question on windows server

[quique55]

what is the difference (if any) between Client access Licenses and User Licenses in Win 2000/3 server? or is it just different wording for the same thing.

 

[mikecel79]

In Windows 2000 Server there was only one type of CAL. This was a user CAL. Basically you needed a CAL for every user that authenticated to your server. In Windows Server 2k3 there are two types of CALs, User CALs and Device CALs. You have the choice by either licensing your CALs by device or by user.

For example let's say you have 12 computers in your company but only 5 users. It would make sense for you to license by user because you only need 5 and vice versa.

 

[quique55]

thanks for the info. Very helpful. Now one more question. Do you have to buy CAL seperate or do they usually come with them.

 

[spyordie007]

Depends on what you buy. It's not uncommon for 5-10 CALs to be included with the purchase of the OS.

Whatever you buy it should be pretty apparent as part of the costs when you pay the bill. Ask your software vendor if you need further clarification.

 

[kylef]

Hey I have a question related to licensing on Server...

I work on the client side of Windows, so I don't have to deal with licensing much... and inside Microsoft, we don't have to pay for licenses anyway, so we never have to worry about such limits 😛

But a friend of mine wanted to setup a file server, but he needed approximately 20-25 computers to be able to "connect" to the file share at the same time. (The actual I/O performance isn't really an issue, but the 10-connection limitation that XP Pro has is an issue).

Even if he doesn't set up a domain, will he still have to acquire 20-25 client licenses to allow the various copies of Win2k and XP to connect to a file share on the Windows Server box?

Or does the client limit only apply to domain logins/resources?

 

[spyordie007]

Even if he doesn't set up a domain, will he still have to acquire 20-25 client licenses to allow the various copies of Win2k and XP to connect to a file share on the Windows Server box?

Windows Server will continue to accept connections regardless of how many CALs he has. However to satisfy licensing (read to do things legally) he will need enough CALs regardless of whether he is running a domain.

One important thing to note however is what account(s) are getting used to access these resources. If he only uses one account from every client to authenticate with and access the server than he would only need one User CAL (assuming server 2003).

You might want to contact your licensing department just to be sure, but I'm pretty sure that's the way it would work in his situation.

-Erik

 

[kylef]

Originally posted by: spyordie007
Windows Server will continue to accept connections regardless of how many CALs he has. However to satisfy licensing (read to do things legally) he will need enough CALs regardless of whether he is running a domain.

Interesting... so the same thing applies to domain logins, number of user accounts, etc? That is, the license limits are not really enforced?

Or does that only apply to inbound network connections?

I've never tested any of this stuff myself because, well, I've never worked much on NT Server.

You might want to contact your licensing department just to be sure, but I'm pretty sure that's the way it would work in his situation.

Finding information like that in a company this size is amazingly complicated sometimes. 🙂

 

[quique55]

so if I have 25 machines/8 users with windows 2000 server I would have to get 25 CALs but with 2003 server i would be able to purchase 8 user CALs?

 

[Slowlearner]

My question relates to SBS 2003. the initial install includes 5 CALs, and this particular server will be mapped to by 10 other PCs so I bought an additional 5 CALs pack, and although I was billed for this by PC Mall the vendor, they emailed me a link to a MSFT website for order fulfillment. As far I can remember I whatever I was supposed to but never did receive either a product key online or package in the mail. So what is this 5 CAL pack - piece of paper with product key, a patch file or what.

 

[kylef]

Originally posted by: quique55
so if I have 25 machines/8 users with windows 2000 server I would have to get 25 CALs but with 2003 server i would be able to purchase 8 user CALs?

From what I understand about per-device vs. per-user CALs, you are correct.