Licensing needed for a Windows Server 2012 RDS box?

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minc3d

Gawd
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Nov 27, 2004
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Hey everyone,

I am building out a Server 2012 box for an organization and have yet to play with licensing for RDS (Remote Desktop Services - the replacement of Terminal Services) on this new version.

Could someone give me a rundown of the licensing I will need for the box? I am guessing I will need Client Access Licenses for each user, plus an RDS license for each? Or do RDS licenses supercede standard CAL licenses?

The environment will have about 12-13 regular users in a domain, with about 9-10 of those needing to remote desktop in for all of their work going forward.

Just a little uncertainty here. Thanks in advance.
 
RDS is essential Terminal Services. I believe its all user Cals now device cals are not recommanded any more.

If your doing RDS Gateway to individual desktop (physical machines You need nothing)

If your doing RDS VDI you need to license the OS plus VDI cals for said OS's.(Change in MS licensing)
 
The client will have about 10 people accessing their desktops over VDI, 7 of them on Surface tablets and the others will be using standard PCs.

Is it true that standard user CALs plus RDS cals are needed? Or does an RDS CAL cover the user CAL aspect as well?

I can't find a solid answer anywhere at Microsoft's website.
 
minc3d said:
The client will have about 10 people accessing their desktops over VDI, 7 of them on Surface tablets and the others will be using standard PCs.

Is it true that standard user CALs plus RDS cals are needed? Or does an RDS CAL cover the user CAL aspect as well?

I can't find a solid answer anywhere at Microsoft's website.
Click to expand...


If you want to setup RDS VDI (Virtual Machines) Then yes you need licensing for the Desktop OS + VDI licensing this is a new Intro with Winblows 8 (I believe this is a subscription).
If you have a gateway and your redirecting to a Physical desktop the user already uses then you need nothing- I use this because its free essentialy (no extra cals), but if users share desktops then this doesn't work so well.

If your just setting up a Traditional Terminal Server you just need RDS (TS User Cals)

If your deploying server 2012 comes with two VM licenses one is usually the TS (RDS) gateway and second for a terminal server if thats what you want.

Of course you can have all three you just need to setup the RAP/CAP correctly.

Also don't forget that you need to have standard device cals for server access.
I usually just by pass this by not attaching laptops or tablets to the domain (device only, user doesn't effect this).
 
I guess I misspoke. The users accessing the server will all be using Remote Desktop and not true VDI.
 
For anyone interested, I just got off the phone with MS Licensing support. They confirmed that we need a Server 2012 Standard license (for the host OS), a Server 2012 user CAL for each person on the domain, and a Server 2012 RDS CAL for each remote desktop user. Plus, since we need Office 2013, an Office 2013 STD license for each person who needs it.

So here is our licensing SKU list for those that may be doing this down the road like we are:

Server 2012 Standard (2 processor license & media): P73-05328
Server 2012 User CAL (1 per person): R18-04281
Server 2012 RDS CAL (1 per remote user - may be different than above): 6vc-02073
Office 2013 Standard License (1 per user): 021-10257
Access 2013 License (if you have users who need Access): 077-06674

I'm going to purchase the licenses through CDW which is the easiest way to handle this.

Phew! What a walk through Microsoft licensing hell.
 
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