Official message
Microsoft original
The Software Protection Service determined that the Key Management Server (KMS) is not activated. KMS needs to be activated.What this means
The KMS host itself has not finished activation, so it cannot issue licenses to clients.
Common causes
- The host's volume license key is not installed or not activated.
- The host's license has expired.
Do this first
Ask IT to run slmgr /dlv on the host and check the host's own license status.
What to do next
- 1An administrator has to activate the KMS host first.
Continue diagnosis from this code
Take what you know into the KMS diagnosis. It will ask a few more questions to narrow this down.
Sources
Related articles
About this data
The meaning and the original message come from the documents listed above. The same error code can have more than one cause. This site gives an order of checks. It does not decide your exact situation from the code alone.