How to Activate Volume License Visio/Project on an Azure VM that is using Microsoft KMS for OS activation?

Joey Bailey 1 Reputation point
2020-08-03T15:50:50.013+00:00

We are using Windows Virtual Desktop with the standard Azure/Windows licensing option and I believe that uses an Azure KMS server. We also use O365 activation for standard Office products (Word, Excel, PowerPoint, etc.). This all works just fine, however, we also have existing Volume Licensing for Visio and Project that we are having trouble activating. Microsoft/Azure's KMS server can't activate it, and users that log in do not have the additional Visio/Project subscription level on their O365 account. Is there a way to add an additional KMS server the Azure VM will check to activate Visio and Project? What is the best way to achieve this given the different activation methods already in place? We temporarily substituted the KMS key for MAK key, but that only worked for short while. MAK keys do not appear to be as flexible as KMS since we are frequently deleting and re-creating multiple VMs in multiple desktop pools. Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

Azure Virtual Machines
Azure Virtual Machines
An Azure service that is used to provision Windows and Linux virtual machines.
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  1. Emily Hua-MSFT 27,526 Reputation points
    2020-08-04T08:27:16.79+00:00

    Hi Joey,

    From the perspective of Office, if you currently have a Windows KMS host on an operating system that supports Office KMS, you may use that server for your Office KMS host as well. But you need to install the licensing files and an KMS host key for Office.

    Here is the document which describes about configuring KMS host for volume licensed Office, you may have a look.
    Configure a KMS host computer to activate volume licensed versions of Office

    What's the version of your Visio and Project? Please note, to install volume licensed versions of Project 2016 and Visio 2016 on the same machine as Microsoft 365 Apps, Office Deployment Tool is needed. Besides, the General Volume License Key (GVLK) for volume activation of KMS, should be changed. More detailed information, please refer to "Use the Office Deployment Tool to install volume licensed versions of Project 2016 and Visio 2016"

    Hope the information could be helpful.