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RDP Licensing Server

Answered RDP Licensing Server

  • Wednesday, November 14, 2012 10:04 PM
     
     
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    If I currently have a RDP 2008r2 license server at site A with a single terminal server and then want to introduce another terminal server at site B could I use this single license server at site A?  Even though the Site B terminal server is in a geographically different location?  If so would terminal clients still be able to access the site B terminal server should site A go down?  both sites will be on the same windows domain and connected via VPN.  Domain controllers will also be available at site A and B.
     

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  • Wednesday, November 14, 2012 10:17 PM
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    Hi,

    Are you using Per Device RDS CALs, or Per User RDS CALs?

    -TP

     
  • Wednesday, November 14, 2012 10:20 PM
     
     
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    per user
     
  • Thursday, November 15, 2012 5:59 AM
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    Hi,

    In general I think you should be okay with having these two servers share a single RD licensing server, however, you may want to consider having a second RD Licensing server installed on the site B server as a backup.  In RD Session Host Configuration (tsconfig.msc) on the server at site B you could have itself listed second in the Specified licensing servers.

    The second RD Licensing server does not need any RDS Per User CALs installed on it, but I do recommend that it be the same version as your other RD Licensing server.  Even though it does not have any RDS CALs installed the RDS Per User Usage reports will be correct as long as the backup RDL is able to contact a DC to update the user's properties.

    Normally what occurs if there is a brief outage under Per User licensing is that the user will still be allowed to connect.  I say normally because there may be circumstances where a user is denied because the server has not been able to contact a RDL server.  For example, in past versions if a server in Per User mode was unable to contact a licensing server at startup non-admin Remote Desktop connections would fail.

    -TP

     
  • Friday, November 16, 2012 4:20 PM
     
     
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    If Site A were to go offline for a prolonged period of time would there be an issue running Site B's terminal server?  ALso if I did setup another licensing server at site B could I share the same RDP user licenses from SIte A?

    • Edited by DFZ2 Friday, November 16, 2012 4:21 PM
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  • Friday, November 16, 2012 4:27 PM
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    Hi,

    Not if you configure a second RDL server as I mentioned.  It [the second RDL] still needs to contact a DC in order to update the user account properties when users log on.

    -TP

     
  • Friday, November 16, 2012 5:08 PM
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    Hi,

    In the design of a RDS environment, it is expected that a RD Licensing server will be reachable by the RDSH servers at all times.  If you want to be certain that users will not be denied access when connecting to a Per User RDSH then you need to plan things so that a RD Licensing server is always running and reachable--that is why I recommended the second RDL server with no RDS CALs installed.

    The reason I said in general you would be okay with a single server is because there is forgiveness in how the process works in regards to Per User mode, and it is not documented.  For example, you may test yourself by setting up a RDSH server properly configured in Per User mode with RDL server running, test by logging on some users, then stop RDL service and notice that users can still log on.

    If you know there will be periods of time where it is down for several hours or longer and do not want to take any chances then having a second RDL server is a must.

    -TP