CAL licences for multiple users connecting to one server

Xire · 23 Jan 2020 at 14:07

Hey guys,

I was hoping you could help.

I have been tasked with setting up multiple connections to a variety of servers we have in our environment. Problem is we have a variety of servers on different versions. Has had anyone ever had any experience in purchasing CAL licences for this need? We have a variety of 2012, 2016 and 2019 servers. I know the licences differ depending on version and 2012 licences look hard to come by. Ive read some stuff on buying 2019 licences and downgrading them? but im not really 100% sure how I should be approaching this.

Any info would be good, thanks!

swain90 · 23 Jan 2020 at 15:13

We've had similar issues.

We've ended up purchasing 2012 and 2019 cals and installed them on Server 2003 and 2008 respectively.

I would highly recommend not mentioning downgrading at all, it only confuses things. Just go through the wizard as normal, provide M$ the license details and give them the code and it should all work.

Xire · 23 Jan 2020 at 15:14

so a 2019 licence should work on a 2012 or 2016 box?

swain90 · 23 Jan 2020 at 15:20

I installed Windows 2019 device cals on a server 2008 box last year without an issues, however if you can get the appropriate license for your server I guess that'd be the best way to go.

If in doubt, speak with your suppliers account manager to get clarification. If they don't work, there is a M$ license destruction form which should allow you to get a refund, however I believe you only have 14 days to this.

Quartz · 23 Jan 2020 at 15:39

These are Microsoft licenses, right? And all the servers are in one AD Forest? Then just buy 2019 licenses and install them on a DC. Microsoft allow downlevelling of licenses.

Xire · 23 Jan 2020 at 15:48

Quartz said:
These are Microsoft licenses, right? And all the servers are in one AD Forest? Then just buy 2019 licenses and install them on a DC. Microsoft allow downlevelling of licenses.

Yes they are microsoft licences but not on the same AD forest, they are on various networks that arent our own. We VPN to the servers that are our own on a clients infrastructure.

LuckyWig · 25 Jan 2020 at 09:22

Not all versions of server licenses have downgrade rights, but all CALs do. Which forest they are on does not matter, it's the physical servers which need to be licensed. If their infrastructure already has datacentre VLSC licenses you won't need to worry but if using standard retail licenses, maybe you should audit the usage.

Caged · 26 Jan 2020 at 01:35

All this talk about ‘installing’ the CALs makes me think some people are talking about Windows Server CALs and other people are talking about RDS CALs.

If you’re building appliance type solutions that you sell to customers then you can avoid all the CAL mess by using Windows Server Embedded licensing.

Liquidfox · 12 Feb 2020 at 12:59

Yeah, there's two different issues here:
User/Device CALs - For accessing server resources from a workstation
RDS CALs - For using RDS/TS

The former would need to be covered by the highest server you have, so if you have 2019 then you'll need 2019 CALs to cover everyone to keep things simple.
The latter is a bit different as you'd need to downgrade them. If you're just connecting to servers for administrative purposes you don't need RDS CALs, they come with 2 seats for this purpose out of the box.