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Specify the License Server Discovery Mode on a Terminal Server

Applies To: Windows Server 2008

A terminal server must be able to contact (discover) a Terminal Services license server in order to request Terminal Services client access licenses (TS CALs) for users or computing devices that are connecting to the terminal server.

The license server discovery mode for the terminal server can be set in the following ways:

  • By configuring License Server discovery mode for the terminal server in the Terminal Services Configuration tool.

    If the Specify the license server discovery mode choices are dimmed and you cannot make a selection, the Use the specified Terminal Services license servers Group Policy setting has been enabled and has been applied to the terminal server.

  • By applying the Use the specified Terminal Services license servers Group Policy setting.

    This Group Policy setting is located in Computer Configuration\Administrative Templates\Windows Components\Terminal Services\Terminal Server\Licensing and can be configured by using either the Local Group Policy Editor or the Group Policy Management Console (GPMC). Note that the Group Policy setting will take precedence over the setting configured in Terminal Services Configuration.

For more information about the license server discovery process, see Terminal Services License Server Discovery.

Important

To see which license servers the terminal server discovers and to be alerted to possible licensing discovery and configuration issues, use Licensing Diagnosis in Terminal Services Configuration. For information about Licensing Diagnosis, see the topic "Identify Possible Licensing Problems for the Terminal Server" in the Windows Server 2008 Terminal Services Configuration Help.

For more information about Group Policy settings for Terminal Services, see the Terminal Services Technical Reference (https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?Linkid=89673).

Use the following procedure to specify the license server discovery mode on a terminal server by using Terminal Services Configuration.

Membership in the Administrators group, or equivalent, is the minimum required to complete this procedure. Review details about using the appropriate accounts and group memberships at Local and Domain Default Groups (https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=83477).

To specify the license server discovery mode on a terminal server by using Terminal Services Configuration

  1. On the terminal server, open Terminal Services Configuration. To open Terminal Services Configuration, click Start, point to Administrative Tools, point to Terminal Services, and then click Terminal Services Configuration.

  2. Under Licensing, double-click License server discovery mode.

  3. Select either of the following, depending on which is appropriate for your environment:

    • Automatically discover a license server

    • Use the specified license servers

    For more information about the license server discovery process, see Terminal Services License Server Discovery.

  4. After you have made a selection, click OK.

Additional references