Track the Issuance of Remote Desktop Services Per User Client Access Licenses

  • Article

Applies To: Windows Server 2008, Windows Server 2008 R2

You can use the Remote Desktop Licensing Manager tool to create (generate) reports to track the RDS Per User CALs that have been issued by a Remote Desktop license server.

The following are important considerations about RDS Per User CAL tracking and reporting:

  • RDS Per User CAL tracking and reporting can only be used for Windows Server 2008 and Windows Server 2008 R2 RDS Per User CALs. You cannot track and report on Windows Server 2003 RDS Per User CALs.

  • RDS Per User CAL tracking and reporting is supported only in domain-joined scenarios; that is, the Remote Desktop Session Host (RD Session Host) server and the license server must be members of a domain.

  • RDS Per User CAL tracking and reporting is not supported in workgroup mode.

  • Active Directory Domain Services (AD DS) is used for RDS Per User CAL tracking. The information about the RDS Per User CAL that has been issued to a user is stored as part of the user account in AD DS.

  • The functional level of your Active Directory domain must be at least Windows Server 2003. Therefore, a Windows 2000-based Active Directory domain is not supported.

  • The computer account for the license server must be a member of the Terminal Server License Servers group in the domain. If the license server is installed on a domain controller, the Network Service account must also be a member of the Terminal Server License Servers group.

Important

To issue RDS Per User CALs to users in other domains, there must be a two-way trust between the domains, and the license server must be a member of the Terminal Server License Servers group in those domains.

You can use Review Configuration to determine if the license server is correctly configured for RDS Per User CAL tracking and reporting. For more information about Review Configuration, see Review the Configuration of a Remote Desktop License Server.

Because the information about the RDS Per User CALs that have been issued to users is stored in AD DS, the only way to get the most current information about the RDS Per User CALs that have been issued by the license server is to create a report by using Remote Desktop Licensing Manager. When you create a report, the necessary information is pulled from AD DS and is compiled together into a report.

Note

Because Remote Desktop Licensing Manager cannot dynamically update the number of RDS Per User CALs that are currently issued and available, those columns are left blank in some areas of Remote Desktop Licensing Manager. Instead there is a Generate Report hyperlink that takes you to this topic. In the Report node, you can view information from reports that have been created, but that information is specific to the date and time when the report was created.

Use the following procedure to create a report about the RDS Per User CALs that have been issued by a license server.

Membership in the local Administrators group, or equivalent, on the RD Licensing server that you plan to configure, is the minimum required to complete this procedure. Review details about using the appropriate accounts and group memberships at https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=83477.

To create a report about the RDS Per User CALs that have been issued by a license server

  1. On the license server, open Remote Desktop Licensing Manager. To open Remote Desktop Licensing Manager, click Start, point to Administrative Tools, point to Remote Desktop Services, and then click Remote Desktop Licensing Manager.

  2. Select the license server for which you want to generate a report.

  3. On the Action menu, point to Create Report, and then click Per User CAL Usage.

  4. In the Create Per User CAL Usage Report dialog box, select one of the following:

    • Entire domain   This is the domain in which the license server is a member.

    • Organizational Unit   This is any OU within the domain in which the license server is a member.

    • Entire domain and all trusted domains   This can include domains in other forests. Selecting this option can increase the time that it takes to create the report.

    The selection that you make determines which user accounts in AD DS are searched for RDS Per User CAL information to generate the report.

  5. Click Create Report. The report is created and a message appears to confirm that the report was successfully created. Click OK to close the message.

  6. The report that you created appears in the Reports section under the node for the license server. The report provides the following information:

    • Date and time the report was created

    • The scope of the report (e.g., Domain, OU=Sales, or All trusted domains)

    • The number of RDS Per User CALs that are installed on the license server

    • The number of RDS Per User CALs that have been issued by the license server specific to the scope of the report

  7. You can also save the report as a CSV file to a folder location on the computer. To save the report, right-click the report that you want to save, click Save As, and then specify the file name and location to save the report.

Reports that you create are listed in the Reports node under the node for the license server in Remote Desktop Licensing Manager. If you no longer need a report, you can delete the report.

Use the following procedure to delete a report in Remote Desktop Licensing Manager.

Membership in the local Administrators group, or equivalent, on the RD Licensing server that you plan to configure, is the minimum required to complete this procedure. Review details about using the appropriate accounts and group memberships at https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=83477.

To delete a report in Remote Desktop Licensing Manager

  1. On the license server, open Remote Desktop Licensing Manager. To open Remote Desktop Licensing Manager, click Start, point to Administrative Tools, point to Remote Desktop Services, and then click Remote Desktop Licensing Manager.

  2. Expand the All Servers node, expand the node for the license server for which the report was created, and then click Reports.

  3. If there is a specific report that you want to delete, right-click the report, and then click Delete Report. To confirm that you want to delete the report, click Yes.

  4. If you want to delete all the reports or only reports older than a certain number of days, on the Action menu, click Delete Reports.

  5. In the Delete Reports dialog box, select either to delete all reports or only reports older than the number of days that you specify, and then click OK. The reports are deleted immediately, and you are not prompted to confirm the deletion.

Additional references