The lab I work in is running two Windows Server 2008 servers, and we have a group of six people who, on occasion, all want to be able to “Remote Desktop” in to the servers at the same time. Unfortunately, in normal Remote Desktop mode, Windows Server 2008 (and R2) only let two people connect at once, so I installed Terminal Services (which apparently is now called Remote Desktop Services in Server 2008 R2, but I haven’t installed R2 yet) a few months ago. I’m the only sysadmin we have, and most of my previous administration has been with Linux and NetWare machines, so I’m a bit confused with this Terminal Services business.
Now, when I installed the Terminal Services role, it gave us 120 days of free “demo” mode, or whatever, but our time is going to be up in a month or so, so I’m looking into buying the necessary licenses. Unfortunately, I can’t seem to find where to purchase the licenses I need.
So … questions:
[ol]
[li]Where do I purchase the Terminal Services licenses?[/li]
[li]How much do they cost, and can I buy, say, a 10-pack and save money?[/li]
[li]Will I have to buy 10 licenses for each server, or will I be able to share the licenses between the two servers (which are both part of the same domain, and one of them is the domain controller, incidentally) so long as no more than 10 users are remotely logged [/li]on to the two machines at the same time?
[li]If I buy Terminal Services licenses, will I have to pay more to upgrade to Remote Desktop Services licenses when I install Server 2008 R2 on the servers? Or do they only sell RDS licenses now that work with both? Or …?[/li]
[li]Finally, is there a cheaper option that will let me log on to both servers remotely? We have free VNC servers and clients, but everybody vastly prefers Remote Desktop because it feels more like you’re sitting at the computer, apparently.[/li][/ol]
TS and RDP licenses are functionally equivalent, and TS licenses are no longer offered for sale.
If I understand the terms correctly, the licenses are being sold as RDP Client Access Licenses (CAL), so you are really purchasing licenses for the clients, not the servers, so number of servers shouldn’t matter. But I’m not a MSFT lawyer, so don’t quote me on this.
The following page has some info on the two client licensisng options:
You can buy them directly from MSFT here:
It looks like 5-user RDP CAL is selling for $749, and 20-device/user is selling for $2979. Unfortunately, it doesn’t look like there’s a RDP 10-pack on that page, which is probably what you will want. It doesn’t necessarily mean it’s not available though, just that you may need to ask around…
There’re also resellers and OEMs that sell them (basically the same people that sold you your Windows server license in the first place).
However, if you can find room in the budget I think it’s worthwhile to pay for RDP licensing - I have more confidence in the security and it requires less in the way of support on the client side.
Check out the MS Open Licensing plans. You qualify if you are buying 5 or more licenses. I just ran a quote for a corporation purchase of 6 licenses with none of the Open License options and it’s $127 each, $762 total.
Does VNC allow multiple simultaneous sessions to separate desktops on the same server?
I’d also ask what applications you are running on the Terminal Server. Just make sure that you don’t have to pay for concurrent user licenses to run those apps as well.
Unfortunately, it’s not the solution here. The OP wants full TS capability, so he’s got to pay for the CALs.
The only suggestions I have are for the OP to make sure his site hasn’t already purchased the CALs as part of something else, like domain membership, and to check if educational discounts apply.
Thanks everybody. How do I find out about the open licensing plans? And we’re basically just running Eclipse over Terminal Services (along with doing remote administration stuff).