Server 2012 CAL's.....

[stoofa]

Quick question.
I've always been under the impression that Server CAL's were purchased and then the "user" could access any number of servers.
Example - Network has a couple of DC's, an Exchange Server and a couple of file servers, all running Server 2012.
If I purchased 10 CAL's, the 10 users could access any or all of the servers.

However out of the blue we suddenly read somewhere that CAL's are on a per server basis.
So if you had, for example, 5 Windows servers and 10 users, you would require 50 CAL's to be license legal.

Could anyone just confirm which way is right

Ta

 

[stoofa]

Hi,
Sorry - just to clarify.

If we have users that need to access Exchange I udnerstand they require a Server CAL and an Exchange CAL.
For SQL users it is a Server CAL and an SQL CAL.

The main question was on "CAL's per server".
So let's say that I have a single Server 2012 R2 at a company. I have 10 users and I've purchased 10 CAL's. All nice and legal, all 10 of my users have a CAL.
Now let's say I add a second Server 2012 R2 on the network and all my 10 users also require access to that server.
I was always under the impression that because I have 10 CAL's all those users can access both servers and, any number of servers I might add to the network.
A recent "potentially badly written" document I read kind of gave the impression that Server CAL's were on a "per user, per server" basis.
So in the above example, for my 10 users to access tow separate Server 2012 R2 machines I'd require 20 CAL's (one each per user per server).

 

[stoofa]

I appreciate the difference between "per server" & "per seat".
However even at the link posted above:

"With the User CAL, you purchase a CAL for every user who accesses the server to use services such as file storage or printing, regardless of the number of devices they use for that access"

That says that you purchase a user a CAL and they can use any number of devices to connect. It doesn't say they can use that CAL to access any server.

That is the issue really. I have always understood it to be - you purchase a CAL for a user and they can use that CAL against any server on the network.
What I cannot find however is any supporting documentation that actually spells that out.
I cannot find a Microsoft or MS partner document that says the above.
All I can find is MS documents saying that a server (singular) requires either device or user CALs.