Volume Activation Services en 2 servers.

Question

In my infrastructure I have a Windows 2016 server with the "Volume Activation Services" role running and a while ago it has the host key that we got from Microsoft. Now we're going to migrate the server to W2019 and I want to activate the licensing feature there too, using the same host key of course... But I'm not going to shut down W2016 just yet. It's going to continue like this for a while longer. Can both KMS coexist? And both with the same host key? Or should there only be one who has the published DNS? Everything is on the same domain, same network.

Answer 1

Hello,

As far as I know, Yes, it is possible for both Windows Server 2016 and Windows Server 2019 to coexist as Key Management Service (KMS) hosts on the same network and domain, even using the same KMS host key.

When setting up multiple KMS hosts, it is important to ensure that only one KMS host is publishing its DNS SRV records at a given time. By default, the KMS service will attempt to automatically publish DNS records. If you are using the same KMS host key on both servers, ensure that only one KMS host is configured to publish its DNS records to avoid conflicts.

Here are the general steps for setting up multiple KMS hosts with the same KMS host key:

Install the Volume Activation Services role on the Windows Server 2019 server and activate it using the same KMS host key that was used for the Windows Server 2016 host.

Configure the KMS service on the Windows Server 2019 server to publish its DNS SRV records.

Ensure that the KMS service on the Windows Server 2016 server is not publishing its DNS SRV records. You can disable the automatic DNS publishing for the KMS service on the Windows Server 2016 server to avoid conflicts.

Make sure that both servers have appropriate firewall rules to allow KMS traffic on the network.

Best Regards,

Hania Lian

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