RDS CAL licences handed out byt LicenseMode is still "5"

Question

Hi folks.

I am facing an interesting problem and somehow feel it has to do with Server 2019. Basically here is what we have:

• Farm of 2012R2, 2016, 2019 Server using Citrix (CAL per user)
• RD Licencing server on Server 2019

We had a 2012R2 RDS CAL Licence server but because we wanted to test 2016 and 2019 we decided to build a new server 2019 to support the newer CAL's and the old. We transferred old licences and all is working fine from what we can tell. When a user logs on to one of the servers a CAL is handed out as expected.

• The GPO to define CAL type as user has been set as well as GPO to define licensing server (new 2019 one built earlier). The old server has been decomissioned since.

However:

• In registry under HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Terminal Server\RCM\Licensing Core the value of "Licencing Mode" is still 5. Should be "4" for per User CAL or "2" is per Device CAL. Because of this some services complain on Citrix side.

Went through almost every article on the Internet. Suggesting to remove the GracePeriod key, etc. However, still no joy. After I remove it and restart the GracePeriod key pops back and value is still "5"

My question is how on earth is it handing out CALs as expected then?

(Also what I don't see happening is the HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\TermService\Parameters\LicenseServers be populated with anything.)

I wonder did 2019 change how it injects these settings or what the heck is going on? I know that I could manually set the settings or set them in Local GPO on RD Hosts but that's not the question here.

Appreciate if anyone resolves this riddle.

Dan

Answer 1

Hi,

Please do the following.

1. On RD Session host server, please run below PowerShell Command as Administrator to see if the licensing mode has been configured successfully.
   $obj = gwmi -namespace "Root/CIMV2/TerminalServices" Win32_TerminalServiceSetting $obj. LicensingType $obj.LicensingName
2. On RD Session host server, please run "gpresult /h c:\rds.html" in CMD and share the result to us.
3. May I know when and where do you download the 2019 server OS for the 2019 licensing server?
4. Also, you could open the RD Licensing Manager on licensing server to check the CAL usage.

Thanks,
Eleven