Determine Monitoring and Reporting Needs

Organizations that use Volume Activation need to track product key usage and the license conditions of activated computers. Customers can view their KMS key information and the number of activations that remain on a MAK key on the Volume Licensing Service Center at https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=107544.

Additionally, several tools are available to help Volume Licensing customers manage activations and product key usage. The following sections describe the available tools and how each tool helps Volume Licensing customers:

Windows Management Instrumentation

Data gathered during activation is accessible by using WMI. In fact, several of the tools available use WMI to access Volume Activation data. See the Volume Activation Technical Reference Guide for a list all of WMI methods, properties, registry keys, and event IDs for Volume Activation.

System Center Configuration Manager

Customers can use Microsoft Systems Management Server (SMS) 2003 with SP3 or Microsoft System Center Configuration Manager 2007 to monitor the license conditions of their organization’s computers. For a detailed description of the available license conditions, see Appendix B: Licensing Conditions later in this guide.

Systems Management Server with SP3 and System Center Configuration Manager use built-in Asset Intelligence reporting and WMI to generate detailed activation reports for computers that are running Windows 7 or Windows Server 2008 R2. This information can also serve as the starting point for an organization to track and report software asset management from a licensing perspective. Additionally, System Center Operations Manager 2007 can be used to monitor the health and heartbeat for the Key Management Service.

Event Logs

The KMS service records every action in the application logs of KMS clients and hosts. A KMS client records activation requests, renewals, and responses in the KMS client’s local application log using Windows Security Licensing (SLC) event IDs 12288 and 12289. The KMS host logs a separate entry for each request it receives from a KMS client as SLC event ID 12290. These entries are saved to the Key Management Service log in the Applications and Services Logs folder. Each KMS host keeps an individual log of activations. There is no replication of logs between KMS hosts, although log forwarding can be used to replicate logs from multiple KMS hosts to a center location for monitoring. For more information about KMS events, see the Volume Activation Technical Reference Guide.

KMS Management Pack

KMS event logs can be archived and reviewed manually. Or with Microsoft System Center Operations Manager 2007, IT pros can use the Windows Key Management Service Management Pack for System Center Operations Manager. The KMS Management Pack can monitor the health and heartbeat of the KMS service. To download this Management Pack and guidance, see the System Center Pack Catalog at https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkID=110332.

Volume Activation Management Tool

Organizations can use VAMT to manage KMS and MAK activations on their networks. Additionally, they can use it to monitor the number of MAK activations remaining. It reports on the license condition of all computers that are using Volume Activation, and it tracks the MAK activation count.