RDS Client CAL license

Walters, Dave 0 Reputation points
2024-03-12T13:59:58.1366667+00:00

can you have one license server for remote desktop licenses and 2 servers for redundancy without having to buy a cal licenses for each server? these servers are v2019 and are setup using thinmanager for thin client sessions as a failover server.

Windows Server 2019
Windows Server 2019
A Microsoft server operating system that supports enterprise-level management updated to data storage.
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Windows Server
Windows Server
A family of Microsoft server operating systems that support enterprise-level management, data storage, applications, and communications.
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  1. Karlie Weng 14,106 Reputation points Microsoft Vendor
    2024-03-13T09:24:25.0266667+00:00

    Hello,

    We don’t have such practice in License Server which works like a cluster node.

    But I think you don’t have to deploy a high availability server because your user’s PC doesn’t have to connect to License server every time.

    Per this doc:

    https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-server/remote/remote-desktop-services/rds-client-access-license

    We have a time limit "CALs are valid for 60 days before renewal or 90 days before reassignment."

    So, most of your users won't be affected.

    And "RDS CALs can be overallocated", it means you can just deploy a server2, and configure it in your GPO too. When server1 is down, you will have an overused status in server2, then you have time to migrate your CAL to server2 or try to fix the issue in server1.

    If the Answer is helpful, please click "Accept Answer" and upvote it.

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