terminal services licensing issue

[Bryan Isheim]

hi, we have windows 2000 server with terminal services
installed. i have 6 remote users who keep getting
disconnected because their "temporary licenses have
expired". we have had 10 licenses installed for over a
year, but they don't seem to be getting picked up by the
clients.

i have read the microsoft 2000 ts white paper, but i still
can't figure out what's wrong.

the client licensing mode is set to per server with 10
connections. is this the correct mode?

it seems that the licenses are all installed and the
license server is running.

 

[Vera Noest [MVP]]

It's not clear to me if you are running out of server CALs or TS
CALs (you need both). Can you check the EventLog on the TS and
post the EventIDs you see there?

You can check your server CALs usage in Control Panel - Licensing
and your TS CALs usage in Programs - Administrative Tools -
Terminal Server Licensing Manager.

 

[Bryan Isheim]

the event that keeps coming up is 1011. "the terminal
services client "_____" has been disconnected because it's
temporary license has expired.

i only have one terminal server and 2 remote sites that
use this terminal server.

 

[Vera Noest [MVP]]

You do have a TS Licensing Server installed and activated, haven't
you? Running on your Domain Controller? And you installed 10 TS
CALs on it?
Check in TS Licensing Manager to which workstations your TS CALs
have been issued. If these TS CALs were installed before the LS
and the TS ran SP3, the TS CALs were permanently issued to all
connecting devices. So it's possible that you see a lot of non-
existing, discarded clients there. If that is the case, you will
have to phone the Clearinghouse to get these TS CALs re-issued.

 

[Bryan Isheim]

yes, i do have a ts licensing server installed and
activated on the same box as the terminal server. how do
i know if i have installed the sp3?

and there are a few non-existing clients that have a
license issued. these are issued by the name assigned in
the identification portion of the network neighborhood
properties, right?

 

[Vera Noest [MVP]]

To see which SP you are running *now*, go to Control Panel -
System. But what's important is which SP you were running *when
you installed the TS CALs on the Licensing Server*.
You can deduct that from the TS Licensing Manager: if your issued
TS CALs do *not* show an expiration date, they are installed
before SP3 and permanently issued to the now non-existing clients.
As I said, phone the Clearinhgouse to get these licenses re-
issued.
You can also see in TS Licensing Manager if you have any free TS
CALs available (I expect that you don't, since the clients are
getting warnings about expired temporary licenses).

291795 - HOW TO: Locate a Phone Number for the Microsoft
Clearinghouse
http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=291795

 

[Bryan Isheim]

vera, you are really helpful. i checked and i was running
sp2. at that time, the licenses showed no expiration
dates. so i downloaded, installed, & rebooted with the
sp3. now it shows that 6 of the 10 have expiration dates,
but all are dates prior to today, so now i expect i need
to call the clearinghouse to get all licenses reissued,
correct?

 

[Vera Noest [MVP]]

Yes, that's correct. Note that you can only ask to get those
licenses re-issued that were permanently issued to clients that
are now non-existing. You can't really ask to get a new license
for those licenses that are still in use on existing clients,
because those licenses are not gone, you are still using them.

 

[Bryan Isheim]

well, i got the licenses reissued by the clearinghouse,
but i am still getting random disconnects where all
clients get disconnected at one time (and they are in 2
different cities). i have checked our dsl speed & that
looks ok, but i don't know why i'm still getting
disconnects. when i go to the event log, these clients
used to get event 1011 "temporary license has expired". i
no longer see this event occuring, but are still having
these disconnects.

as far as the licenses go, i'm confused at how this works
because the license pack that i had re-issued are blank
(on the right part of the licnesing screen, and the old
licenses are still there and some say they expire in a
month or two, but others don't have an expiration.

 

[Vera Noest [MVP]]

If all clients gets disconnected at once, it's not a licensing issue.
You seem to have some sort of network problem, located fairly near
your TS, since it affects users in 2 different sites.
Check if this helps:
http://terminal.servebeer.com/php/flaky_connections.php

About the licenses: yes, the old licenses will always be there,
there's no way to remove them. The Clearinghouse has re-issued them,
which in practice means that you have received a new license pack.
The old ones without an expiration date are unusable for ever (that's
why you got them re-issued), the old licenses with an expiration date
will be returned to the LS after the expiration date and will be
available again for another (or the same) client. That's why I said
you couldn't really ask the Clearinghouse to re-issue those, because
they are not lost to you. But the Clearinghouse is known to err on
the side of the customer, and rather re-issue the whole license pack
than just a couple of licenses.

 

[Bryan Isheim]

thanks again vera, the licensing should be ok now. thank
you very much!

as for the disconnects, i have contacted our local dsl
provider, but i haven't heard anything from them yet.
also, i will just leave things as they are for now so my
terminal server people can get some work done. i am also
a little bit leary of editing the registry, but i may end
up trying it if i can't solve the disconnect problem.