Am I Covered?

[mozingod]

OK, I have 64 workstations and 3 servers in my plant. Audit time's coming up and nobody seems to have any licenses, unfortunately. OS are mostly 95/NT, a few 2000, and one XP, all connecting to NT servers. If I got 64 Windows 20003 Server user CALs and set the servers in per seat mode, I'd be covered, correct? Each machine would then have a CAL to access any number of servers... I think anyway.

Can someone back me up here or prove me wrong? Thanks!

Darrell Mozingo

 

[Shift838]

You can have CAL's for that product but if the product is different than the client then you are NOT covered. If you have 64 Windows 98 machines, then you will need 64 CAL's for Windows 98. For every peice of software in your environment that is installed and configured on each workstation you will need licenses for every workstations for every product. You can also purchase a Site License that will cover every machine for a specific product.

I hope I have not confused you. My company just went through an audit by the newly formed Government Agency. Luckily we were in complete compliance, I know other companies that were not and they are now filing bankruptcy due to excesive fines.

 

[mozingod]

Well Microsoft doesn't sell anything older than XP CALs for our Select Agreement. I figured since if you buy WinXP you can install Win95/98/2K, OfficeXP will install Office 97/2k, etc, that buying WinXP CALs would cover the lower OSes... am I wrong in thinking this?

Darrell Mozingo

 

[Shift838]

yes you are wrong. The CALs only cover the product that the license is for. The CAL's do not downgrade. They are specific and the license agreements are very specific on this. You might be able to contact certain vendors you will have to do a search for just the CAL for each product with no media, I know they sell them. Not sure about Windows 95 though. I know they are still sold for 98, ME, XP, 2000.

I can get them for a decent price. You would just have to let me know how many of each.

chris@dynamicbiztech.com

Thanks

 

[Seaspray0]

It might be a little more expensive, but have you considered the per connection license? Each server requires a license that specifies the maximum number of connections it will accept (reguardless of what operating system is connecting). If your server is already in per seat mode, you're out of luck on this option. This type of licensing is useful if you have lots of computers and only a limited number are connected simultaneously or if you have only a few servers for lots of users.

 

[mozingod]

I considered that, but usually all 64 machines are on the three servers at once (one being a BDC to the corporate campus, one a file server, one a database application server). How much would a CAL cost in per server mode?

Darrell Mozingo