by Greg Shields

With so many variables and configurations involved with the creation, installation, and withdrawal of licenses, the actual Terminal Services licensing process has traditionally been a challenge. This challenge grows particularly problematic when considered with the nature of Terminal Servers themselves. Recall that a Terminal Server that is not connected to a license server will continue to function for 120 days before it quits accepting incoming connections. This behavior is good for quickly spinning up new Terminal Servers but bad down the road when licensing is not configured properly. A common result is that 120 days after the installation of your first Terminal Servers, you find that some problem with licensing has caused them to cease accepting incoming connections.

Microsoft has adopted two ways to assist with preventing this condition from occurring in Windows Server 2008. The first is the use of balloon reminders that pop up in the system tray immediately after an administrator logs in. These reminders inform the administrator that licensing is not properly set up and will provide a countdown of the number of days that remain before the server will cease accepting connections.

The second area of assistance arrives through a set of two new consoles that act as “sanity checks” between Terminal Servers and their license servers. The first console is found within the TS Licensing Manager. This tool provides a report on the configuration of the license server along with easy-to-understand stoplight charts that explain when a misconfiguration has occurred. Run this tool in the TS Licensing Manager by right-clicking a TS License server and selecting Review Configuration. Common configurations here relate to the type of server the license server is installed to as well as whether the server has been added to the Terminal Server License Servers group in Active Directory (AD). Also changeable in this location is the licensing scope for the server.

Although this first tool provides the sanity check from the license server’s perspective, the second tool does the same from the perspective of the Terminal Server itself. From the Terminal Services Configuration node, click the Licensing Diagnosis sub-node. The resulting heads-up display provides information about the connected license server, any problems that may be occurring in this Terminal Server’s connection with its license server, and a list of the available and discovered license servers on the network. Selecting a discovered license server expands the view to display further detailed information about that license server.

The combination of Terminal Services’ balloon reminders plus these two new tools should assist with ensuring your Terminal Servers have the correct licensing configuration right from the start.

About the Author

Greg Shields is an independent author, speaker, and IT consultant, as well as a Partner and Principal Technologist with Concentrated Technology. With 15 years in information technology, Greg has developed extensive experience in systems administration, engineering, and architecture specializing in Microsoft OS, remote application, systems management, and virtualization technologies. He is a Contributing Editor and columnist for TechNet Magazine and Redmond Magazine, and serves as the Series Editor for Realtime Publishers, the world’s leading provider of high-quality content for the IT market. Greg is a highly sought-after and top-ranked speaker for both live and recorded events, and is seen regularly at conferences like TechMentor Events, Microsoft Tech Ed, VMworld, and more. He is a multiple recipient of Microsoft “Most Valuable Professional” award.