vlmcsd/man/vlmcsd.8.unix.txt

VLMCSD(8)                    KMS Activation Manual                   VLMCSD(8)



NAME
       vlmcsd - a fully Microsoft compatible KMS server


SYNOPSIS
       vlmcsd [ options ]


DESCRIPTION
       vlmcsd is a fully Microsoft compatible KMS server that provides product
       activation services to clients. It is meant as  a  drop-in  replacement
       for  a Microsoft KMS server (Windows computer with KMS key entered). It
       currently supports KMS protocol versions 4, 5 and 6.

       vlmcsd is designed to run on POSIX  compatible  operating  systens.  It
       only requires a basic C library with a BSD-style sockets API and either
       fork(2) or pthreads(7). That allows it to run on most embedded  systems
       like  routers,  NASes,  mobile phones, tablets, TVs, settop boxes, etc.
       Some efforts have been made that it also runs on Windows.

       Although vlmcsd does neither require an activation key nor a payment to
       anyone,  it  is not meant to run illegal copies of Windows. Its purpose
       is to ensure that owners of legal copies can use their software without
       restrictions,  e.g.  if  you buy a new computer or motherboard and your
       key will be refused activation from Microsoft servers due  to  hardware
       changes.

       vlmcsd  may  be  started  via  an internet superserver like inetd(8) or
       xinetd(8) as well  as  an  advanced  init  system  like  systemd(8)  or
       launchd(8)  using  socket  based  activation.  If  vlmcsd  detects that
       stdin(3) is a socket, it assumes that  there  is  already  a  connected
       client on stdin that wants to be activated.

       All  options  that control setting up listening sockets will be ignored
       when in inetd mode. The sockets will be set up by your internet  super‐
       server. You also cannot limit the number of simultanous clients (option
       -m). You need to configure the limit in your internet superserver.

       The followong features that require that vlmcsd is  permanently  loaded
       will not work if started from an internet superserver:


              You cannot maintain a client list (option -M1)


              EPID  Randomization  Level  1  (option  -r1)  works like Level 2
              (-r2). You may want  to  use  Level  0  (-r0)  or  custom  EPIDs
              (options -w, -0, -3 and -6) instead.


OPTIONS
       Since vlmcsd can be configured at compile time, some options may not be
       available on your system.

       All options that do no require an argument may be combined with a  sin‐
       gle dash, for instance "vlmcsd -D -e" is identical to "vlmcsd -De". For
       all options that require an argument a space between the option and the
       option  argument  is  optional. Thus "vlmcsd -r 2" and "vlmcsd -r2" are
       identical too.


       -h or -?
              Displays help.


       -V     Displays extended version information. This  includes  the  com‐
              piler  used  to  build  vlmcsd,  the intended platform and flags
              (compile time options) to build vlmcsd. If you have  the  source
              code of vlmcsd, you can type make help (or gmake help on systems
              that do not use the GNU version of make(1) by  default)  to  see
              the meaning of those flags.


       -L ipaddress[:port]
              Instructs  vlmcsd  to  listen  on  ipaddress  with optional port
              (default 1688). You can use this option more than once.  If  you
              do not specify -L at least once, IP addresses 0.0.0.0 (IPv4) and
              :: (IPv6) are used. If the IP address contains colons (IPv6) you
              must  enclose  the  IP  address  in  brackets if you specify the
              optional port, e.g. [2001:db8::dead:beef]:1688.

              If no port is specified, vlmcsd uses the default port  according
              to  a  preceding  -P  option. If you specify a port, it can be a
              number (1-65535) or a name (usually found  in  /etc/services  if
              not provided via LDAP, NIS+ or another name service).

              If  you  specify  a  link local IPv6 address (fe80::/10, usually
              starting with fe80::), it must be followed by a percent sign (%)
              and  a  scope  id  (=network  interface  name or number) on most
              unixoid OSses including Linux, Android, MacOS X  and  iOS,  e.g.
              fe80::1234:56ff:fe78:9abc%eth0                                or
              [fe80::1234:56ff:fe78:9abc%2]:1688. Windows  (including  cygwin)
              does  not  require a scope id unless the same link local address
              is used on more than one network  interface.  Windows  does  not
              accept a name and the scope id must be a number.


       -o level
              Sets  the level of protection against activations from public IP
              addresses. The default is -o0 for no protection.

              -o1 causes vlmcsd not to listen on all IP addresses but on  pri‐
              vate  IP  addresses  only.  IPv4  addresses in the 100.64.0.0/10
              range (see RFC6598) are not treated as private since they can be
              reached from other users of your ISP. Private IPv4 addresses are
              10.0.0.0/8, 172.16.0.0/12,  192.168.0.0/16,  169.254.0.0/16  and
              127.0.0.0/8.   vlmcsd  treats  all  IPv6  addresses  not  within
              2000::/3 as private addresses.

              If -o1 is combined with -L, it will listen  on  all  private  IP
              addresses  plus the ones specified by one or more -L statements.
              If -o1 is combined with -P, only the last -P statement  will  be
              used.

              Using -o1 does not protect you if you enable NAT port forwarding
              on your router to your vlmcsd machine. It is identical to  using
              multiple  -L  statements  with all of your private IP addresses.
              What -o1 does for you, is automatically enumerating your private
              IP addresses.

              -o2 does not affect the interfaces, vlmcsd is listening on. When
              a clients connects, vlmcsd immediately drops the  connection  if
              the  client  has a public IP address. Unlike -o1 clients will be
              able to establish a TCP connection but it will be closed without
              a  single  byte  sent over the connection. This protects against
              clients with public IP addresses even if NAT port forwarding  is
              used.  While  -o2  offers a higher level of protection than -o1,
              the client sees that the KMS TCP port (1688 by default) is actu‐
              ally accepting connections.

              If  vlmcsd  is  compiled  to use MS RPC, -o2 can only offer very
              poor protection. Control is passed from MS RPC to  vlmcsd  after
              the  KMS protocol has already been negotiated. Thus a client can
              always verify that the KMS protocol is available even though  it
              receives an RPC_S_ACCESS_DENIED error message. vlmcsd will issue
              a warning if -o2 is used with MS RPC. For  adaequate  protection
              do not use a MS RPC build of vlmcsd with -o2.

              -o3  combines  -o1 and -o2. vlmcsd listens on private interfaces
              only and if a public client manages to connect anyway due to NAT
              port forwarding, it will be immediately dropped.

              If  you  use  any form of TCP level port forwarding (e.g. nc(1),
              netcat(1), ssh(1) port forwarding or similar)  to  redirect  KMS
              requests  to vlmcsd, there will be no protection even if you use
              -o2 or -o3. This is due to the simple fact that vlmcsd sees  the
              IP  address  of  the  redirector  and  not the IP address of the
              client.

              -o1 (and thus -o3) is not (yet) available in some scenarios:

                   FreeBSD: There is a longtime unfixed bug ⟨https://
                   bugs.freebsd.org/bugzilla/show_bug.cgi?id=178881⟩   in  the
                   32-bit ABI of the 64-bit kernel. If you have a 64-bit Free‐
                   BSD  kernel,  you  must run the 64-bit version of vlmcsd if
                   you use -o1 or -o3. The  32-bit  version  causes  undefined
                   behavior  up  to crashing vlmcsd. Other BSDs (NetBSD, Open‐
                   BSD, Dragonfly and Mac OS X) work correctly.

                   If vlmcsd was started by an  internet  superserver  or  was
                   compiled  to  use  Microsoft  RPC  (Windows only) or simple
                   sockets, -o1 and -o3 are not available by design.


       -P port
              Use TCP port for  all  subsequent  -L  statements  that  do  not
              include an optional port. If you use -P and -L, -P must be spec‐
              ified before -L.


       -O vpn-adapter-name[=ipv4-address][/cidr-mask][:dhcp-lease-duration]
              Enables a compatible VPN adapter to create additional local IPv4
              addresses  (like 127.0.0.1) that appear as remote IPv4 addresses
              to the system. This allows  product  activation  using  a  local
              instance  of  vlmcsd.  This feature is only available in Windows
              and Cygwin builds of vlmcsd since it is not of any use on  other
              operating  systems. Compatible VPN adapters are Tap-windows ver‐
              sion 8.2  or  higher  (from  OpenVPN)  and  the  TeamViewer  VPN
              adapter.  There  are  two  special  vpn-adapter-names.  A single
              period (.) instructs vlmcsd to use the first available  compati‐
              ble  VPN  adapter.  A  single dash (-) disables the use of a VPN
              adapter if one has been configured in  vlmcsd.ini(5).  The  vpn-
              adapter-name is not case-sensitive. If the vpn-adapter-name con‐
              tains spaces (e.g. Ethernet 3), you must enclose it in quotes.

              The default ipv4-address is 10.10.10.9 and the default cidr-mask
              is  30.  If  you  are using the default values, your VPN adapter
              uses an IPv4 address of 10.10.10.9 and you can set your  activa‐
              tion  client  to  use  the  easy to remember address 10.10.10.10
              (e.g.   slmgr   /skms   10.10.10.10    or    cscript    ospp.vbs
              /sethst:10.10.10.10).

              The dhcp-lease-duration is a number optionally followed by s, m,
              h, d or w to indicate seconds, minutes, hours,  days  or  weeks.
              The  default dhcp-lease-duration is 1d (one day). It is normally
              not required to change this value.

              It is advised not to manually  configure  your  OpenVPN  TAP  or
              TeamViewer  VPN adapter in "Network Connections". If you set the
              IPv4 configuration manually anyway, the  IPv4  address  and  the
              subnet  mask  must  match the -O parameter. It is safe leave the
              IPv4 configuration to automatic (DHCP). vlmcsd will wait  up  to
              four seconds for the DHCP configuration to complete before bind‐
              ing to and listenin on any interfaces.

              You should be aware that only one program can use a VPN  adapter
              at  a  time.  If you use the TeamViewer VPN adapter for example,
              you will not be able to use the VPN  feature  of  TeamViewer  as
              long  as  vlmcsd  is  running.  The  same applies to OpenVPN TAP
              adapters that are in use by other programs (for example OpenVPN,
              QEMU,  Ratiborus  VM,  aiccu,  etc.). The best way to avoid con‐
              flicts is to install Tap-Windows from OpenVPN, cd to  C:\Program
              Files\TAP-Windows\bin  and  run  addtap.bat  to install an addi‐
              tional TAP adapter. Go to "Network Connections" and  rename  the
              new adapter to "vlmcsd" and specify -O vlmcsd to use it.

              Example: -O "Ethernet 7"=192.168.123.1/24 (uses VPN adapter Eth‐
              ernet 7 with IPv4 address 192.168.123.1 and  have  192.168.123.2
              to  192.168.123.254  as additional local (but apparently remote)
              IPv4 addresses.


       -F0 and -F1
              Allow (-F1) or disallow (-F0) binding to IP addresses  that  are
              currently not configured on your system. The default is -F0. -F1
              allows you to bind to an IP address that may be configured after
              you  started  vlmcsd. vlmcsd will listen on that address as soon
              as it becomes available. This feature is  only  available  under
              Linux  (IPv4  and  IPv6) and FreeBSD (IPv4 only). FreeBSD allows
              this feature only for the root user (more  correctly:  processes
              that  have  the  PRIV_NETINET_BINDANY privilege). Linux does not
              require a capability for this.


       -t seconds
              Timeout the TCP connection with the client  after  seconds  sec‐
              onds.  After  sending  an  activation request. RPC keeps the TCP
              connection for a while. The default is 30 seconds. You may spec‐
              ify  a  shorter period to free ressources on your device faster.
              This is useful for devices with limited main memory  or  if  you
              used -m to limit the concurrent clients that may request activa‐
              tion. Microsoft RPC  clients  disconnect  after  30  seconds  by
              default.  Setting  seconds to a greater value does not make much
              sense.


       -m concurrent-clients
              Limit the number of clients that will be  handled  concurrently.
              This is useful for devices with limited ressources or if you are
              experiencing DoS attacks that  spawn  thousands  of  threads  or
              forked  processes. If additional clients connect to vlmcsd, they
              need to wait until another client disconnects. If you  set  con‐
              current-clients to a small value ( <10 ), you should also select
              a reasonable timeout of 2 or 3 seconds with -t. The  default  is
              no limit.


       -d     Disconnect  each client after processing one activation request.
              This is a direct violation of  DCE  RPC  but  may  help  if  you
              receive  malicous  fake  RPC requests that block your threads or
              forked processes. Some other KMS emulators (e.g. py-kms)  behave
              this way.


       -k     Do   not  disconnect  clients  after  processing  an  activation
              request. This selects the default behavior. -k is useful only if
              you used an ini file (see vlmcsd.ini(5) and -i). If the ini file
              contains the line "DisconnectClientsImmediately = true", you can
              use this switch to restore the default behavior.


       -N0 and -N1
              Disables  (-N0)  or  enables (-N1) the use of the NDR64 transfer
              syntax in the RPC protocol.  Unlike  Microsoft  vlmcsd  supports
              NDR64 on 32-bit operating systems. Microsoft introduced NDR64 in
              Windows Vista but their KMS servers started using it  with  Win‐
              dows  8.  Thus  if  you  choose random ePIDs, vlmcsd will select
              ePIDs with build numbers 9200 and 9600 if you enable  NDR64  and
              build numbers 6002 and 7601 if you disable NDR64. The default is
              to enable NDR64.


       -B0 and -B1
              Disables (-B0) or enables (-B1) bind  time  feature  negotiation
              (BTFN) in the RPC protocol. All Windows operating systems start‐
              ing with Vista support BTFN and try to negotiate it when  initi‐
              ating an RPC connection. Thus consider turning it off as a debug
              / troubleshooting feature only. Some older firewalls that selec‐
              tively  block or redirect RPC traffic may get confused when they
              detect NDR64 or BTFN.


       -l filename
              Use filename as a log file. The log file records all activations
              with  IP  address,  Windows  workstation  name  (no  reverse DNS
              lookup), activated product, KMS protocol, time and date. If  you
              do not specify a log file, no log is created. For a live view of
              the log file type tail -f file.

              If you use the special filename "syslog", vlmcsd uses  syslog(3)
              for  logging.  If  your  system has no syslog service (/dev/log)
              installed, logging output will go to /dev/console.  Syslog  log‐
              ging  is not available in the native Windows version. The Cygwin
              version does support syslog logging.


       -T0 and -T1
              Disable (-T0) or enable (-T1) the inclusion of date and time  in
              each  line  of the log. The default is -T1. -T0 is useful if you
              log to stdout(3) which is redirected to another  logging  mecha‐
              nism  that  already  includes  date  and time in its output, for
              instance systemd-journald(8). If you log to  syslog(3),  -T1  is
              ignored  and  date and time will never be included in the output
              sent to syslog(3).


       -D     Normally vlmcsd daemonizes and runs in  background  (except  the
              native  Windows  version).  If  -D is specified, vlmcsd does not
              daemonize and runs in foreground. This is useful for testing and
              allows you to simply press <Ctrl-C> to exit vlmcsd.

              The  native  Windows version never daemonizes and always behaves
              as if -D had been specified. You may want to install vlmcsd as a
              service instead. See -s.


       -e     If specified, vlmcsd ignores -l and writes all logging output to
              stdout(3). This is mainly useful for testing and  debugging  and
              often combined with -D.


       -v     Use  verbose  logging.  Logs every parameter of the base request
              and the base response. It also logs the HWID of the  KMS  server
              if  KMS  protocol  version  6 is used. This option is mainly for
              debugging purposes. It only has an effect if some form  of  log‐
              ging  is  used. Thus -v does not make sense if not used with -l,
              -e or -f.


       -q     Do not use verbose logging. This is actually the default  behav‐
              ior. It only makes sense if you use vlmcsd with an ini file (see
              -i and  vlmcsd.ini(5)).  If  the  ini  file  contains  the  line
              "LogVerbose = true" you can use -q to restore the default behav‐
              ior.


       -p filename
              Create pid file filename. This has nothing to do with KMS ePIDs.
              A  pid  file  is  a file where vlmcsd writes its own process id.
              This is used  by  standard  init  scripts  (typically  found  in
              /etc/init.d). The default is not to write a pid file.


       -u user and -g group
              Causes  vlmcsd  to  run in the specified user and group security
              context. The main purpose for this is to  drop  root  privileges
              after  it  has  been  started from the root account. To use this
              feature from cygwin you must run cyglsa-config and  the  account
              from  which  vlmcsd is started must have the rights "Act as part
              of the operating system" and "Replace a  process  level  token".
              The native Windows version does not support these options.

              The  actual  security  context switch is performed after the TCP
              sockets have been created. This allows  you  to  use  privileged
              ports (< 1024) when you start vlmcsd from the root account.

              However if you use an ini, pid or log file, you must ensure that
              the unprivileged user has access to these files. You can  always
              log  to syslog(3) from an unprivileged account on most platforms
              (see -l).


       -w ePID
              Use ePID as Windows ePID. If specified, -r  is  disregarded  for
              Windows.


       -0 ePID
              Use  ePID  as Office 2010 ePID (including Project and Visio). If
              specified, -r is disregarded for Office 2010.


       -3 ePID
              Use ePID as Office 2013 ePID (including Project and  Visio).  If
              specified, -r is disregarded for Office 2013.


       -6 ePID
              Use  ePID  as Office 2016 ePID (including Project and Visio). If
              specified, -r is disregarded for Office 2016.


       -H HwId
              Use HwId for all products. All HWIDs in the ini  file  (see  -i)
              will not be used. In an ini file you can specify a seperate HWID
              for each application-guid. This is not possible when entering  a
              HWID from the command line.

              HwId  must be specified as 16 hex digits that are interpreted as
              a series of 8 bytes (big endian). Any character that  is  not  a
              hex  digit  will be ignored. This is for better readability. The
              following commands are identical:

              vlmcsd -H 0123456789ABCDEF
              vlmcsd -H 01:23:45:67:89:ab:cd:ef
              vlmcsd -H "01 23 45 67 89 AB CD EF"


       -i filename
              Use configuration file (aka ini file) filename. Most  configura‐
              tion parameters can be set either via the command line or an ini
              file. The command line always has precedence over  configuration
              items  in  the ini file. See vlmcsd.ini(5) for the format of the
              configuration file.

              If vlmcsd has been compiled to use a default configuration  file
              (often  /etc/vlmcsd.ini),  you may use -i- to ignore the default
              configuration file.


       -j filename
              Use KMS data file filename. By default vlmcsd only contains  the
              minimum  product data that is required to perform all operations
              correctly. You may use a more complete KMS data file  that  con‐
              tains  all  detailed product names. This is especially useful if
              you are logging KMS requests. If you don't log, there is no need
              to load an external KMS data file.

              If  vlmcsd has been compiled to use a default KMS data file, you
              may use -j- to ignore the default configuration file.


       -r0, -r1 (default) and -r2
              These options determine how ePIDs are generated if

              - you did not sprecify an ePID in the command line and
              - you haven't used -i or
              - the file specified by -i cannot be opened or
              - the file specified by -i does not contain an ePID for the  KMS
              request

              -r0  means  there  are  no  random  ePIDs.  vlmcsd simply issues
              default ePIDs that are built into the binary  at  compile  time.
              Pro:  behaves  like  real KMS server that also always issues the
              same ePID. Con: Microsoft may start blacklisting again  and  the
              default ePID may not work any longer.

              -r1  instructs  vlmcsd to generate random ePIDs when the program
              starts or receives a SIGHUP signal and uses these ePIDs until it
              is  stopped or receives another SIGHUP. Most other KMS emulators
              generate a new  ePID  on  every  KMS  request.  This  is  easily
              detectable. Microsoft could just modify sppsvc.exe in a way that
              it always sends two identical KMS requests in two  RPC  requests
              but  over the same TCP connection. If both KMS responses contain
              the different ePIDs, the KMS server is not genuine. -r1  is  the
              default  mode.  -r1  also ensures that all three ePIDs (Windows,
              Office 2010 and Office 2013) use the same OS  build  number  and
              LCID (language id).

              If vlmcsd has been started by an internet superserver, -r1 works
              almost identically to -r2. The only exception occurs if you send
              more  than  one activation request over the same TCP connection.
              This is simply due to the fact that vlmcsd  is  started  upon  a
              connection request and does not stay in memory after servicing a
              KMS request. Consider using -r0 or -w, -0, -3 and -6 when start‐
              ing vlmcsd by an internet superserver.

              -r2  behaves  like  most  other KMS server emulators with random
              support and generates a new random ePID on  every  request.  -r2
              should  be  treated  as  debugging option only because it allows
              very easy emulator detection.


       -C LCID
              Do not randomize the locale id part of the  ePID  and  use  LCID
              instead.  The  LCID  must be specified as a decimal number, e.g.
              1049 for "Russian - Russia". This option has no  effect  if  the
              ePID  is  not randomized at all, e.g. if it is selected from the
              command line or an ini file.

              By default vlmcsd generates a valid locale id that is recognized
              by  .NET  Framework  4.0.  This may lead to a locale id which is
              unlikely to occur in your country, for instance 2155 for "Quecha
              - Ecuador". You may want to select the locale id of your country
              instead. See MSDN ⟨http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/goglobal/
              bb964664.aspx⟩  for a list of valid LCIDs. Please note that some
              of them are not recognized by .NET Framework 4.0.

              Most other KMS emulators use a fixed LCID  of  1033  (English  -
              US). To achive the same behavior in vlmcsd use -C 1033.


       -K0, -K1, -K2 and -K3
              Sets  the  whitelisting level to determine which products vlmcsd
              activates or refuses. The default is -K0.

                   -K0: activate all  products  with  an  unknown,  retail  or
                   beta/preview KMS ID.
                   -K1: activate products with a retail or beta/preview KMS ID
                   but refuse to activate products with an unknown KMS ID.
                   -K2: activate products with an unknown KMS  ID  but  refuse
                   products with a retail or beta/preview KMS ID.
                   -K3: activate only products with a known volume license RTM
                   KMS ID and refuse all others.


              The SKU ID is not checked. Like  a  genuine  KMS  server  vlmcsd
              activates  a product that has a random or unknown SKU ID. If you
              select -K1 or -K3, vlmcsd also checks  the  Application  ID  for
              correctness.  If  Microsoft  introduces  a  new KMS ID for a new
              product, you cannot activate it if you used -K1 or -K3  until  a
              new version of vlmcsd is available.


       -c0 and -c1
              -c1  causes  vlmcsd  to check if the client time differs no more
              than four hours from the system time. -c0 (the default) disables
              this  check.  -c1  is  useful  to  prevent emulator detection. A
              client that tries to detect an emulator could  simply  send  two
              subsequent  request  with  two time stamps that differ more than
              four hours from each other. If both requests succeed, the server
              is  an emulator. If you specify -c1 on a system with no reliable
              time source, activations will fail. It is ok to set the  correct
              system time after you started vlmcsd.


       -M0 and -M1
              Disables  (-M0)  or  enables  (-M1) maintaining a list of client
              machine IDs (CMIDs). The default is -M0. -M1 is useful  to  pre‐
              vent  emulator  detection.  By  maintaing  a  CMID  list, vlmcsd
              reports current active clients exactly like a genuine KMS emula‐
              tor.  This includes bug compatibility to the extent that you can
              permanently kill a genuine KMS emulator  by  sending  an  "over‐
              charge  request" with a required client count of 376 or more and
              then request activation for 671 clients.  vlmcsd  can  be  reset
              from  this  condition  by  restarting it. If -M0 is used, vlmcsd
              reports current active clients as good as possible. If no client
              sends an "overcharge request", it is not possible to detect vlm‐
              csd as an emulator with -M0. -M1 requires the  allocation  of  a
              buffer  that is about 50 kB in size. On hardware with few memory
              resources use it only if you really need it.

              If you start vlmcsd from an internet superserver, -M1 cannot  be
              used.  Since vlmcsd exits after each activation, it cannot main‐
              tain any state in memory.


       -E0 and -E1
              These options are ignored if you do not also specify -M1. If you
              use -E0 (the default), vlmcsd starts up as a fully "charged" KMS
              server. Clients activate immediately. -E1 lets you start up vlm‐
              csd  with  an  empty  CMID  list. Activation will start when the
              required minimum clients (25 for Windows  Client  OSses,  5  for
              Windows  Server  OSses  and Office) have registered with the KMS
              server. As long  as  the  minimum  client  count  has  not  been
              reached,  clients  end  up  in  HRESULT  0xC004F038  "The  count
              reported by your Key Management Service (KMS)  is  insufficient.
              Please  contact your system administrator". You may use vlmcs(1)
              or another KMS client emulator to "charge" vlmcsd. -E1 does  not
              improve  emulator  detection prevention. It's primary purpose is
              to help developers of KMS  clients  to  test  "charging"  a  KMS
              server.


       -R renewal-interval
              Instructs  clients  to  renew activation every renewal-interval.
              The renewal-interval is a number optionally immediately followed
              by  a letter indicating the unit. Valid unit letters are s (sec‐
              onds), m (minutes), h (hours), d (days) and w (weeks). If you do
              not specify a letter, minutes is assumed.

              -R3d  for instance instructs clients to renew activation every 3
              days. The default renewal-interval is 10080 (identical to 7d and
              1w).

              Due to poor implementation of Microsofts KMS Client it cannot be
              guaranteed that activation is renewed on time as specfied by the
              -R  option.  Don't  care  about  that.  Renewal will happen well
              before your activation expires (usually 180 days).

              Even though you can specify seconds,  the  granularity  of  this
              option  is 1 minute. Seconds are rounded down to the next multi‐
              ple of 60.


       -A activation-interval
              Instructs clients to retry activation every  activation-interval
              if  it  was  unsuccessful,  e.g.  because it could not reach the
              server. The default is 120 (identical to 2h).  activation-inter‐
              val  follows  the  same  syntax  as  renewal-interval  in the -R
              option.


       -s     Installs vlmcsd as a Windows service.  This  option  only  works
              with  the  native  Windows  version  and Cygwin. Combine -s with
              other command line options. These will be  in  effect  when  you
              start  the  service.  The  service automatically starts when you
              reboot your machine. To start it manually, type "net start  vlm‐
              csd".

              If  you  use  Cygwin,  you  must  include your Cygwin system DLL
              directory (usually C:\Cygwin\bin or  C:\Cygwin64\bin)  into  the
              PATH environment variable or the service will not start.

              You  can  reinstall  the  service anytime using vlmcsd -s again,
              e.g. with a different command line. If the service  is  running,
              it will be restarted with the new command line.

              When  using  -s  the  command  line  is checked for basic syntax
              errors only. For example "vlmcsd -s -L 1.2.3.4" reports no error
              but  the  service will not start if 1.2.3.4 is not an IP address
              on your system.


       -S     Uninstalls the vlmcsd service. Works only with the  native  Win‐
              dows  version  and  Cygwin. All other options will be ignored if
              you include -S in the command line.


       -U [domain\]username
              Can only be used together with -s. Starts the service as a  dif‐
              ferent  user  than the local SYSTEM account. This is used to run
              the service under an account with low privileges.  If  you  omit
              the domain, an account from the local computer will be used.

              You may use "NT AUTHORITY\NetworkService". This is a pseudo user
              with low privileges. You may also  use  "NT  AUTHORITY\LocalSer‐
              vice" which has more privileges but these are of no use for run‐
              ning vlmcsd.

              Make sure that the user you specify has at least execute permis‐
              sion for your executable. "NT AUTHORITY\NetworkService" normally
              has no permission to run binaries from your home directory.

              For your convenience you can use the special username "/l" as  a
              shortcut  for  "NT  AUTHORITY\LocalService"  and  "/n"  for  "NT
              AUTHORITY\NetworkService". "vlmcsd -s -U /n" installs  the  ser‐
              vice to run as "NT AUTHORITY\NetworkService".


       -W password
              Can  only be used together with -s. Specifies a password for the
              corresponding username you use  with  -U.  SYSTEM,  "NT  AUTHOR‐
              ITY\NetworkService",  "NT AUTHORITY\LocalService" do not require
              a password.

              If you specify a  user  with  even  lower  privileges  than  "NT
              AUTHORITY\NetworkService",  you  must  specify its password. You
              also have to grant the "Log on as a service" right to that user.


SIGNALS
       The following signals differ from the default behavior:


       SIGTERM, SIGINT
              These signals cause vlmcsd to exit gracefully. All global  sema‐
              phores  and  shared  memory pages will be released, the pid file
              will be unlinked  (deleted)  and  a  shutdown  message  will  be
              logged.


       SIGHUP Causes  vlmcsd to be restarted completely. This is useful if you
              started vlmcsd with an ini file. You can  modify  the  ini  file
              while  vlmcsd is running and then sending SIGHUP, e.g. by typing
              "killall -SIGHUP vlmcsd" or  "kill  -SIGHUP  `cat  /var/run/vlm‐
              csd.pid`".

              The SIGHUP handler has been implemented relatively simple. It is
              virtually the same as stopping  vlmcsd  and  starting  it  again
              immediately with the following exceptions:


              —  The new process does not get a new process id.

              —  If  you  used  a  pid  file,  it is not deleted and recreated
                 because the process id stays the same.

              —  If you used the 'user' and/or 'group'  directive  in  an  ini
                 file  these are ignored. This is because once you switched to
                 lower privileged users and groups, there is no way back. Any‐
                 thing else would be a severe security flaw in the OS.

       Signaling  is  not  available  in the native Windows version and in the
       Cygwin version when it runs as Windows service.


SUPPORTED OPERATING SYSTEMS
       vlmcsd compiles and runs on Linux,  Windows  (no  Cygwin  required  but
       explicitly  supported),  Mac  OS X, FreeBSD, NetBSD, OpenBSD, Dragonfly
       BSD, Minix, Solaris, OpenIndiana,  Android  and  iOS.  Other  POSIX  or
       unixoid  OSses  may  work  with unmodified sources or may require minor
       porting efforts.


SUPPORTED PRODUCTS
       vlmcsd can answer activation requests for the following products:  Win‐
       dows Vista, Windows 7, Windows 8, Windows 8.1, Windows 10 (up to 1607),
       Windows Server 2008, Windows Server 2008 R2, Windows Server 2012,  Win‐
       dows  Server  2012  R2, Windows Server 2016, Office 2010, Project 2010,
       Visio 2010, Office 2013, Project 2013, Visio 2013, Office 2016, Project
       2016,  Visio  2016.  Newer version may work as long as the KMS protocol
       does not change. A complete list of fully  supported  products  can  be
       obtained using the -x option of vlmcs(1).

       Office, Project and Visio must be volume license versions.


FILES
       vlmcsd.ini(5)


EXAMPLES
       vlmcsd -De
              Starts  vlmcsd in foreground. Useful if you use it for the first
              time and want to see what's happening  when  a  client  requests
              activation.


       vlmcsd -l /var/log/vlmcsd.log
              Starts  vlmcsd  as a daemon and logs everything to /var/log/vlm‐
              csd.log.


       vlmcsd -L 192.168.1.17
              Starts vlmcsd as a daemon and listens on IP address 192.168.1.17
              only.  This  is useful for routers that have a public and a pri‐
              vate IP address to prevent your KMS server from becoming public.


       vlmcsd -s -U /n -l C:\logs\vlmcsd.log
              Installs vlmcsd as a Windows service  with  low  privileges  and
              logs  everything  to  C:\logs\vlmcsd.log  when  the  service  is
              started with "net start vlmcsd".


BUGS
       An ePID specified in an ini file must not contain spaces.


AUTHOR
       Written by crony12, Hotbird64 and vityan666.  With  contributions  from
       DougQaid.


CREDITS
       Thanks  to  CODYQX4,  deagles,  eIcn, mikmik38, nosferati87, qad, Rati‐
       borus, ...


SEE ALSO
       vlmcsd.ini(5), vlmcsd(7), vlmcs(1), vlmcsdmulti(1)



Hotbird64                        December 2016                       VLMCSD(8)