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TS Licensing in 90 Words Or Less

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Various aspects of TS Licensing are often misunderstood, so I set myself the goal of explaining it relatively clearly in under 90 words.

I cheated by using a picture, which is reputedly worth a thousand words, though I think that mainly applies to people with, what's the word, skill.

TSLicensing90Words

Words From The Picture Retyped:

Clients connect directly to the Terminal Server using RDP.

The Terminal Server validates the client license, and talks to the TS Licensing Server (LS) if necessary:

  • to obtain a Temporary License token for an unlicensed client
  • to upgrade Temporary License tokens to Permanent
  • to renew Permanent License token within 7 days of expiry

Clients never connect to the LS directly.

The TS discovers the License Server automatically if the LS is a Domain Controller. If not, use DefaultLicenseServer value (Windows 2000) or LicenseServers subkeys (Windows Server 2003).

Enterprise LSs span domains within a site.

Domain LSs span sites within a domain.

Picture FAQ:

Yes, the user on the right is probably up to no good, but I can't prove anything.

Windows Server 2003:

301932 Terminal Services Licensing Service Discovery
https://support.microsoft.com/?id=301932

Notes: You can specify a list of license servers, you create a subkey of LicenseServers for each LS you want to query.

Windows 2000:

239107 Establishing Preferred Windows 2000 Terminal Services License Server
https://support.microsoft.com/?id=239107

Notes: You can only specify a single default license server, a single REG_SZ registry value called DefaultLicenseServer.

Some history on TS Licensing Enhancements (short version: for Windows 2000, get SP3 or later, and put it on both the TSs and LS).

287687 Terminal Services Licensing Enhancements
https://support.microsoft.com/?id=287687

And the Terminal Services Licensing White Papers (if you want to know how it all works in detail, start here - there's tons of excellent information).

Windows 2003 TS Licensing

Windows 2000 TS Licensing

If you liked this, you might also like How TSWeb Works .

Comments

  • Anonymous
    January 01, 2003
    konfabulieren » Terminalserver Licensing in 90 Words Or Less
  • Anonymous
    January 01, 2003
    How TSWeb Works
  • Anonymous
    June 21, 2004
    yay! I am famous!

    The "Shifty User" is based on me!