Clearing House no Help...Why?

[Guest]

I've read through numerous threads about the Clearing House that seem to result in the same negative response. I have W2K Server w5 CAL's and simply want to reclaim my licenses that are being held hostage by old, non-existent computers. Accodring to past threads on this Board others out there have similar problems. According to the nice MS folks on this Board you need to simply call the Clearing House and all things work magically again. I don't think that is the case
I called and was told 1) You need to obtain a Select or Open license before we can reissue your license (No thanks) and 2) You can easily do that yourself, sir. (How?)
While everyone was nice and professional it brings a question - why is it so hard? I went ahead and purchased 5 additional TS CAL's and loaded them on my server. That seemed to work fine until I noticed the devices were only issued "temp" licenses from my new pool of 5 licenses. Anyone know why that may be
About the Clearing House, I'm sure they are used to dealing with Open or Select customers but perhaps a solution for us little guys wouldn't be a bad idea

Ken

 

[Vera Noest [MVP]]

Ken,

The only reason I can think of why the Clearinghouse people
refused to help you is that they came to the conclusion that there
was some additional problem with your Licensing Server setup. The
Clearinghouse is only for retrieving lost TS licenses and
activating license servers, they are not trained to troubleshoot
license discovery issues.

And it seems in fact that you have such a problem, since your new
TS CALs are not issued to your clients. I'm sure that we can help
you solve this, but a little bit more information is needed:

* how is your domain setup? Is the W2K Terminal Server a member of
a W2K domain? On which server is the TS Licensing Service running?
In a W2K domain, the LS must run on a Domain Controller.
* which Events do you see on the TS?
* those first 5 CALs you had, are they CALs (that maybe came with
the server), or are they TS CALs?
* What OS are your clients running (the ones that receive temp
licenses)?

 

[Guest]

Thanks for the reply, Vera. The setup is the LS is running on the domain controller which is also running on the same W2k Server. Event Viewer is not showing anything out of the ordinary. The first 5 CAL's are (as you stated) the original CAL's that came with the software. THe two clients that were issued "temp" licenses after loading the new TS CAL's are XP Home. The three remaining are XP Pro machines and have no problems. My LS shows nine licenses issued but most are non-existent machines and I had hoped to reclaim those licenses.
Does it look like I need to buy five additional TS CAL's

Thanks

Ke

----- Vera Noest [MVP] wrote: ----

Ken

The only reason I can think of why the Clearinghouse people
refused to help you is that they came to the conclusion that there
was some additional problem with your Licensing Server setup. The
Clearinghouse is only for retrieving lost TS licenses and
activating license servers, they are not trained to troubleshoot
license discovery issues

And it seems in fact that you have such a problem, since your new
TS CALs are not issued to your clients. I'm sure that we can help
you solve this, but a little bit more information is needed

* how is your domain setup? Is the W2K Terminal Server a member of
a W2K domain? On which server is the TS Licensing Service running?
In a W2K domain, the LS must run on a Domain Controller
* which Events do you see on the TS
* those first 5 CALs you had, are they CALs (that maybe came with
the server), or are they TS CALs
* What OS are your clients running (the ones that receive temp
licenses)

 

[Vera Noest [MVP]]

OK, let me try to summarize, to check that I've got the picture:

1 single server, role = PDC + TS + LS
5 clients, 2 XP Home, 3 XP Pro
5 CALs (came with server)
5 TS CALs bought later
During some time, a number (5 or more) of now non-existing clients
have contacted the TS, receiving a TS CAL.

First of all, you do *not* have to buy additional licenses. Since
the XP Pro clients get a free TS CAL from the LS, you have enough
TS CALs for 3 more non-XP Pro clients (but that would mean buying
3 more server CALs).

If I understand your first post correctly, the first time you
called the Clearinghouse, you had only the 5 original server CALs.
That explains why they couldn't help you, they only handle
reissueing of TS CALs. Now that you have installed those, they
should be able to reissue the TS CALs that were issued to non-
existing machines.

Some more points, though. Which SP were you running when you
installed the TS CALs? If you were running at least SP3, then the
TS CALs should have an expiration date (can you check that in LS
Manager?). If so, the licenses that were issued to non-existing
clients will automatically expire after 52-89 days. Since this
period is shorter than the livespan of a temporary TS CAL (90
days), your XP Home clients should be able to run on a temporary
TS CAL until the old TS CALs are returned to the LS.
If your TS CALs were installed before SP3, they will be
permanently issued to the clients, and it's only in these
situations that the Clearinghouse can (and will) help you by
reissuing new TS CALs.
To avoid the same problem from happening again, I would install
SP3 before calling them.

Make sure that you clearly distinguish between server CALs
(checked in Control Panel - Licensing applet) and TS CALs (checked
in TS Licensing Manager), to help avoiding misunderstandings.

Hope this helps.

--
Vera Noest
MCSE, CCEA, Microsoft MVP - Terminal Server
http://hem.fyristorg.com/vera/IT
--- please respond in newsgroup, NOT by private email ---

 

[Guest]

Thanks for the help, Vera. I called the Clearing House and it worked this time. They reissued 5 TS CAL's.

But I gave the license code of the 5 new TS CAL's I just purchased and they saw it fine. I guess you cannot get built-in TS CAL's reissued

BTW, SP3 was installed before clients allowed to connect (currently SP4). So, now in my TS Licensing Window I show
Product Type Total Available Issue
Exisiting Windows 2000 License Built-In Unlimited Unlimited 1
Windows 2000 Server TS CAL Token (per device) Standard 5 3
Windows 2000 Server TS CAL Standard 5 5

I wish I understood what happened here. Were my TS CAL's that I just purchased reissued? Or, did the Clearing House reissue my built-in TS CAL licenses? Perhaps you could help with this, by upgrading to 2003 Server are the TS Licensing headaches any easier? I'm considering the upgrade for the better graphics over the TS connection

I think part of the problem was communication. This time I told the Clearing House TS CAL instead of CAL reissue. Thanks so much for your help, Vera

Ken

 

[Vera Noest [MVP]]

I'm glad that it worked this time, Ken.
You never get build-in TS CALs reissued, since you have an unlimited
amount of them, so there is no real need. (But I agree that it would
be nice if the number listed under "Issued" was correctly showing
your present situation, and not a lot of temporary or discarded
clients as well). Oh well, you can't win them all

The whole problem with reissuing has been fixed when the licenses got
an expiration date, and is certainly not a problem in Windows 2003.
2003 has some other problems, though, since it has 2 different types
of CALs and TS CALs: per user and per device. So now there are 4
possible license types involved, and many more possibilities for
misunderstandings in the communication.
But generally speaking, the technical problems with licensing seems
less to me, although you should do some *very carefull* reading
before you buy, since you could save a lot of money by buying the
proper license type for your organisation.

Windows Server 2003 Pricing and Licensing FAQ
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsserver2003/howtobuy/licensing/priclic
faq.mspx