Azure: solving KMS license activation problem on virtual machines

For about a month I had a lot of work with Microsoft Azure. This cloud is best I worked with, however even it has some bugs. I fpind that sometimes newly created Windows Server or Window 10 virtual machines can not be automatically activated. After several iterations of commucation with MS tech support we found the solution of the problem. Follow the steps:

1. First of all you should check the availability of Azure KMS server with the following cmd command:
   

   nslookup -type=srv _vlmcs._tcp
   

2. Set a proper key for your Windows version:

   slmgr.vbs -ipk 
   

   The list of keys can be found here. For example for Win2k12 it will be

   slmgr.vbs -ipk W3GGN-FT8W3-Y4M27-J84CP-Q3VJ9
   

3. Set a correct KMS server:

   slmgr /skms kms.core.windows.net:1688
   or
   slmgr.vbs -skms http://kms.core.windows.net:1688
   

4. And finally perform activation:

   slmgr.vbs /ato

Some steps can be overkill with your particular case, but sometimes you should repeat a command to get it working. Hope it helps.