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This article provides information on activating a Remote Desktop Services license server and installing the appropriate client access licenses.
 Table of Contents:1. Activating an RDS license server 1. Activating a Remote Desktop Services license serverAfter installing and configuring the Remote Desktop Services (RDS) role in Windows server, a license server needs to activated. Without an activated license server, clients will fail to connect to the Session Host server when the licensing grace period expires. To activate the license server follow the instructions below.
2. Installing RD CALsThis section assumes the RDS license server has been activated. If the license server is not already activated, refer to Section 1.
3. RDS License ProgramsThere are a number of license programs available from Microsoft. RD CALs purchased from Dell likely fall under one of two programs:
Back to Top Dell EMC Dell Technologies Microsoft Windows 2012 Server Last Published Date15 Mar 2021 Version5 Article TypeSolution Thank you for your feedback. Sorry, our feedback system is currently down. Please try again later. Comments cannot contain these special characters: <>()\
You may also like - The following two tabs change content below.RDS formerly known as Terminal Services (TS) provides session-based virtual desktops, virtual-machine based virtual desktops and applications to end users.To be able to use these features, you must install Remote Desktop Services in Windows Server 2012 or 2012 R2.So, in this post I will show steps to install Remote Desktop Services in Windows Server 2012.
Install Remote Desktop Services in Windows Server 2012 The diagram below shows the scenario for this post. The network consists of one domain controller and one RDS server. Choose installation type as Remote Desktop Services installation. Click Next. As you can see below there are two ways of installing RDS services in Server 2012. In quick deployment option, three of the required RDS services are installed on single server. The three services are, RD Session Host, RD Connection Broker and RD Web Access. Similarly, the quick installation also creates a collection and publishes some RemoteApp programs. Here, I will install quick deployment option. If you wish to separate each RDS components then you can choose standard deployment option. Deployment Scenario can also be either virtual machine-based or session-based. Check, Restart the destination server automatically if required option. After the reboot, log back in, you can see the installation has completed successfully. As we can see, RD Web Access, RD Connection Broker and RD Session Host have been installed. If you want applications or desktop sessions to be accessed from the Internet then you have to install RD Gateway. Similarly, You must install RD Licensing to activate RDS server. As you can see, calculator, paint and wordpad applications have been published. To access those applications, open web browser and type URL of RD Web Access server. Windows Server 2012 R2 Remote Desktop Password And LogType username and password and log on the server as shown below. You can now install certificates, publish required apps, publish session-based desktops, customize RD Web Access, and so on.
The licensing mode for the Remote Desktop Session Host server is not configured. The Remote Desktop Session Host server is within its grace period, but the RD Session Host server has not been configured with any license server. Configuring Windows Server 2012 Remote Desktop Services Licensing involves 2 step process. Activating a Remote Desktop Services license server and installing the appropriate client access licenses in Windows Server 2008 R2 and 2012. Tuscani wrote: So how does all this come into play for an MSP with SPLA licensing. Do we just use a SPLA key for Windows 8 VMs that are connected to via the RDS gateway? The Windows VDA license (or through Windows Client SA) is the license required to access a Windows desktop OS VM from a server. The Windows VDA/SA license is not available under SPLA (as to provide a Windows desktop OS VM from a sever as a service). However, you can provide a Windows Server VM as a server to a customer through RDS. More info on the. Tuscani wrote: Gotcha. Any idea what the VDA license costs compared to say a retail copy of Windows 7 or 8? I like the idea of just handing users a server based VM, but we know that many apps will not run on server based OSs. The Windows VDA license is about $100/device/yr. You can find an OEM version of Windows 8 Pro for $150. However, the OEM/FPP license is not to be used as a VM license for a server. Technically you can 'assign' it to a server, it would be for local use only and any client devices that accesses the VM would require the Windows VDA license. Tuscani wrote: Unless I missed somehting, why not just buy a one time retail copy of Windows 8 for each VDI VM? Lol because, it is not allowed. Only the primary user of the licensed device may remotely access his/her device. With server hardware, there is no primary user, therefore is considered a shared device. If you were to assign a retail copy of Windows desktop OS (XP, Vista, W7, W8, etc) to a server - the retail copy of Windows could only be used on the device. The retail license does not permit remote access from any user other than the licensed user. The Windows VDA would be the license required. The Windows desktop OS EULA states this:. Remote Access Technologies You may access and use the software installed on the licensed computer remotely from another device using remote access technologies as follows. Remote Desktop. The single primary user of the licensed computer may access a session from any other device using Remote Desktop or similar technologies. A “session” means the experience of interacting with the software, directly or indirectly, through any combination of input, output and display peripherals. Other users may access a session from any device using these technologies, if the remote device is separately licensed to run the software. You dont have to have RDS licenses if you used windows 8.1 VMs on the Server 2012 R2 Datacenter edition and connected with those VM's using those VM's built in Remote Desktop service and not through the server's services. You can change the listening RDP ports to 3391, 3392, 3393, 3394 etc for the VMs and call them directly from your devices with RDP client (windows or Mac). Just dont use any Remote deskto services of the server Incuding Remote FX. Windows 8.1 Pro should already have a CAL to be connected to, and to connect to the server (a device CXAL that is). Am i Off anywhere?? After all we need a phd degree in windows licensing to use microsoft stuff:(. Tleavit wrote: I hate to drag this back up but the one question I have is still not answered. If I have 5 Windows 7 VM's on a Server (that is backed by Server 2012 R2 Datacenter which does not matter), then how do you license.those. virtual machines? I understand the access rights licenses for example say my user has a win 8.1 upgrade with SA assigned to them.If the user connecting has SA assigned to their DEVICE (There is no SA assigned to a user) then they can connect to them. There is NO user CAL (this is the reason Brian Madden left the Microsoft MVP program in anger.). John773 wrote: tleavit wrote: I hate to drag this back up but the one question I have is still not answered. If I have 5 Windows 7 VM's on a Server (that is backed by Server 2012 R2 Datacenter which does not matter), then how do you license.those. virtual machines? I understand the access rights licenses for example say my user has a win 8.1 upgrade with SA assigned to them.If the user connecting has SA assigned to their DEVICE (There is no SA assigned to a user) then they can connect to them. There is NO user CAL (this is the reason Brian Madden left the Microsoft MVP program in anger.) While not a user CAL, but a VDA license kinda acts the same - allows a user to connect from an unlimited number of devices to the VM that the VDA is assigned to - right? Dashrender wrote: John773 wrote: tleavit wrote: I hate to drag this back up but the one question I have is still not answered. If I have 5 Windows 7 VM's on a Server (that is backed by Server 2012 R2 Datacenter which does not matter), then how do you license.those. virtual machines? I understand the access rights licenses for example say my user has a win 8.1 upgrade with SA assigned to them.If the user connecting has SA assigned to their DEVICE (There is no SA assigned to a user) then they can connect to them. There is NO user CAL (this is the reason Brian Madden left the Microsoft MVP program in anger.) While not a user CAL, but a VDA license kinda acts the same - allows a user to connect from an unlimited number of devices to the VM that the VDA is assigned to - right? VDA isn't really flexible like User or Device CALs. With those if you have users with multiple devices you can choose to to the User CAL rate and it make compliance easy, as well as much cheaper (1 CAL for EVERYTHING a user connects from). Its a one year license that is attached to a device. So lets say I connect to VDI from a company issued Macbook Pro, A thin Client, a work issued iPad, and my Windows Desktop. In order to license this properly we would need 4 VDA (or alternatively 3 VDA licenses and 1 software assurance for my desktop). Now to make it REALLY FUN, since the iPad is mine personally, BUT it touches the office, I would need to get a CDL License to attach to my SA on my work desktop. Now as long as my Macbook Air that I personally own stays in the parking lot and never connects from the office it can be used under home use because I have SA on my desktop, however if It was my only device then it would need a VDA (can't put SA on a personal device). 2012 R2 Remote Desktop LicensingWhich now that I think about it, I don't think you can get a CDL license without SA, so I think in that case my personal iPad would just be illegal under any situation that it touched the company network. Does everyone now see why 1. Brian Madden quit the Microsoft MVP program. Why VDI compliance is really something that 99% of shops have committed some violation on accident (unless they completely ban non-company devices from connecting in). Why there is ZERO software (Microsoft included) in the VDI space that can track this. I've cleaned up a LOT of bad VDI licensing situations (Customer's trying to use OEM, customers, not buying SA) but there comes a point where even I give up, and just explain this stuff and then walk away. The one thing I can say is I've never actually seen what happens when Microsoft/BSA tries to audit someone. I suspect if they have VDA for the work devices, or SA for at least one device for every person they just walk away rather than attempt from logs to reconstruct where someone's iPad was physically located when they connected. Again, I'm not advocating people deploy or do anything out of compliance, just pointing out that this mess is so bad (and adding CDL to the fire didn't help) that Microsoft has invented something more complicated than IBM Mainframe licensing. Honestly I wish they would just Sell a 'user CAL' for 300 a year (hell it could be a 1000, just something) and maybe a USER Office CAL for another 400 and we just move on. Great thread here and I need to ask a very specific question in relation to RDS CAL requirement with a VDI solution. Customer is using a Server 2012 R2 w/Hyper-V role and web services role installed. RDS Role is not installed and none of the RDS Services are running - no connection broker or RDS gateway, etc. Server has 10 Windows 7 Pro VM's running on the server and they use thin-client via RDP connection straight to the VM desktop and it works great. So no 3rd party services and not using any of the RDS services on the main server. In this scenario is an RDS CAL required? They are currently buying qty-10 VDI subscriptions and qty-10 RDS CAL's but they are not using the RDS CAL's and have been told there is no reason to buy them. Can someone confirm are the RDS CAL's required? Chris (Microsoft) wrote: Dashrender wrote: Chris, Let's assume I only want to deploy Windows 7/8 desktops from Hyper-V, do I need RDS licenses as well as VDA (or SA) licensing? How are you delivering the desktops VMs from the server to the clients? If you are using to deliver the OS to the client - yes you need a RDS CAL on top of the Windows VDA license. However, if you are using VMware View or XenDesktop - both of those solutions do not require RDS CALs but would require Windows VDA licenses.Basically if your using Microsoft as a Session broker you have to pay for an RDS CAL (or license View, or Citrix). Didn't there used to be a different license for this (something you added to SA?) Lota different versions of this over the years. Kenmarlin wrote: Great thread here and I need to ask a very specific question in relation to RDS CAL requirement with a VDI solution. Customer is using a Server 2012 R2 w/Hyper-V role and web services role installed. RDS Role is not installed and none of the RDS Services are running - no connection broker or RDS gateway, etc. Server has 10 Windows 7 Pro VM's running on the server and they use thin-client via RDP connection straight to the VM desktop and it works great. So no 3rd party services and not using any of the RDS services on the main server. In this scenario is an RDS CAL required? They are currently buying qty-10 VDI subscriptions and qty-10 RDS CAL's but they are not using the RDS CAL's and have been told there is no reason to buy them. Can someone confirm are the RDS CAL's required?In this case I don't see why you would need RDS, that said I'd strongly recommend using a Session Broker of some kind as manually doing VDI this way is just painful to manage/deploy etc. It seems silly to me. Whats the point of VDI if all it is is just a regular, non-linked clone desktop sitting on a server somewhere? I can buy desktops that are more powerful for $200 off lease, and grab a copy of ghost to image. Kenmarlin wrote: Great thread here and I need to ask a very specific question in relation to RDS CAL requirement with a VDI solution. Customer is using a Server 2012 R2 w/Hyper-V role and web services role installed. RDS Role is not installed and none of the RDS Services are running - no connection broker or RDS gateway, etc. Server has 10 Windows 7 Pro VM's running on the server and they use thin-client via RDP connection straight to the VM desktop and it works great. So no 3rd party services and not using any of the RDS services on the main server. In this scenario is an RDS CAL required? They are currently buying qty-10 VDI subscriptions and qty-10 RDS CAL's but they are not using the RDS CAL's and have been told there is no reason to buy them. Can someone confirm are the RDS CAL's required?I'm going to take a crack at this one. RDS CAL's and VDA CALs are required for each VM in use and the use of OEM licenses on a shared server is a violation of the EULA because a session on a server is not a single primary user remoting in to a licensed device. It is an instance of a virtual device and the remote computer (the client terminal) would have to be licensed with a VDA and the connection with an RDS CAL (because the single port RDS in the OEM licensed W7 wasn't intended to be used in that manner). Thank you Pete for taking the time to answer. Question where did you get that an OEM license is in use? I didn't say anything about using any OEM licenses. They are using VDA subscriptions for the Windows 7 Pro - ohhh you took Pro as being OEM vs Win 7 Enterprise - that's it isn't it? Sorry should have said Win 7 Enterprise VM's. Makes sense now. I'm in agreement with all the feedback so far - aka they need a VDA subscription and an RDS CAL however - I can't find anywhere in any licensing guide or website or document from Microsoft that says they need an RDS CAL even when not using RDS Services Role. I've also explained to them that this model is not common and not the suggested path so they ask for a document that compares this method to a full RDS pooled method of which I can't find anything either so anyone with any details on comparing this single non RDS Services method against an RDS pooled method would be helpful. Windows Server 2012 R2 Enable Remote DesktopThanks again everyone! Kenmarlin wrote: Yes VMware View is a great product and acts as a connection broker. My company is a VMware distributor but we also support Citrix and the full Microsoft solution. Again my question is more about not using a 3rd party connection broker.Unless the licensing changed, I thought that Windows 7 (and presumably windows 8) included RDS rights when connecting to a server. It was licensed when connecting to Terminal Services, which is/was a RDS license, I'm not sure if it applies here or not. Now, if you are connecting from an iPad, from a home computer, etc. Then you definitely need a RDS license. Dashrender wrote: kenmarlin wrote: Yes VMware View is a great product and acts as a connection broker. My company is a VMware distributor but we also support Citrix and the full Microsoft solution. Again my question is more about not using a 3rd party connection broker.Unless the licensing changed, I thought that Windows 7 (and presumably windows 8) included RDS rights when connecting to a server. It was licensed when connecting to Terminal Services, which is/was a RDS license, I'm not sure if it applies here or not. Now, if you are connecting from an iPad, from a home computer, etc. Then you definitely need a RDS license. Windows 7 (or any Windows desktop OS) does not include a Windows Server - Remote Desktop Services CAL. RDS CALs are an add-on to Windows Server. Chris (Microsoft) wrote: Dashrender wrote: kenmarlin wrote: Yes VMware View is a great product and acts as a connection broker. My company is a VMware distributor but we also support Citrix and the full Microsoft solution. Again my question is more about not using a 3rd party connection broker.Unless the licensing changed, I thought that Windows 7 (and presumably windows 8) included RDS rights when connecting to a server. It was licensed when connecting to Terminal Services, which is/was a RDS license, I'm not sure if it applies here or not. Now, if you are connecting from an iPad, from a home computer, etc. Then you definitely need a RDS license. Windows 7 (or any Windows desktop OS) does not include a Windows Server - Remote Desktop Services CAL. RDS CALs are an add-on to Windows Server. Was it XP that included it then? |
