SQL Server Magazine

Just when you thought you understood licensing for Windows NT Server 4.0, Terminal Server Edition (WTS), Microsoft changed it for Windows 2000 (Win2K). The rules, available license types, prices, and the steps required to set up licenses are slightly different in Win2K. Explore how Windows 2000 Terminal Services licensing works in Microsoft's first integrated terminal server product, learn how to set up licenses, and discover the logic behind the changes.

Licensing Roles in Windows 2000
Several players cooperate to make Terminal Services licensing work: terminal servers, license servers, and the Microsoft clearinghouse that enables license servers and access licenses. Figure 1, page 110, shows how these three players cooperate. Which machine you make into a license server depends on how your network is set up. In a purely Win2K domain, the license server must be a domain controller. In a workgroup or NT 4.0 domain, the license server can be a member server—it can even be the terminal server. (This setup is possible because a license server's duties aren't resource intensive.)

The first time a client machine accesses the terminal server, the terminal server will accept the license that the client offers or request a license from the license server. The terminal server finds the license server by discovery (i.e., broadcasting in workgroups and NT 4.0 domains or polling the domain controllers in Win2K domains). If the terminal server can find the license server and the license server has a license to issue, the license server will give a license to the terminal server, and the terminal server will issue the license to the client machine (not the user). The terminal server then lets the client machine make the terminal connection. If the terminal server is unable to connect to the license server, the terminal server will accept clients' preexisting licenses. However, the terminal server won't permit clients without valid temporary or permanent licenses to log on. When a client disconnects from the terminal server, the client retains its license—the license doesn't go back to a pool. Thus, if I log on to a terminal server once from my office desk and once from my home office, I'll use up two separate licenses.

License Types
Terminal Services license servers recognize and manage four types of licenses. A client machine must have one of the following licenses to connect to the terminal server:

• Terminal Services Client Access License (TSCAL)
• Terminal Services Internet Connector license
• Built-in license
• Temporary license

TSCALs are for named user accounts in the domain, and the license server issues them on a per-seat basis. Anyone in a company who's using the terminal server must have a TSCAL, regardless of whether he or she is using Microsoft's RDP display protocol or Citrix's ICA display protocol (i.e., if you've installed Citrix MetaFrame for Win2K) to connect to the terminal server. To access a Win2K server, a client also needs a 2000 Client Access License (2000CAL). Microsoft sells TSCALs for retail trade in 5-packs and 20-packs. A 5-pack costs $749 retail, and an upgrade from a WTS 5-pack costs $349. (That comes to a little less than $150 per head retail, which is about what WTS TSCALs cost.)

The way you buy TSCALs will determine how you pay for them and how much flexibility you have in the purchase. Most people who buy small volumes of Microsoft products will buy TSCALs as part of a 5-CAL or 20-CAL Microsoft License Pak (MLP). Physically, an MLP is a thin cardboard envelope that contains the End User License Agreement (EULA) that denotes the number of CALs purchased. MLPs for Win2K TSCALs also include a license code, which is a 25-character alphanumeric code that identifies what the license is for and how many TSCALs it purchases (so, you can't fudge the entries and say that you bought 20 TSCALs when you really bought only 5). You can install an MLP only once. Small to midsized companies can acquire licenses through a program called Microsoft Open License, which lets customers purchase a user-specified quantity of licenses. After you purchase licenses this way, Microsoft issues you an Open License Authorization and license numbers for the licenses, which you can install as many times as you need to. Select and Enterprise Agreements for large companies work in a similar manner as open licenses except that customers provide their Enrollment Agreement number instead of the Open License number.

The Terminal Services Internet Connector license lets as many as 200 concurrent users connect anonymously to a terminal server through the Internet. You can't use an Internet Connector license to dial in to the network from home—you need a TSCAL for your home computer. The Internet Connector license's sole purpose is to demonstrate Web-enabled applications to Internet users. According to Microsoft, you can't install the Internet Connector license pack on a Win2K terminal server for employees. The server permits Internet Connector license clients to access Terminal Services only anonymously through the Internet. A 200-pack Win2K Internet Connector license costs $9999 and is available to only Microsoft Select volume customers.

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