Running KMS on Ubuntu Server

Are you running a home lab to test software and bumping into the 180 grace period? VLMCSD might be something interesting for you.

The ‘vlmcsd’ is an open-source KMS emulator that can run on a variety of CPU architectures and operating systems. I decided to run it in a Ubuntu Serer VM in my tiny VMware-based home-lab.

You can find it officially on My Digital Life-forum, registration required, although at least one other person has mirrored it on GitHub.

Running the KMS daemon on Ubuntu Server can be handy for home lab testing purposes.

The easiest way to download is through Github. I also renamed the binary to just vlmcsd to make it simpler and copied it to usr/local/bin:

Download and execute the binary file

wget https://github.com/kkkgo/vlmcsd/raw/master/binaries/Linux/intel/static/vlmcsd-x64-musl-static

mv vlmcsd-x64-musl-static vlmcsd

sudo cp vlmcsd /usr/local/bin

sudo chmod +x /usr/local/bin/vlmcsd

Create a service account

Enable a service account to run vlmcsd as a service and give the user permissions on the binary:

sudo useradd -s /usr/sbin/nologin -r -M vlmcsd
sudo chown vlmcsd:vlmcsd /usr/local/bin/vlmcsd

Create a start-up script:

sudo vi /lib/systemd/system/vlmcsd.service

Give it the following contents:

[Unit]
Description=vlmcsd KMS emulator service
After=network-online.target
Wants=network-online.target
[Service]
Type=forking
User=vlmcsd
ExecStart=/usr/local/bin/vlmcsd -l /var/log/vlmcsd/vlmcsd.log 
[Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.target

Prepare the logging directory

Make a folder under /var/log for logging and give the vlmcsd user permissions:

sudo mkdir /var/log/vlmcsd
sudo chown vlmcsd:vlmcsd /var/log/vlmcsd

Now you just need to enable and start the service:

sudo systemctl enable vlmcsd
sudo systemctl start vlmcsd

Check the status of the service:

sudo systemctl status vlmcsd

Check the log file for incoming requests:

tail -f /var/log/vlmcsd/vlmcsd.log

If all goes well, you should see output similar to below:

vlmcsd.service - vlmcsd KMS emulator service

   Loaded: loaded (/lib/systemd/system/vlmcsd.service; enabled; vendor preset: e
   
   Active: active (running) since Wed 2020-05-27 06:39:31 UTC; 12s ago
   
  Process: 9907 ExecStart=/usr/local/bin/vlmcsd -l /var/log/vlmcs
  
 Main PID: 9909 (vlmcsd)
 
    Tasks: 1 (limit: 504)
	
   CGroup: /system.slice/vlmcsd.service
   
           └─9909 /usr/local/bin/vlmcsd -l /var/log/vlmcsd/vlmcsd

May 27 06:39:31 kms systemd[1]: Starting vlmcsd KMS emulator service...

May 27 06:39:31 kms systemd[1]: Started vlmcsd KMS emulator service.

Activating your Windows edition

For activation you need to have the Microsoft KMS client setup key at hand. This must correspond with the version of Windows you are installing. Insert the setup key as the #####-#####-#####-#####-#####argument.

Also replace #KMS-SERVER# for the DNS name or IP address of your installed ‘vlmcsd’-instance.

slmgr.vbs -ipk #####-#####-#####-#####-#####

slmgr.vbs -skms #KMS-SERVER#

slmgr.vbs -ato

Activating your Office edition

To activate a product like Office 2016 against this KMS emulator, you can use the ospp.vbs script located in your Office installation folder:

Change to Office installation directory

cd "C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Office\Office16"

Set the KMS server to be used for activation

cscript ospp.vbs /sethst:#KMS-SERVER#

Activate Office against the set server

cscript ospp.vbs /act

Official Microsoft Windows KMS client setup keys

Windows Server 2022

Windows Server 2019

Windows Server 2016

Windows 10, all supported Semi-Annual Channel versions

See the Windows lifecycle fact sheet for information about supported versions and end of service dates.

Windows 10 LTSC 2019

Windows 10 LTSB 2016

Windows 10 LTSB 2015

Windows Server, version 1803

Windows Server, version 1709

Windows Server 2012 R2

Windows Server 2012

Windows Server 2008 R2

Windows Server 2008

Windows 8.1

Windows 8

Windows 7

Please remember, this blog post is meant for educational purposes only.