS unless the its hostname
is manually configured. (Note that the problem is not *resolving* the KMS
hostname to an IP address; the gotcha is that an SRV record in the DNS
server tells Vista what hostname to look for...and this is what isn't
processed except at boot time.)

Joe