Understand TFS Licensing

 

 

Team Foundation Server (TFS) is an excellent code version control tool AND the hub of Microsoft’s App Lifecycle Mgt. (ALM) solution. Learn more here.

Now, let’s attempt to demystify some of the aspects of licensing of TFS for enterprise use now:

As illustrated in the below graphic, TFS is licensed on a Server/CAL model. Thus, you need 1 Server license for the TFS server and 1 TFS CAL (client access license) for each user that will use TFS features. That TFS CAL covers the usage no matter how the user accesses TFS (i.e. Visual Studio, Eclipse, Web Access client, Excel, MSProject, 3rd party tool, ect, etc).

 The two ways to acquire TFS CALs are:

   1) Purchase a TFS User CAL   (sku: 126-00196)

   2) 1 TFS CAL (and 1 TFS Server license) is included in each Visual Studio/MSDN subscription. Thus, anyone who has an active MSDN subscription assigned to them is covered with a TFS CAL.

 

*CLICK TO EXPAND IMAGE* 

 

Finally, there is one exception to the TFS User CAL.   To enable organizations to have an enterprise/central way to capture enhancements requests & bugs from the user population, TFS provides a Work-Item only version of the Team Web Interface.  There are also additional non-CAL capablities around viewing reports coming for TFS 2012.

 

To read more specfics on all VS/TFS/MSDN licensing... check out the Visual Studio & MSDN Licensing WhitePaper.

Comments

• Anonymous
  May 15, 2012
  Reading your post above it would lead one to think that you purchase the server and then need CALs for every user that isn't covered by MSDN no matter how, or what, they access it from.  This isn’t the case.  A few points below around the TFS licensing.  One shouldn’t apply these conditions for anything but TFS.  You’ll still need Windows Server OS/CALs, SQL Server/CALs, & SharePoint Server/CALs where applicable. Server Licenses    •  A Retail TFS Server license grants you the equivalent of 5 TFS CALs.  After the 5th non-msdn user you would need to purchase TFS CALs    •  MSDN User are granted 1 server license and 1 CAL.  It isn’t clearly stated, but I’ve had several licensing specialists tell me, that the MSDN server license can be accessed by the none MSDN people as long as they have a TFS CAL.  So this being the case an MSDN user provides the TFS Server License. CALs A TFS CAL is NOT required for accessing TFS if you meet one of the below: Accesing TFS Directly:    •  Accessing Team Foundation Server via the “Work Item Only View” of Team Web Access. This enables users to enter and edit their own work items, such as for defects/bugs or enhancement requests.    •  Accessing Team Foundation Server reports.    •  Accessing Team Foundation Server using Microsoft System Center Operations Manager. This enables operations staff to take operational issues encountered in production and raise them as issues to the development team, automatically creating a work item in Team Foundation Server.    •  Viewing static data that has been manually distributed outside of Team Foundation Server.    •  Up to two devices or users that only access Team Foundation Server to perform system administration, such as creating Team Projects or Project Collections. Accessing TFS Indirectly:    •  Project Server to TFS Integration does not require a TFS CAL for Project Server users.  Project server can read/write to TFS based on user’s direct changes/input.

• Anonymous
  January 02, 2013
  The comment has been removed

• Anonymous
  January 06, 2013
  Thanks Bill for explaining in details. I  have a question though...if a user has SharePoint CAL and is set as “Work Item Only View” user. Does he/she require a TFS CAL to access Team Project portal on SharePoint?

• Anonymous
  January 06, 2013
  The SharePoint CAL is somewhat irrelevant to the question.  If the user is a "Work Item Only View" user, that is all they will see when they hit the link for the Team Project Portal.   In other words, the 'Work Only Item View' is the (SharePoint) Team Project Portal with much of the functionality hidden to the user based on their TFS permissions.

• Anonymous
  January 15, 2013
  So if i have 1 ultimate msdn subscription, and 2 other developers with vs prof. without subscription, i need 2 additional cals for all 3 to participate in tfs versioning, correct?

• Anonymous
  January 15, 2013
  Your statement is correct because your 2 Professional do not have MSDN.  The TFS CAL is included in all versions of MSDN Subscriptions.

• Anonymous
  January 24, 2013
  We are working on Plug-Ins and would like to avoid developing/debuging against our live TFS instance.  Can TFS, considering the fact that we have an Enterprise license, be installed on a development machine for non-production, pure development use?

• Anonymous
  January 27, 2013
  You need a TFS Server license for every TFS instance you stand-up.   Doesn't make a difference if the location is considered Dev or Production.   Remember, each MSDN subscription includes 1 TFS Server license or you can purchase them stand-alone.   If that is not an option, look into the express version as an option:  www.microsoft.com/.../visual-studio-team-foundation-server-express

• Anonymous
  May 10, 2013
  We have many users of VS w/MSDN subscriptions, quite a few TFS CALs (for users with no MSDN and an external connector. We now have some contractors where their own company purchased their VS subscriptions and they need to acess our server. Is the CAL that come with their subscription sufficient or do we need to provide a CAL to access our server?  This is somewhat confusing.  Can you help?

• Anonymous
  June 12, 2013
  How do I setup users who do not require a Cal? Work-item only:  Limited Access and add the user? Reporting only:  Is this part of the Limited Access or is there another setup for report only?

• Anonymous
  July 30, 2013
  I want to use TFS to save my Matlab and python code into our companies TFS server instead of using SVN (which I use currently). I do not need Visual Studio for development. Which would be the cheapest licence? I do not understand what "TFS User CAL" actually is. If it is just a licence without the required program it would not be of any help for me.

• Anonymous
  January 29, 2014
  The comment has been removed

• Anonymous
  April 13, 2014
  Could you provide a link to threat of the license. My legal review team needs the text to believe I don't need a license for requirements and bug level interactions.

• Anonymous
  April 13, 2014
  License Whitepaper from Microsoft:  www.microsoft.com/.../details.aspx

• Anonymous
  April 23, 2014
  The comment has been removed

• Anonymous
  May 22, 2014
  @Bill - The definitive source of licensing information on Visual Studio, Team Foundation Server and MSDN is the Visual Studio and MSDN Licensing White Paper.  It depends on what version of Visual Studio or Team Foundation Server that you have as we have granted additional license use rights in later versions. Latest (2013) Edition - www.microsoft.com/.../details.aspx 2012 Edition - download.microsoft.com/.../Visual%20Studio%202012%20and%20MSDN%20Licensing%20Whitepaper%20-%20June-2013.pdf 2010 Edition - download.microsoft.com/.../Visual%20Studio%202010%20and%20MSDN%20Licensing%20Whitepaper%20-%20Aug-2011.pdf Look under the section "When a Client Access License is Not Required"

• Anonymous
  May 22, 2014
  @GC - I am not sure what the issue is with the Microsoft Store and unfortunately, I can't help you with purchase of either retail or enterprise licensing.  You need to work with a commercial or government reseller to purchase Team Foundation Server.  If this is just for your personal use, you might want to consider Visual Studio Online: http://www.visualstudio.com .

• Anonymous
  May 22, 2014
  The comment has been removed

• Anonymous
  May 23, 2014
  The comment has been removed

• Anonymous
  June 29, 2014
  We have purchased 5 VSPro w/ MSDN does this mean We have 5 TFS server license and 5 TFS CALS?

• Anonymous
  July 07, 2014
  The comment has been removed

• Anonymous
  August 04, 2014
  Quick question, how would I know if the views we are using are of type "Work item only view"? Thanks!

• Anonymous
  October 16, 2014
  Just to clarify the statement that an MSDN subscription includes a server license: If your MSDN "subscription" is the one that comes with Microsoft Action Pack, then the TFS Server license is NOT included. You'll need to purchase TFS, most likely from the regular retail channel.  As stated, that TFS license is good for 1 server and includes 5 CALs (clients).  The official retail product name is "Microsoft Visual Studio Team Foundation Server 2013 English 1 License DVD" and if you're looking for the best price, I'd google the Microsoft SKU for this product, which is 125-01261 The street price is around $450 for this (as of Oct. 2014), so that comes to $90 per user.  For what you get, I think that's a bargain.

• Anonymous
  November 21, 2014
  Is there a documented licensing grant for TFS External Connectors to individual CALs anywhere or is it just a repurchase of L/SA CALs required (if SA is wanted of course).

• Anonymous
  November 24, 2014
  @Tori - It is a separate SKU that needs to be purchased.  Please get with you local Visual Studio Solution Sales person or reseller for more information.

• Anonymous
  November 24, 2014
  @Brian: I'm wondering about SQL Server reporting. This diagram show the reporting is include within TFS license. Does this mean if a user access a report hosted on SQL Server Report this user does not need a SQL Server access license ?

• Anonymous
  November 24, 2014
  @Laurent - The licensing model changed from TFS 2010->2012->2013.  You will want to review the MSDN Visual Studio Licensing White Paper for the TFS Server you currently have deployed.  With TFS 2013, the viewing of reports no longer required a TFS CAL.  If you used the SQL Server Standard license that comes with your TFS Server license and SSRS is deployed with the database services, you do not need a SQL CAL.  If you separate SSRS from the Database Service you will need a SQL CAL unless you have multiple MSDN licenses to cover the use of SQL Database Services, SSRS, SSAS on separate servers.  

• Anonymous
  November 24, 2014
  @Brian: Thanks, it's exactly what I needed :)

• Anonymous
  December 08, 2014
  Hello All, I'm not sure how many CAL licensing i need to buy. I called MS pre sales and they couldn't answer, then I got transferred to corporate tech support and tech support said I have to submit this question on their OAS site. My organization has 100 programmers using VS and TFS right now and licensing is covered for our programmers. We have an additional 120 support team that uploads MW Word and excel files. These 120 support team doesn't use VS, but they will use Microsoft Visual Studio Team Explorer 2010 (its a VS Shell and is free to download from MS website).  So, do I 120 CAL licenses? is there floating licenses I can buy instead? we assume less than 10 users will connect to the server at any time.

• Anonymous
  December 10, 2014
  @Donnie - I am assuming that the support team folks are adding/modifying workitems with the uploads. With TFS 2010 as you have described the situation, you would need to have 120 CALs as there are no floating licenses.  TFS only has named  client or device access licenses.   Now if you upgrade to TFS 2103.4, there is a new Stakeholder license (blogs.msdn.com/.../upcoming-vs-online-licensing-changes.aspx) that would eliminate the need for TFS CALS given the use case you have described.