My Licensing Scenario, in the Licensing forum on BrianMadden.com

I have some confusion about when you need to purchase an TSECL vs TSCAL. Here is my current set up.

Recent Setup
15 Windows 2000 Advanced Servers/Domain Controllers all running Terminal Server at a colo datacenter.
Windows 2000 Active Directory.
1 License server with about 1200 licenses for the servers.
1 Terminal License Server with built in unlimited connections.

How They Are Used
We have 800+ AD user accounts in two groups. Employees and Customers.
We have about 10 employee AD accounts
We have about 800 customer AD accounts
ALL access (employee and customer) to the terminal server farm is managed by an AEP Networks NSP device (Netilla Tarantella Server)
We provide hosting services for a software package we develop. We assign AD accounts to our customers with access to their program and database.

Where We Are Now
We have recently migrated to AD 2003
We have recently added a 2003 Terminal Server/Domain Controller

What We Are Confused About
1. We are trying to figure out how to license things now. Calls to Microsoft generate more confusion and different answers each time we call.
We have been told we need an $8k TSECL for the new 2003 Server because we have NON-EMPLOYEES connectiong to our TS for services we are charging for.
We have also been told that we only need TSCALS because all of our users are AD accounts where as a TSECL is used for unknown/anon/non-ad account connections.

2. Reserving this space for more questions when I have more time.


Any help or clairty would certainly be appreciated!

This is a delightful example of how the lawyers and technologists didn't quite get on the same page when developing the product, leaving us in the mire they left behind.

Now it's a little hard to work out the answer based on your information, but I'll give it a go.

You say that have or had

'15 Windows 2000 Advanced Servers/Domain Controllers all running Terminal Server at a colo datacenter.
Windows 2000 Active Directory.
1 License server with about 1200 licenses for the servers.'

Setting aside the undesirability of running your DC as a WTS server, if you are running W2K, the license equivalency rule should be applied meaning that provided you are running W2k Pro or above on the desktops you should not need any TSCALs at all. As it is you have 1200 so there's no issue there.

Now you also say you have

'We have recently added a 2003 Terminal Server/Domain Controller'

W2k3 does not have license equivalency but MS did offer a grandfathering program where if you had XP on the desktop before the W2K3 launch date they would give you W2k3 TSCALs however I think that program closed end of last year so you might not be able to get any TSCALs through that route.

Now if you are restricting access to that server to your employees then you would only need 10 W2k3 TSCALs, but if you are extending access to your customers you start getting to a grey area (you obviously know that by now).

Let's look at the choices you have here

W2k3 Terminal Server Device Client Access Licenses
W2k3 Terminal Server User Client Access Licenses
W2k3 Terminal Server External Connector Access Licenses

Start with the last one - According to MS 'It is important to note that there is currently no support for installing External Connector tokens on a license server. ' What!? Never mind the fact that it costs $8k this sounds like an accident waiting to happen let's see if we can avoid it.

And we almost certainly can. Both the Device Client Access Licenses and the User Client Access Licenses contain the following wording 'These licenses are purchased for known users\devices that connect to a terminal server running Windows Server 2003.' Let's focus on the User CALs. Following the letter of the license agreement, if your users are 'known' i.e. each user has their own AD account then you are clear. If your users are not known i.e. they use generic accounts that multiple users share, you fall outside the terms of use for User CALs and you might have to take the External Connector Access License route, or just make sure that your users do in fact have their own AD accounts.

So after all that the way to go is make sure all your users have their own accounts, buy 800 W2K3 User CALs and you're done.

Atleast until you upgrade to 2008 and then it all starts again.

Hope this helps

Simon

This is a delightful example of how the lawyers and technologists didn't quite get on the same page when developing the product, leaving us in the mire they left behind.

Now it's a little hard to work out the answer based on your information, but I'll give it a go.

You say that have or had

'15 Windows 2000 Advanced Servers/Domain Controllers all running Terminal Server at a colo datacenter.
Windows 2000 Active Directory.
1 License server with about 1200 licenses for the servers.'

Setting aside the undesirability of running your DC as a WTS server, if you are running W2K, the license equivalency rule should be applied meaning that provided you are running W2k Pro or above on the desktops you should not need any TSCALs at all. As it is you have 1200 so there's no issue there.

Now you also say you have

'We have recently added a 2003 Terminal Server/Domain Controller'

W2k3 does not have license equivalency but MS did offer a grandfathering program where if you had XP on the desktop before the W2K3 launch date they would give you W2k3 TSCALs however I think that program closed end of last year so you might not be able to get any TSCALs through that route.

Now if you are restricting access to that server to your employees then you would only need 10 W2k3 TSCALs, but if you are extending access to your customers you start getting to a grey area (you obviously know that by now).

Let's look at the choices you have here

W2k3 Terminal Server Device Client Access Licenses
W2k3 Terminal Server User Client Access Licenses
W2k3 Terminal Server External Connector Access Licenses

Start with the last one - According to MS 'It is important to note that there is currently no support for installing External Connector tokens on a license server. ' What!? Never mind the fact that it costs $8k this sounds like an accident waiting to happen let's see if we can avoid it.

And we almost certainly can. Both the Device Client Access Licenses and the User Client Access Licenses contain the following wording 'These licenses are purchased for known users\devices that connect to a terminal server running Windows Server 2003.' Let's focus on the User CALs. Following the letter of the license agreement, if your users are 'known' i.e. each user has their own AD account then you are clear. If your users are not known i.e. they use generic accounts that multiple users share, you fall outside the terms of use for User CALs and you might have to take the External Connector Access License route, or just make sure that your users do in fact have their own AD accounts.

So after all that the way to go is make sure all your users have their own accounts, buy 800 W2K3 User CALs and you're done.

Atleast until you upgrade to 2008 and then it all starts again.

Hope this helps

Simon