Problem
You attempt to activate a new Windows Server 2012 R2 KMS server as an Active Directory-Based Activation:
… but receive the following error:
The following error has occurred. Please resolve the error and try again.
Description:
Access is denied.
Solution
The reason this error is presented is because the KMS server is not a domain controller. The following TechNet article describes the requirements for setting up an an Active Directory-Based Activation KMS server:
Activate using Active Directory-based activation
https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dn613828.aspx
5 Responses
I had the same problem and the resolution for me was running Volume Activation Tools with elevated privileges by right clicking the icon and selecting, run as administrator.
Until I did this I continually got an access denied error but after that it worked fine.
Hello,
I use the following command in an elevated cmd.exe:
cscript slmgr.vbs /ad-activation-online XXXXX-XXXXX-XXXXX-XXXXX-XXXXX "WindowsServer2016Datacenter"
Best Regards
R.
Thank you Chris Magnuson. That was my problem… could not figure it out… I had Enterprise Admins and could not understand 'Access Denied'. Never thought of such a basic thing (never mentioned in the MS docs either).
–David
Thank you as well Chris Magnuson. That did the trick!
Alan
I had to edit the dcom permissions. I had to add domainadministrators permissions to DCOM.
run: dcomcnfg
Component Servers -> Computers -> Right click on "My Computer" and click properties
Click on Com Security tab
Click on both Edit Default buttons and add domainadministrators and check mark all permissions.