Section 10.7. Configuring Terminal Services Licensing

10.7. Configuring Terminal Services Licensing

If you plan on using Terminal Services in a production environment to support thin client users, you must bring up a Terminal Services licensing server on your network within 120 days. Terminal Services licensing is independent of regular Windows Server 2003 licensing, meaning that a client license for Windows Server 2003 does not necessarily entitle a user to connect to a terminal server and use applications. (Connecting for administrative purposes using simply Remote Desktop mode is allowed without a separate license.)

Before actually placing a license server on your network, determine the type of license server you need. There are two types: a domain license server, which distributes licenses only within the Active Directory domain you select, or an enterprise license server (the default choice), which allocates licenses to any computer within the network. You'll be prompted for your choice upon initial licensing setup. When you actually install the license server, avoid installing Terminal Server Licensing on a terminal server computer unless you want to spend hours troubleshooting weird errors on your servers; use a separate machine instead. Also consider installing Terminal Services on a member server, not a domain controller. Domain controllers have their own load considerations, and the additional network, processor, and disk constraints of Terminal Services can adversely affect performance. If you must install on a domain controller, use the administration tools covered later in this chapter to restrict the number of allowed connections to Terminal Services.

If you currently have a Windows 2000 Terminal Services Licensing server and you decide to add to your environment a Windows Server 2003 machine running Terminal Services, you also will need to add a Windows Server 2003 Licensing server. A Windows 2000 Licensing server cannot hold licenses for a Windows Server 2003 machine running Terminal Services.

You can officially license your Terminal Services capabilities on your network in one of three ways. (Keep in mind that to activate a licensing server, you need to be a member of the local Administrators group or a domain administrators group, or have delegated authority from an administrator to perform the task.)

To activate a Terminal Services license automatically, follow these steps:

1. Open the Terminal Services Licensing applet, found in the Administrative Tools group off the Start menu.

2. In the left pane, right-click the server you want to activate, and select Activate Server from the context menu.

3. Follow the prompts in the wizard to configure, license, and purchase the activation.

You also can use a web browser to activate a Terminal Services server. Follow the preceding steps, but select Web Browser from the Activation Methods list on the first page of the wizard. Finally, you can use a telephone to activate a Terminal Services server as well. Again, use the same procedure as before, but select Telephone from the Activation Methods list on the first page of the wizard.

After a Terminal Services Licensing server is activated, it becomes the repository for Terminal Server client licenses. A Terminal Services Licensing server can issue temporary licenses for clients that allow use of terminal servers for up to 120 days from the date of the first client logon. After this evaluation period ends, a terminal server can no longer allow clients to connect unless it locates a Terminal Services Licensing server to issue client licenses.