2016 RDS CALs not being allocated by Licensing Server

Question

Physical server: myserver

OS: windows server 2016 standard

Domain: mydomain.corp

Domain controller: myserver

Remote Desktop Setup

We created via Hyper-V, a virtual server: myvirtualserver

We set up Remote Desktop Services on myvirtualserver for VDIs

myvirtualserver has the following roles:

RD connection broker

Rd virtualisation host

Rd gateway

Rd web access

Rd licensing

Active Directory

myvirtualserver is under OU [organisational unit] RDSSERVER

myvirtualserver is also part of the following Active Directory Built in groups

RDS Endpoint Server

RDS management servers

RDS remote access servers

Terminal server licence servers

VDIs and CALs

We have successfully created three VDIs under OU RDSVDIs under mydomain.corp

We have purchased USER RDS CALS and successfully assigned them to the Licence Server

RD Licence Diagnoser sees the USER RDS CALS licences but is not assigning them to the VDIs when the VDIs are logged in. No error message is displayed.

Group Policy

Group Policy has set Licensing server to be myvirtualserver, licence type set to user

Checking regedit shows the settings above are true

Why are the licences not being assigned to our VDIs?

Answer 1

Hi,

Please check if your licensing server has been successfully activated before installing RDS CALs.

You can refer to below articles to activate licensing server.

https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-server/remote/remote-desktop-services/rds-activate-license-server
https://nedimmehic.org/2018/04/16/remote-desktop-services-2016-licensing/

Thanks,
Eleven

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Answer 2

Hi

If you use VDI and TS USER CAL, usually you need Windows VDA license for your client VM (Windows 10). Those licenses are included with Windows 10 Enterprise E3 or E5 subscription, or sold separatly. (Last time I checked it was around 100$ per Windows VM per year the standalone VDI licence)

I would suggest to talk to a partner or to Microsoft about the licencing, as it can become complex depending on your setup and licence you already have.

Thanks