Licensing

[netadmin06]

Hello I have a Win 2K3 server it is a domain controller...how do I find out how many user licenses I have? Meaning how do I find out how many users are allowed get authenticated to the Domain network??...and how do I know if I am exceeding the number of users that are allowed to use that server to get authenticated to the domain??

 

[kmcferrin]

I know that this sounds flippant, but you have to either look it up in your purchase records, or check whatever system you are using for license tracking.

Windows servers do come with licensing "tools" that are supposed to help you keep track of how many licenses you have and how many are in use but there is nothing automatic about it. If you haven't been using it as you go along, it will be useless.

You will from time to time see messages in the event log from the licensing service claiming that you're over your limit. But this alert is generated from the data in the licensing "tool" that ships with Windows, so if you haven't been keeping it up to date (and nobody does) then it won't be correct.

On the bright side, Windows servers won't cut you off when it thinks that you have reached the limit. The exception to that is if you have WIndows Terminal Servers running in application mode. The Terminal Server licensing tool does have to be kept up to date or else it won't let users log in.

 

[Roadki11]

Administrative Tools, Licensing snapin will tell you whatever lies the person who installed the system said you had for licensing. Most people disable this service as it usually just populates your system log with junk when it has problems. It serves little purpose as its non-binding so to speak, meaning MS doesnt enforce licensing restrictions even if you do use it. You can tell it you have 25 CALs and it will issue them but it doesnt stop the 26th or even the 126th user from logging in, it will only log that unlicensed users accessed the system. I just keep a nice file folder with all my CAL certifacates and make sure my math is good.

RoadKi11

 

[netadmin06]

When I go to Administrative Tools and licensing I see that under "product views" in per server purchased it says 25......I am guessing 25 different people (user names) can use the server to authenticate themselves to the network...is that correct??........if so how do i know if I exceeded that number??

 

[kmcferrin]

When I go to Administrative Tools and licensing I see that under "product views" in per server purchased it says 25......I am guessing 25 different people (user names) can use the server to authenticate themselves to the network...is that correct??........if so how do i know if I exceeded that number??

You'll know when you have exceeded that number when you start seeing events in the event log from the licensing service that indicates that you have exceeded the number of licenses.

But you're missing the point, which is that the number displayed in the licensing tool is meaningless because a) nobody bothers keeping it up to date, and b) Windows doesn't restrict you to the number listed in the licensing tool, and c) there is no verification process for the licenses that you put into the licensing tool (i.e., you could tell it that you have 75,000 licenses and it won't question it or ask for a key). Trust me. I've been doing this a long time, and I've gone through several Microsoft audits. Never once has anyone ever looked at the licensing tool to see how many licenses we have.

And licensing is more complex than that anyway. Are your server licenses user CALs or device CALs, or a mix?

Assuming that you only have 25 licenses (which is a big assumption):

If they're device CALs then you can only have connections from 25 different devices, regardless of the count of users (multiple users sharing workstations across different shifts).

If they are user CALs then you an only have connections from 25 different people, regardless of the count of devices they're coming from (i.e., home PC and work PC = 2 devices, but can be covered with a single user CAL). Furthermore, user CALs have nothing to do with usernames. They are licensed per person, but a person may have 3 or 4 user accounts and multiple PCs.

 

[netadmin06]

Thanks for the reply kmcferrin, however I am lost lol, how do I know if I have Per User or Per Device CAls;??, As I said when I go to licensing it says that I have 25 "Per Server" I am not user if that means per user or per device......

Further more if user cals is not the same as user names then how does the server know that maybe 10 different user names belongs to the same person?....since a user cal is licensed per person are you saying that there is no way that the server tracks that?........if I get audited my Microsoft what do they look for? I want to make sure I am legal

 

[kmcferrin]

As I said back at the beginning, you will have to go back to your purchase records to see what it is that you have purchased.

The following paragraph is provided for background purposes only. Do not try to interpret it as instructions for using the licensing tool.

Back in the days of Windows NT, Microsoft server CALs could be licensed in two ways, per seat or per server. Per server meant that you needed 1 CAL for each connection made to the server, so 25 per server licenses would allow you 25 concurrent connections. But if you had 10 servers and 100 workstations, you would have needed to purchase 1000 per server CALs to allow all of your workstations to connect to all of the servers simultaneously. So they also had an option to license per-seat, which meant that each workstation that would connect to the server needed a single CAL, and then it would be allowed to connect to any server. So with 10 servers and 100 workstations you would only need 100 per-seat CALs and you would be covered.

However, Microsoft no longer licenses server software this way. Because 99.9999999% of companies that will run a Windows server will have more than one server, the per-seat model makes the most sense. So now they license it on a client or user basis, which I explained above. As far as I can tell, the licensing tool is only provided for purposes of backwards compatibility, which is why it's so useless for anything modern.

And once again so that there is no ambiguity, the license tool included on the Windows servers is not accurate. It has no way of accurately tracking anything. Relying on it for anything licensing-related is a mistake that could cost you serious fines or even your job. Even if your licensing tool reported the correct number of licenses purchased and the correct number of licenses in use (which it won't), it still wouldn't report the correct types of licenses. If Microsoft came to audit you, they would not accept the info in the licensing tool as proof of anything. The licensing tool is inaccurate. It is pointless. It has no value whatsoever. Forget about the licensing tool.

When you do a licensing audit with Microsoft they look for two kinds of documentation:

1. If you are under a volume licensing scheme (i.e., Open, Select, Enterprise, etc) then there are web-based tools that will be provided to you where you can register and track volume license purchases as you make them. Because these tools are linked to Microsoft's sales and licensing systems and each purchase will have specific contract numbers associated with it, Microsoft will accept this as proof that you have licensed the software. This is their preferred method. Otherwise...

2. Purchase records that list explicitly what products you have purchased, which versions of those products (Pro vs Standard vs Enterprise, etc), how many licenses were purchased and that show that payment was made can be used to substantiate your license claims. However, this method is a major pain because you have to track down old POs and payments from your accounting people, then you have to hope that either the PO or the receipt that the vendor supplied explicitly states everything. In other words, if you bought a copy of Windows 2000 Advanced Server but the paperwork only shows "Win2K SVR", you're only going to get credit for a Standard edition and not the Advanced edition.

Anything else is a grey area at best, and unacceptable at worst.