TS CALs being picked up by our Terminal servers itself
- Hello,
Since a couple of weeks I notice that our TS Per Device CALs are being licensed to our Terminal Servers (W2K3 R2 Standard) itself. As a result, all of my 225 TS CALs are issued now. The strange thing is that for every Terminal Server we have (6) a number of TS CALs are issued.
I really do not have a clue how this can happen. Does someone have a idea how to solve this problem? Of course I can buy some more TS Per Device CALs, but I don't think that a Terminal Server itself should occupy TS CALs.
Peter
Answers
Hello Peter,
Thanks for your feedback and I have checked the logs you sent to me.
I have analyzed on the LSReport from you, and found the following symptoms:
· Before Sep 28th 2009, the client with name LWM91TSXX rarely appear, I suspect the occasional presences of these server is because the servers are used as the clients to remote to a TS. After Sep 28th 2009, the LWM91TSXX appears much more frequently and got as many as 14 Active CALs (take LWM91MTS04 as the example.). The HardwareID changes frequently and non-periodically (4-20 days).
· Before Sep 28th 2009, every HardwareID is fixed to the client name; After Sep 28th 2009, the clients LWM91TSXX change their own HardwareIDs very time they appear.
· Between Sep 28th 2009 and Oct 31st 2009 approximately, some HardwareID are duplicated but with different client names, they are changed from LWM03-TCXXX to LWM91MTSXX. All the problematic clients are with the name Ctrix-USE.
Based on the symptoms above, I suspect the issue is caused by the following situation: after the Sep 28th, The clients LWM03-TCXXX are treated as combinations of the server names (TS LWM01MTSXX) and their original hardwareID. This abnormal behavior confuse the License Server and it issues a new CAL every time the remote client logs on because of treating it as a new device.
As all these symptoms started since you change the thin client images, I recommend you to reset the image of some clients and monitor the issues, as TP suggests. If the issue persists, you can consider to roll back to the previous image. If the issue only occurs with the new image, we can narrow down the problem’s scope the client and the current thin client.
Please let us know the result and we’ll be glad to help you based on that. Thanks for your cooperation and patience again.
· Lionel Chen
TechNet Subscriber Support in forum
If you have any feedback on our support, please contact tngfd@microsoft.com
- Marked As Answer byPeter Dalebout Friday, November 13, 2009 11:42 AM
All Replies
- Hi Peter,
If a user runs the Remote Desktop client and connects to a TS while logged on to a TS, then the TS is effectively a client machine and needs a TS CAL. If this happens on all of your Terminal Servers, that would mean you would need a total of 6 TS CALs to cover them.
If you have more than one TS CAL issued to each terminal server, then there may be a problem.
Thanks.
-TP - Hi TP,
Thanks for your reply.
In fact I do not have apps on the TS which connect to another TS. Furtermore, if I did, that would only cost me 6 TS CALs. The problem however, is that for every TS I have, about 6 to 7 TS CALs have been issued.
As a precaution I ordered and activated 20 additional TS CALs this morning, but 10 have already been issued to....guess what....my terminal servers. Is there somehow a possibility to put logging on, to see exactly what application/service is responsible for the issueing of the CAL?
Peter - What is the licensing mode set for the TS? Per User or Per Device? and what are the type of CALs present on your license server?
Also, if your TS is in Per Device mode and you have Per Device licenses and still your TS is consuming 6 CALs, then are playing with any of the registries? As this happens only when the User deletes the Hardware ID of the client and the next time same client comes, it is treated as a different device and hence issued another license.
Hope that clarifies your issue.
Thanks
Silvia
Remote Desktop Services Team Blog: http://www.blogs.msdn.com/rds- Proposed As Answer bySilvia Doomra [MSFT]MSFTTuesday, November 03, 2009 6:34 AM
Hello Peter,
Thanks for posting in our forum.
Please refer to the kind suggestions from TP and Silvia. If the issue cannot be explained or resolved, please collect the MPS logs from the involved Terminal Server License Server, and send it to me. That will be helpful to check the behavior of TS License Server and found the root cause. To do that, please use the following steps:
1. On the License Server, download the MPS Report Tool from the following page:
Microsoft Product Support Reports
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=cebf3c7c-7ca5-408f-88b7-f9c79b7306c0&displaylang=en2. Double-click the installation package and install the necessary components before using it.
3. Collect the logs from “This Computer”.
4. Select “Server Components”, clear other options, and click Next.
5. After the collection process finished, save it to a .cab file and send it to me.
For your convenience, I have created a workspace for you. You can upload the information files to the following link. (Please choose "Send Files to Microsoft")
Workspace URL: (https://sftasia.one.microsoft.com/choosetransfer.aspx?key=cc91a005-bc39-4a3f-b9d4-157868a5786c)
Password: UKT)RZ{WK9
Note: Due to differences in text formatting with various email clients, the workspace link above may appear to be broken. Please be sure to include all text between '(' and ')' when typing or copying the workspace link into your browser.
Thanks for your cooperation.
· Lionel Chen
TechNet Subscriber Support in forum
If you have any feedback on our support, please contact tngfd@microsoft.com
- Hello Lionel, Silvia,
The licensing mode of our Terminal Servers is Per Device.
The CALs we use are Windows Server 2003 - Terminal Server Per Device CAL Token. We now have a total of 225 CALs and normally about 160 CALs are being issued.
As I mentioned earlier, yesterday I installed 20 additional CALs because the 225 CALs were all occupied. This morning, the 20 additional licenses are also occupied!!!
From these 20 additional licenses, 14 are occupied by our 6 Terminal Servers, so again, leaving me with no free CALs....
I already sent the MPS-logs to the above mentioned Workspace.
Furthermore, I figured out that the problem of the terminal servers getting CALs started on 26th of September. That day I performed maintenance on the Terminal Server. I installed all (about 75) windows updates on the 7 Terminal Servers and besided I updated Citrix 4.5 to Hotfix Rollup Pack 4. I also installed the latest HP image on all of our clients, which are HP thin-clients with Windows CE6. Maybe this information could be of help to you.
I really hope this problem can be solved soon as I need to deploy
Peter Dalebout
LambWeston Meijer If you want to control the issuance of TS CALs, then you can specify which TS should get the CAL by using group policy.
For more details on how to do that, please refer to the post.
Hope that helps!
Thanks
Silvia
Remote Desktop Services Team Blog: http://www.blogs.msdn.com/rds- Proposed As Answer bySilvia Doomra [MSFT]MSFTTuesday, November 03, 2009 10:41 AM
- I have some more information.
It seems that after imaging our Thin clients, the renewing of CALs somehow gets wrong.
I just got a event id error 21 for TermServLicensing source, right at a time a user is logging on through a thin-client:
"The Terminal Server Licensing server LWM91SERVER02 has no permanent licenses for product 'Windows Server 2003 - Terminal Server Per Device CAL Token'. Use Terminal Server Licensing administrative tool to register more licenses. The Terminal Server '147.207.112.59' was refused licenses of type 'Windows Server 2003 - Terminal Server Per Device CAL Token' due to this condition."
This is followed by an event id 1028 for TermService source on the Terminal Server itself:
"The terminal server client LWM91MTS08 has been disconnected because its license could not be renewed. The license server LWM91SERVER02 was contacted to get Windows Server 2003 - Terminal Server Per Device CAL Token. license for this client."
This message confirms that the client is being issued a wrong CAL. Instead of getting a CAL based on the client-name (LWM91-TC037 in this case), it is being issued a CAL with the name of one of our Terminal Servers (LWM91MTS08). In this scenario I think that for every Thin-client at least 10 CALs will be issued because we have 10 Terminal Servers. Might that be the reason that I do not have any CALs left?
What would you suggest? Delete the Terminal Server License Server and rebuild it from scratch? Or would there be a better sollution?
thanks in advance,
Peter - I also uploaded a LSREPORT from our License Server. It shows perfectly all the licensed that have been taken by our Terminal Servers (LWM91MTSxx).
Peter Hi Peter,
I apologize for not getting back sooner. I was going to ask you if you had any linux, thin client, mac, or other non windows PC clients running something other than the windows RD client software. Especially in the case of thin clients, they will sometimes malfunction and not store the issued TS CAL properly.
Typically what you will see is that the thin client device will be issued a TS CAL, then the next time it connects it will act as if it does not have a license (because it did not store it in local non-volatile memory), so it is issued another TS CAL. This may happen everytime the device is power cycled, or only some of the time. Normally it appears with the name of the thin client (or a default name), but it seems in your case it is using the name of your Terminal Servers.
Bottom line I am saying some or all of your thin clients are malfunctioning and eating up your TS CALs. Perhaps you can re-apply the latest HP image, or rollback to the previous image. Your Terminal Servers are not causing the problem. I would also recommend contacting HP support and explaining to them that the devices are not storing the license properly.
Once you have fixed the client issue you can contact the Clearinghouse and have your TS CALs reissued.
HOW TO: Locate a Phone Number for the Microsoft Clearinghouse
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/291795
Thanks.
-TP
- Proposed As Answer byTP [] Tuesday, November 03, 2009 2:51 PM
Hello Peter,
Thanks for your feedback and I have checked the logs you sent to me.
I have analyzed on the LSReport from you, and found the following symptoms:
· Before Sep 28th 2009, the client with name LWM91TSXX rarely appear, I suspect the occasional presences of these server is because the servers are used as the clients to remote to a TS. After Sep 28th 2009, the LWM91TSXX appears much more frequently and got as many as 14 Active CALs (take LWM91MTS04 as the example.). The HardwareID changes frequently and non-periodically (4-20 days).
· Before Sep 28th 2009, every HardwareID is fixed to the client name; After Sep 28th 2009, the clients LWM91TSXX change their own HardwareIDs very time they appear.
· Between Sep 28th 2009 and Oct 31st 2009 approximately, some HardwareID are duplicated but with different client names, they are changed from LWM03-TCXXX to LWM91MTSXX. All the problematic clients are with the name Ctrix-USE.
Based on the symptoms above, I suspect the issue is caused by the following situation: after the Sep 28th, The clients LWM03-TCXXX are treated as combinations of the server names (TS LWM01MTSXX) and their original hardwareID. This abnormal behavior confuse the License Server and it issues a new CAL every time the remote client logs on because of treating it as a new device.
As all these symptoms started since you change the thin client images, I recommend you to reset the image of some clients and monitor the issues, as TP suggests. If the issue persists, you can consider to roll back to the previous image. If the issue only occurs with the new image, we can narrow down the problem’s scope the client and the current thin client.
Please let us know the result and we’ll be glad to help you based on that. Thanks for your cooperation and patience again.
· Lionel Chen
TechNet Subscriber Support in forum
If you have any feedback on our support, please contact tngfd@microsoft.com
- Marked As Answer byPeter Dalebout Friday, November 13, 2009 11:42 AM
- Hi Peter,
Can you pl confirm from the LICMGR UI that (as you mentioned all the installed CALs are consumed) -
No of Installed CAL = No of Available CALs + No of Issued CALs.
If not, then you might think about of resetting the LS DB. - Hello Peter,
Have you got any update on this case? Please let us know if I can provide any more helps for you.
Thanks and wish you a nice day.
Lionel ChenTechNet Subscriber Support in forum
If you have any feedback on our support, please contact tngfd@microsoft.com
- Thank you guys for all the information.
It is clear to me now that the problem is probably not Microsoft related and based on your replies, I logged an incident today at HP.
I will let you now the outcome.
Peter - Hello Peter,
We're looking forwards to see your updates and glad to provide further helps.
Thanks for your cooperation again.
Lionel ChenTechNet Subscriber Support in forum
If you have any feedback on our support, please contact tngfd@microsoft.com
Hi Lionel,
HP suggested me to delete the TS Client License on the Windows CE6 Thin-Clients through the Control Panel. I will try that, however I am not sure that will solve the problem, as the initial deployment of the CE6 Thin-client was with an empty license as well.....
Furthermore, is there an option to reset the Terminal Server Licensing server, with help of Microsoft, without reentering all License Key Packs?
PeterHello Peter,
I’m afraid that resetting license server database requires to reinstall the license package, according to the following KB article:
(KB273566) How to rebuild Windows 2000 and 2003 Terminal Services Licensing database
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;EN-US;273566
Thanks for your understanding and please feel free to follow up here if I can provide any further assistance from Windows side.
· Lionel Chen
TechNet Subscriber Support in forum
If you have any feedback on our support, please contact tngfd@microsoft.com
- Hello Peter,
Thanks for marking my reponse as the answer. If you have any more questions on this topic, please feel free to follow up here and we'd like to provide further assistance based on your needs.
Thanks again.
Lionel ChenTechNet Subscriber Support in forum
If you have any feedback on our support, please contact tngfd@microsoft.com
