Re: How to access current CAL usage
- From: "jwl" <jwl2@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: 4 Jan 2007 14:33:06 -0800
Ken,
I have been chasing this answer for a few weeks and think I have
finally gotten the answer that explains it. I spoke with a pair of
high level Microsoft techs today and here is what they said:
1. Microsoft acknowledges that there license tracking application for
standard CALs for both Windows 2000 and Windows 2003 does not work the
way it should, so licensing is now strictly a paper issue.
a. They recommend that licensing services be disabled.
b. The licensing service is disabled on Windows 2003 by default.
2. Per Server only makes sense if there is one server.
3. Per User and Per Device are essentially subcomponents of Per Seat
licensing
4. Per Device makes the most sense when there are more users then
devices
5. Per User makes the most sense when there are more devices then users
6. Under per-user, the same person may log into multiple devices at the
same time with the same user account using 1 CAL
7. Under per-user, the same person may log into multiple devices with
the different user accounts, but will consume 1 CAL per simultaneously
login with each different account. For example, if I have 3 user
accounts and logged in with only 2 at a time, I would need 2 CALs. The
same would be true if I logged into multiple devices with the same two
accounts. I would only need a 3rd CAL if I were to log into all three
accounts at the same time.
a. There is an exception to the above. If one of the machines I
logged into was assigned a per-device CAL, I would not use a second
(per-user) CAL if I needed to use a separate user account to log into
that machine. This, of course, would only hold true if I did not
simultaneously log in with that same account on a machine that was not
managed by a per-device CAL.
8. Under per-user, accounts created for applications (as a requirement
of the applications need to authenticate with the server) require a CAL
(one CAL per account created).
9. No CALs are required if authentication does not take place.
I now have to figure out how many CALs I need. We have a policy that
says folks should be logging off accounts before logging on to new ones
(in most cases), so the concurrency discussed in item 7 reduces the
number of licenses I would need to have.
I was talking to them about Windows 2000 standard CALs. I believe SBS
has its own rules and I know Terminal Services is also different.
Ken Wallewein wrote:
Is there any reliable way to determine how many Server 2003 client access
licenses are currently in use? Is there a document anywhere that describes
the recommended method of determing license requirement vs usage?
There is, of course, a license management service, but Microsoft support
personnel generally recommend not using it.
I suspect the only method (for non-SBS servers) is manual. You count your
users and systems, and compare to documented licenses. It's not clear if
there is any relationship at all to the number of user and machine accounts
defined locally or in Active Directory.
Small Business Server 2003 does seem to have an automated way of
determining if the license count has been exceeded. However, it's quite
unclear what is actually being counted. It doesn't indicate what users or
computers are using which licenses. It's hard to trust software that
refuses to back up its claims. How can we be sure what it's counting, and
perhaps ensure that we're not tying up licenses inappropriately?
/kenw
Ken Wallewein
K&M Systems Integration
Phone (403)274-7848
Fax (403)275-4535
kenw@xxxxxxxx
www.kmsi.net
.
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