CAL Licensing Question 1

[SteveTheGeek]

I've gotten different answers on these so far, and M$' website is not helpful, so I'll ask here:

I've heard that Win2003 server CALs are tracked the same way Win2k termservice CALs are, in that if you don't have enough, it denies additional connections, rather than just putting errors in the error log and still letting everyone and his brother connect. Is this true?

Also, one can get per-User server CALs and per-Device server CALs. Can one enter and use both simultaneously, and if so does the licensing service make any attempt to optimize usage of the different types?
-Steve

 

[jacksondorado]

Great Question. I am having a problem with my Server 2003 that would make more sense if you are correct. I am using Terminal Server and although still in the grace period for TS CALs, it denies connections to anyone more than the number of CALs that came in the OS package.

Very Frustrating and I would like to sort out how to get more users logged on using Remote Desktop.

 

[ahalecitrix]

That is a great question Steve. It's been lingering in my mind, but I haven't taken the time to research it yet. I specifically curious to find out if you can utilize both User and Device CAL's on the same network.

Based on the User CAL model it doesn't surprise me that once you max out your connections it denies any additional connections. This makes logical sense in a Terminal Server environment and still isn't 100% ideal in my opinion, but is a vast improvement over the Device CAL model for most scenarios. One question I have is can a single User under the User CAL model make multiple connections to the same TS server farm? As soon as I have a chance to test it I'll let you know what I find out.

My guess is you'll need to add more CAL's in order to allow more user's to connect. That's the one thing Microsoft loves to improve on... How to insure you pay for all the licensing!