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aaalifeFlag for United States of America

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Terminal Services Licensing Problem

Hi all, I've got 2 term servers set up with win 2003 server on the same domain.  company bought 30 user licenses and 30 device licenses.  i set up term server "a" as the license server (enterprise wide) and succesfully activated and installed all 60 licenses (verified twice).  several of my users are getting the message "your terminal services temporary client license will expire in 7 days, please contact sys admin to get permanent license".

further investigation shows no authorized or permanent licenses are being issued.  they all show unauthorized.  both servers recognize term "a" as the license server, and it is activated.

why would term "a" license server not issue any permanent licenses??  docs show once you activate and install licenses, that's it, user connections will be issued licenses as they come in.  

thanks in advance for help.
Avatar of Jeffrey Kane - TechSoEasy
Jeffrey Kane - TechSoEasy
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Hi aaalife,
First, your licensing server should not be one of your Terminal Servers.  Also, each Terminal Server must be set to operate in either Device Mode or User Mode, not both... if you have 30 user licenses then configure Server A in User Mode and have those users connect to that server.  The 30 devices can then connect to the other.

More info here:  http://www.microsoft.com/windowsserver2003/techinfo/overview/termservlic.mspx
and here:  http://support.microsoft.com/?id=822134



Good Luck!

Jeff
TechSoEasy
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ASKER

not so, with 2003 server, terminal server set up is by "per server" or "per device".  per device now includes per device in addition to per user CALs, which for reasons passed in understanding, we have 30 of each.

this business about not having the license server on a production 2003 server, is ms telling custs to buy another server for license distribution?  if the only concern is the thing going down and not issuing out cals, forget it (not concerned).  but if the problem is the licenses won't be distributed because so much other garbage is going on, then we're hosed.

i don't think that's the source of our problem.



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oBdA

It's best practice to have your terminal services license server running on a DC, but since Server 2003, this is not a "must" anymore. What you'll have to do if it's not a DC, though, is point your terminal servers to the machine that's running the TS license server.

How to Override the License Server Discovery Process in Windows Server 2003 Terminal Services
http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=279561
You've actually got it backwards... if you are going to mix User & Device CALS then the server needs to be set as "per server".  I realize that this is hella confusing... but this may clarify what I'm saying:  http://www.microsoft.com/technet/prodtechnol/windowsserver2003/library/ServerHelp/fd7d331b-8857-4f07-9f45-d29488d6ab03.mspx

Mixing CAL types in a small deployment such as yours can be rather grueling to figure out... it's usually better if you stick with per USER CALs if you can for now because they aren't tied to specific AD accounts, but rather simultaneous allocation of the License keys.  Also your licensing server can actually be a workstation (such as a manager's PC... it only requires XP Pro... but as oBdA suggested, it's best to put it on your DC.  

More on licensing servers:  http://www.microsoft.com/technet/prodtechnol/windowsserver2003/library/DepKit/b6c02871-7bef-4e26-9aab-48730511c126.mspx

Jeff
TechSoEasy
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ASKER

our domain controller is a 2000 server.  docs say 2000 servers cannot issue 2003 licenses, and 2003 license servers will not issue 2000 licenses.  ergo, 2003 license server setup had to be on term "a".  i've got the domain controller set up as a 2000 license server for the various 2000 servers in place, which has been fine up to this point.
Then just change your Server 2003 terminal servers' registry to point to your "a" TS as described in the article.
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JasonMcBee

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ASKER

server was maxed out on device licenses, changed to user (unmanaged) on both terms and no more errors/warnings are occurring.

thanks for the help everybody!
That's funny... that was the first KB article I suggested.  Sorry if my explaination was confusing.
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ASKER

sorry, my mistake, i remember thinking, didn't i already read this?  submitted to cust service to see if i can get some points for you.  will pay more attention next time.

thanks
no prob..... just was wondering if what I said didn't make sense... (okay... I like being right).  :-)

Thx.