I have had my KMS server up and running for several years without any problems.  Recently I was working on a new 2008 Standard Server and it wouldn't activate.

I attempted to first use the standard GUI on the Windows Activation screen.  I was even surprised it popped up since KMS usually just works.  I selelcted "Activate Windows online now", a few moments later it came back with the response "The Product key you typed is already in use".

What does that mean? So I thought: forget it, I'm jumping to an elevated command line.

I ran slmgr -ato and I got the message it was activating and waiting for a click on the Ok button.  This was followed by the error message (What can't they open up a window within the program???).

Run 'slui.exe 0x2a 0xc004C008' to display the error text. Error: 0xC004C008

So I ran it as requested:

An error has occured

Code: 0xC004C008

Description: The activation server determined that the specified product key could not be used.

 

Finally something to work with.  It turns out there are limits placed on your KMS server and you have to contact Microsoft to get your KMS server limits increased.  So my sales rep and I contacted Microsoft Licensed Support at 1-866-230-0560.

They requested we send an upgrade request to the address kmsadd@microsoft.com

Ask for an increase in X number of activations on the key with the following details included:

• Enrollment Number:
• Company Name:
• # of Activations:
• KMS Key to modify:

It sure would have been helpful if Microsoft could have just said, "Hey Dude you have used up all your KMS licenses.  Please contact your local sales rep to get your count increased."

I have now gone through the requested steps and emailed my request but I still have to wait up to two business days for it to complete. 

The email response from their robot:

Thank you for your request for additional KMS activations. You can expect to receive a response within two business days. 

All support and responses provided through this alias will be in English.

 

Please reference Case ID:xxxxxxx for any questions regarding this request.

 

Hopefully the tags on this page help others to quickly solve this problem.              

 

Thanks to Josh Bussiere for his assistance.

 

Want to move the time service to the new PDCe? 

This is something that is required if you have just moved the PDCe to a new Domain Controller.

First you need to reset the old PDCe time service, so that it is part of the domain heirarchy.
 
From a command prompt on the old NTP server
 "net time /setsntp: "                  (Note the blank space prior to the end ")
  The prior command line tells the DC to delete the current registry settings for the time service

Follow this by: 
 w32tm /config /syncfromflags:domhier /update
  The prior command line should reset the domian time hierarchy

Follow this by:
 net stop w32time && net start w32time
  This DC should now be part of the time domain heirarchy

Next you need to assign the NTP service to the new PDCe

To verify the PDCe role run the following from a command prompt

Netdom query fsmo

Once you have established the correct DC, follow the steps below as taken from KB816042

1. Change the server type to NTP. To do this, follow these steps:
   1. Click Start, click Run, type regedit, and then click OK.
   2. Locate and then click the following registry subkey:
      HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\W32Time\Parameters\Type
   3. In the right pane, right-click Type, and then click Modify.
   4. In Edit Value, type NTP in the Value data box, and then click OK.
2. Set AnnounceFlags to 5. To do this, follow these steps:
   1. Locate and then click the following registry subkey:
      HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\W32Time\Config\AnnounceFlags
   2. In the right pane, right-click AnnounceFlags, and then click Modify.
   3. In Edit DWORD Value, type 5 in the Value data box, and then click OK.
3. Enable NTPServer. To do this, follow these steps:
   1. Locate and then click the following registry subkey:
      HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\W32Time\TimeProviders\NtpServer
   2. In the right pane, right-click Enabled, and then click Modify.
   3. In Edit DWORD Value, type 1 in the Value data box, and then click OK.
4. Specify the time sources. To do this, follow these steps:
   1. Locate and then click the following registry subkey:
      HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\W32Time\Parameters
   2. In the right pane, right-click NtpServer, and then click Modify.
   3. In Edit Value, type Peers in the Value data box, and then click OK.
      
      Note Peers is a placeholder for a space-delimited list of peers from which your computer obtains time stamps. Each DNS name that is listed must be unique. You must append ,0x1 to the end of each DNS name. If you do not append ,0x1 to the end of each DNS name, the changes made in step 5 will not take effect.
5. Select the poll interval. To do this, follow these steps:
   1. Locate and then click the following registry subkey:
      HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\W32Time\TimeProviders\NtpClient\SpecialPollInterval
   2. In the right pane, right-click SpecialPollInterval, and then click Modify.
   3. In Edit DWORD Value, type TimeInSeconds in the Value data box, and then click OK.
      
      Note TimeInSeconds is a placeholder for the number of seconds that you want between each poll. A recommended value is 900 Decimal. This value configures the Time Server to poll every 15 minutes.
6. Configure the time correction settings. To do this, follow these steps:
   1. Locate and then click the following registry subkey:
      HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\W32Time\Config\MaxPosPhaseCorrection
   2. In the right pane, right-click MaxPosPhaseCorrection, and then click Modify.
   3. In Edit DWORD Value, click to select Decimal in the Base box.
   4. In Edit DWORD Value, type TimeInSeconds in the Value data box, and then click OK.
      
      Note TimeInSeconds is a placeholder for a reasonable value, such as 1 hour (3600) or 30 minutes (1800). The value that you select will depend upon the poll interval, network condition, and external time source.
   5. Locate and then click the following registry subkey: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\W32Time\Config\MaxNegPhaseCorrection
   6. In the right pane, right-click MaxNegPhaseCorrection, and then click Modify.
   7. In Edit DWORD Value, click to select Decimal in the Base box.
   8. In Edit DWORD Value, type TimeInSeconds in the Value data box, and then click OK.
      
      Note TimeInSeconds is a placeholder for a reasonable value, such as 1 hour (3600) or 30 minutes (1800). The value that you select will depend upon the poll interval, network condition, and external time source.
7. Quit Registry Editor.
8. At the command prompt, type the following command to restart the Windows Time service, and then press ENTER:
   net stop w32time && net start w32time

 

I am out in the Microsoft NewsGroups and quite often I see someone having trouble with their Active Directory (AD) domain.  The number one issue I see is they will lose a Domain Controller (DC) and just move on without realizing that without letting the rest of the DC’s know that this machine is not coming back –or– they attempt to reintroduce a DC back into the domain with the same name without cleaning up the metadata within AD.

 

To clean up AD after a lost DC is relatively simple and a script has been released that now makes it so there is no need to use ntdsutil.  The few times I have had to clean up AD, I still use the manual method but I like to feel in control of things and see what is happening.  There should be nothing wrong in using the script.

 

The KB article to manually cleanup the metadata is 216498

The TechNet script to clean up the metadata is linked here addmvb04

 

Once you have cleaned things up you still have to go into Active Directory Sites and Services and remove the lost DC from the site in which it belonged.  This is a requirement even if you had a successful demotion.  The steps for this are outlined at the end of each section within the manual cleanup.

I work in a shop where we are unable to roll out the latest version of Veritas' NetBackUp (NBU) do to bugs.  Although the version 6.5.3 now supports Windows 2008, it can't provide a clean backup that can be trusted so we needed to find a way to roll out a backup product.  So while we wait for Veritas to get its act together (One year and counting) we have chosen to backup our Windows 2008 physical machines using WBAdmin.  Our virtual machines are all backed up via snapshotting technology so this is not a factor.  So as we start to roll out physical machines I built this set of details (Which is still in flux).  The nice thing about the details below is it will allow you to do a rebuild w/o having to preload anything.  It even partitions the disk for you, this is really a slick technology.

 

What does this have to do with AD you might ask?  Well we need to roll out 2008 and we have to have a reliable means to backup our DC's, so this is it.  I'm not sure if others are in the quandry we are but if so, I hope this helps out.

 

The info below is for backing up machines to an external disk using unc for the destination.  Unfortunately you can't schedule these through the backup gui.  This option is only available for backing up a disk to another local disk, I'm not sure why WBAdmin won't allow unc pathing but trust me that it won't work.  So you will have to build a scheduled task to run your nightly backup.

 

Hopefully the info below will be of assistance and please let me know of any issues you find with this article.

 

Backing up a Windows Server 2008 with snapshot enabled:

wbadmin start backup -backupTarget:\\servername\sharename  -include:c:,e: -quiet –vssfull

 

wbadmin 1.0 - Backup command-line tool

(C) Copyright 2004 Microsoft Corp.

 

Retrieving volume information...

 

This would backup volume systems(C:) to \\servername\sharename.

 

Backup to \\servername\sharename is starting.

 

Creating the shadow copy of volumes requested for backup.                                               

Running backup of volume systems(C:), copied (1%).

Running backup of volume systems(C:), copied (4%).

Running backup of volume systems(C:), copied (98%).

Backup of volume systems(C:) completed successfully.

Backup completed successfully.

 

Summary of backup:

------------------

Backup of volume systems(C:) completed successfully.

 

 

Finding out the versions currently available to restore:

 wbadmin get versions -backuptarget:\\servername\sharename

 

wbadmin 1.0 - Backup command-line tool

(C) Copyright 2004 Microsoft Corp.

 

Backup time: 11/25/2008 10:55 AM

Backup target: Network Share labeled \\servername\sharename

Version identifier: 11/25/2008-16:55

Can Recover: Volume(s), File(s), Application(s), Bare Metal Recovery, System State

 

 

Finding out what specifically is available within a version backup:

wbadmin get items -Version:11/25/2008-16:55

 

wbadmin 1.0 - Backup command-line tool

(C) Copyright 2004 Microsoft Corp.

 

Volume Id = {7896551d-751d-11dd-8929-806e6f6e6963}

Volume 'systems', mounted at C:

Application = Registry

Component = Registry (\Registry)

Recover a Failed System:

Boot up the machine with a W2K8 install disk                             (Make sure to use the correct bit length x32 or x64)

                … Windows is loading  files…

Accept English

Next

Select “Repair Your Computer”

Click “Load Drivers”

                Ok

                                Browse the media for the drivers        (Make sure to use the correct bit length x32 or x64)

                                Click Add Drivers

Next

 

Would recommend you verify that you have a good network connection by checking the nic’s activity lights.  I had issues with a nic on a couple of different occasions that boiled down to a bad network connection.

 

Select “Windows Complete PC Restore”

Cancel

                Select Restore a Different Backup

                                Next

                Select Advanced

                                Select Search for a backup on the network

                                                Yes

                                                                \\ip address of server\sharename

                                                                                Ok

                                                                Enter domain\domain user id and password

Select the backup to restore

                Next

Select the drive(s) to restore

                Next

Select Exclude Disks

                Select any disk you may want to exclude from the restore

                Select Advanced

                                Deselect Restart computer…   (This is done for visual inspection to verify that the restore went correctly)

                Next

Finish

Confirm reformatting

                Ok