RDS Licensing

[localzuk]

Just rang Microsoft Education and they said you need 1 per user. Even for Students connecting if you have FTE covered, anything else isn't licensed for. (e.g. 100 FTE + 1000 students = 1100 licenses)

 

You could use Device CALs and they'd be covered but then it's "every" device that connects.

 

Steve

 

Ah, I use device CALs anyway. However, that differs entirely from everything I've been told. As I mentioned, no reseller would actually let me buy more than FTE.

[Steve21]

Ah, I use device CALs anyway. However, that differs entirely from everything I've been told.

 

Hate licensing all around really lol

 

If you use Device CALs you're not licensed for any home usage though unless you have additional licenses for each user to use at home too? :s In our 100 FTE example again, it'd be 500 Licenses for our machines + 1100 at home potentially connecting in.

 

Steve

[localzuk]

I've just contacted our current reseller and asked him to contact Microsoft and find out for me. If this has changed, or I was told wrong originally, it won't actually affect us that much here as we're only using about 100 RDS devices at the moment anyway, plus we may need about the same user CALs to cover staff connecting in via their home PCs. So not a huge extra cost.

[localzuk]

OK. Had a response via our reseller who contacted Microsoft - the MS response is:

 

"All you need to do is licenses with user CALS for the FTE count of the school. This would allow them to access the Remote Desktop Server internally AND externally, as you're licensing the single user, rather than the device. I have attached a document with OVS-ES FAQ's, and copied the relevant info below."

 

They then linked to the EES FAQ and the section below:

 

What if I have fewer FTE employees than the total number of devices in my organization? Which number will I be licensed for under my EES?

With the EES, you need to report the number of FTE employees when licensing on-premises products. This number is used as a proxy to cover all the devices (e.g., desktop PC labs, or open library). As long as you have enrolled all your FTE employees, all the devices are covered. Note that your FTE employee count does not cover product use on student-owned devices or organization-owned devices that are assigned to individual students

 

So, whoever it was at Microsoft that told you this, it seems that they told you wrong @Steve21.

[Norphy]

Note that your FTE employee count does not cover product use on student-owned devices or organization-owned devices that are assigned to individual students

 

So, whoever it was at Microsoft that told you this, it seems that they told you wrong @Steve21.

 

By the sounds of it, not entirely. Students are covered if they're using school-owned "public" thin clients on-site but if they're using their own devices or devices assigned exclusively to them, they need a separate CAL.

 

I know why Microsoft make their licensing so needlessly complicated ($$$) but it's no less annoying for it.

[Steve21]

OK. Had a response via our reseller who contacted Microsoft - the MS response is:

 

"All you need to do is licenses with user CALS for the FTE count of the school. This would allow them to access the Remote Desktop Server internally AND externally, as you're licensing the single user, rather than the device. I have attached a document with OVS-ES FAQ's, and copied the relevant info below."

 

They then linked to the EES FAQ and the section below:

 

What if I have fewer FTE employees than the total number of devices in my organization? Which number will I be licensed for under my EES?

With the EES, you need to report the number of FTE employees when licensing on-premises products. This number is used as a proxy to cover all the devices (e.g., desktop PC labs, or open library). As long as you have enrolled all your FTE employees, all the devices are covered. Note that your FTE employee count does not cover product use on student-owned devices or organization-owned devices that are assigned to individual students

 

So, whoever it was at Microsoft that told you this, it seems that they told you wrong @Steve21.

 

Nowhere does that say student's aren't licensed? There's FTE for students too remember. So you could license software by FTE students if Staff aren't using it. As an example:

 

As with your faculty and staff FTE employees, EES offers the convenience of licensing Student Option products based on the number of FTE students in the organization. All Desktop Platform Products licensed through Student Option require organization-wide coverage. EES offers you access to the most recent releases of the EES desktop platform products4 for students.

 

If you read the EES book it says that CALs are assigned to a User whether it's FTE based or Individually bought:

 

CALs Licensed Organization-Wide

CALs licensed organization-wide may be assigned as User and/or Device CALs. For each CAL licensed organization-wide, you may assign it as Device CAL to each institution Qualified Desktop and as a User CAL to each faculty and staff member. All CALs that are included in the Core CAL Suite or in the Enterprise CAL Suite (for example, Windows Server CAL, SharePoint CAL, Exchange CAL, etc.) must be licensed organization-wide and therefore may be assigned to a user and/or a device.

 

CALs Licensed Non-Organization-Wide

CALs that are not licensed organization-wide (for example, SQL Server CAL, Microsoft Dynamics CRM CAL, etc.) may be assigned as either a Device CAL or a User CAL, in accordance with the PUR. Each Device CAL permits one device, used by any user, to access instances of the server software on your licensed servers. Each User CAL permits one user, using any device, to access instances of the server software on your licensed servers. You may use a combination of Device and User CALs.

 

Remember software is different as it's covered on all computers (It's not per user licensed like RDS)

 

Certainly prefer it to be the way you say, but everything I'd seen or read says the opposite :s

 

Steve

[MartinRouterKing]

I added my ovs ees agreement number to my rds and it worked and added cals to it however we did not pay for them. I spoke to Phoenix software and they said it was fine and legit!

[Homer]

There's a lot of conflicting information now... my MS provider has quoted me for two seperate items

 

WinRmtDsktpSrvcsCAL ALNG LicSAPk OLV NL 1Y Acdmc Stdnt UsrCAL

WinRmtDsktpSrvcsCAL ALNG LicSAPk OLV E 1Y Acdmc AP UsrCAL

 

However I also, have just added licenses to our server by inputting our agreement number and selecting an appropriate number of licenses.

 

How come Phoenix have said it's legit without paying?

[Steve21]

However I also, have just added licenses to our server by inputting our agreement number and selecting an appropriate number of licenses.

 

How come Phoenix have said it's legit without paying?

 

It's no different to any VL keys, you "could" use them all, but it's not legal as such I have 100 SQL servers woop woop!

 

Honestly half the license resellers I've spoke to don't seem to have a clue on some parts (not saying all are wrong or right), but like the amount who give FTE using the US formula not the UK, and swear hands down we have to use that.

 

All you can truly believe in is what you know/seen/have been told directly I guess, for me that's FTE only covers Staff users. (As it's per user license). Students were a separate license (Per User Again). That's one of the main reasons we ditched the VDI/RemoteApps for student idea.

 

But again, always happy to be proven wrong but to me none of the above does that to the extent I'm happy licensing it that way :s (From not paying at all, to just paying for Staff for all Users)

 

Steve

[Steve21]

So, decided to throw the question over to Paul Harris at Microsoft (The licensing guru who did the EduGeek stream), and this was the outcome. Seems we're both on the right track depending on the usage @localzuk

 

So firstly, @MartinRouterKing no you can't use RDS without adding them to your OVS

 

The next part is very dependant on the situation, so some examples summarised (I'll post the original email below if anyone wishes to check these):

 

Staff needing access on-site - FTE count covers all staff, or individually purchased licenses as an additional product.

Staff needing access off-site - As above

 

Student's needing off-site access - They need to purchase a CAL per user or External Connector License per Server

Student's needing on-site access on a personal device - They need to purchase a CAL per user

Student's needing on-site access on a shared device - If FTE Staff number is covered they can access this (If you have fewer licenses than FTE student's need to purchase CAL licenses)

 

Guessing these will be the most common scenarios

 

Faculty/Staff

 

RDS CAL’s can be purchased ‘Organisation wide’ i.e. purchased for the entire FTE count on an OVS-ES agreement. Or purchased as an ‘Additional Product’ i.e. in quantities fewer than the FTE Count.

 

Org wide licenses are cheaper per license than the additional product licenses as you are committing to cover all Staff

 

An RDS CAL can be purchased as ‘per device’ or ‘per user’ through OVS-ES

 

If purchased Org wide, then all Staff are covered for RDS access, and all shared devices (including those use by Students) are covered. Staff are also covered for access from off Campus

 

Student

 

As per the above, where RDS CAL’s are purchased Organisation wide, Students are permitted to access RDS sessions from shared devices on Campus.

 

Students are not covered for access externally – and will need a RDS CAL (and a Windows Server CAL) if they are access a RDS session off Campus on their own devices

 

There are 2 options when licensing Students for RDS and Windows Server CAL

 

1. Purchase a CAL per Student

2. Purchase an External Connector per physical server which will be accessed

 

The choice is purely financial – if its more cost effective to license the servers which will be accessed then license this way. If its only a couple of Students who need access, then individual CAL’s are needed

 

Hopefully that clears things up a bit for people haha, but certainly depends on the situation and what you're trying to get students to do

 

Steve

[3s-gtech]

What sort of cost are the student CALs, same as the ones for FTEs? That adds a little cost to yearly licensing! [emoji1]

[Steve21]

What sort of cost are the student CALs, same as the ones for FTEs? That adds a little cost to yearly licensing! [emoji1]

 

When I was looking at list prices it's generally about 2/3 the staff one, so say maybe £3~ a license. (Rough estimate wise), so would be another £3k on top for our students to have personal devices/offsite

 

Steve

[mattstevenson2005]

I spoke to MS a few years ago and we still license RDS by what they said back then.

 

1 FTE CAL per member of staff

1 RDS CAL per member of FTE staff

An external connector license which covers all students

 

Hope this makes sense

 

Matt

[Norphy]

This is going to be one of those situations where you ask five people and get six opinions, isn't it?

[Steve21]

This is going to be one of those situations where you ask five people and get six opinions, isn't it?

 

Yep, but this is what I'm gonna base it on from now: http://www.edugeek.net/forums/licensing-questions/170237-rds-licensing-3.html#post1457545

 

As that's the Academic Licensing Specialist within Microsoft (The one who did the OVE-ES/Cloud stream on here)

 

 

Steve

[zag]

The RDP licensing server doesn't seem to do any checks or block if you use your agreement number.

 

as Microsoft doesn't even seem to know how to license RDP in schools, i've gone with using our EES agreement!

 

Only teachers use our RDP.