by Greg Shields

And yet we’re not done with the decisions we need to make about our Terminal Services licenses. The Per User versus Per Device question is only one of the architectural questions that you need to answer before ever installing any software. Next up is the determination of how your Terminal Servers will look for TSCALs on your network. If you open up the TS Licensing Manager-a separate utility that isn’t exposed in Server Manager-you’ll discover after activating your license server that you’ll need to choose the Discovery Scope for your licenses. This can be found by right-clicking any server in the interface and selecting Review Configuration.

Three options are available: Domain, Forest, and Workgroup. Although these options might at first blush seem like an easy decision, be aware that there are consequences to each. The first and easiest option is Workgroup. This option is only available when the TS Licensing role is installed to a computer that is not a member of a domain. When selecting this option, Terminal Servers will automatically be able to discover license servers in the same Workgroup.

Selecting the Forest discovery scope can also make license discovery easy for your Terminal Servers. By selecting the Forest discovery scope, information about license servers is published to Active Directory (AD). This enables a Terminal Server in the same forest to automatically locate its license server by querying AD. Although this makes the process of finding TSCALs easy for Terminal Servers, if you have multiple businesses or projects that reside in the same forest but different domain, your organizational composition may not appreciate Terminal Servers from one business unit “stealing” licenses from another.

To resolve this situation, Microsoft also makes available the Domain discovery scope. This scope limits Terminal Servers to only discovering license servers in the same domain. Yet there’s a catch: If the TS Licensing role is installed to a domain controller, Terminal Servers will be able to automatically locate licenses without additional configuration. If it is installed to a member server, they will be unable to do so automatically and will need a manual configuration.

No matter which selection you choose, you can manually identify the license server for a Terminal Server by navigating to the Terminal Services Configuration node in Server Manager. There, double-click the item License server discovery mode in the Edit settings box. In the resulting window, you’ll be given the option to change the licensing mode (Per User versus Per Device) in addition to being able to manually specify a license server. Select the Use the specified license servers radio button and enter a comma-separated list of license servers in the text box to manually specify your servers of interest.

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.