Term Services 2

[djones2002]

Hello.

Is there way to "release" some of my term services licenses? I notice in the license manager that 8 of my 10 licenses have been issued, even though there's only 2-3 people in the system at a time via term services. Is there a way to get these licenses back when they log out?

Thanks for any info.

Dennis Jones

 

[minxca]

You can call Microsoft to obtain new licenses, It happened to me all the time if I rename the client name.

 

[FairbanksF]

In terminal services manager you can release connections that show as still being "active" I beleive.

 

[Nzarth]

Fairbanks I think he means licenses and not connections. If he does mean connections then you just right click on the active connection and click disconnect.

If its licenses that need releasing then this link might help you

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;201371&Product=termsvr

 

[devastator]

Licenses can only be released by

1. Installing the license fix or SP3 for Windows 2000 first.

2. Call Microsoft and get a new activation number for your licenses and reload. From then on your licenses will expire in 90 days and can be reissued to a different user or the same user.

 

[djones2002]

devastator:

Thanks for the info. This seems like a major inconvenience. I have 3-4 people in a particular location that come in via term services, and they grab a new license every time, it appears. I have to wait 90 days to get them back? I've already installed SP4, so I hope the fix is included.

 

[devastator]

Actually there is more detail in a link that I posted earlier about how it works. It picks how long and I am not sure on how that works but it does expire the license. So if you go into your admin tools and into your TS license option you should see what licenses are issued and when they expire.

 

[devastator]

Here is what I posted earlier from Microsoft's Web Site.

Automatic License Token Re-issuance

Current Behavior
TS CAL tokens are issued for each device, and are stored locally on each device that connects to a Windows 2000 Terminal Server. If a device loses this TS CAL token through hard disk failure, clean reinstallation, or other method, the TS CAL token remains assigned to that device. The only way to recover this TS CAL token is to place a phone call to the Microsoft Clearinghouse. The telephone number is (888) 571-2048.

Enhanced Behavior
An expiration period has been added to each TS CAL token that is issued. This expiration period is a random number of days between 52-89 days of issuance. When a client connects to a Terminal Server, this date is checked. If the expiration is within 7 days, the Terminal Server connects to the License Server and renews the TS CAL token, giving it another expiration period of 52-89 days. If the License Server is not available, the TS CAL token functions as normal, with the Terminal Server attempting to replace it at each login. Upon expiration, the License Server returns any TS CAL token that has not been renewed to the group of available license tokens.

For example, an unlicensed device connects and receives a TS CAL token with an expiration period set at the maximum of 89 days. The device's operating system is then reinstalled. The device then connects again. Because no other TS CAL tokens are available, the device is issued a temporary TS CAL token so it can connect for 90 days. On day 89, the original TS CAL token is returned to the group of available licenses. The next time this device connects, the Terminal Server presents the device with the full TS CAL token that was returned to the group of available license tokens.

With the addition of these fixes, it should not be necessary to call the Microsoft Clearinghouse to recover lost license tokens. If a device loses its license token, the administrator can be confident that license tokens that are issued after the enhancement was installed will be recovered automatically.