Terminal Services Licensing

[RyanB]

A while ago, I noticed that the Windows 2000 DC that had
the Terminal Services Licensing piece installed was
gone. Totally gone! I had 2 10 pack license keys
installed. I am guessing that after SP4 was installed
that this had something to do with this mysterious
disappearance.
Anyway, I installed the Licensing piece on another 2000
DC in the same domain and also the 2 10 packs of TS
licenses. I found out recently that some of our TS users
that had been issued license tokens in the past are
getting a message that their TS temp licenses will expire
in 10 days. After looking in the Licensing Manager, I
noticed that a few licenses had been issued, but not very
many. I am wondering if these clients that had been
issued tokens before are now having issues finding the
new licensing server. I know that the token gets stored
in the registry so unistalling and reinstalling the TS
client will not help. The workstations in question are
Win98SE. I also noticed in the 'Existing Windows 2000
Licenses' category in the License manager that their are
only 2 machine names showing. There should be a whole
pile of machine names for 2000 and XP clients listed.
Any one seen this before or have any suggestions on how
to make these clients see the new licensing server?

Thanks!

 

[Vera Noest [MVP]]

The *clients* never talk directly to the Licensing Server. All
traffic is between the TS and the LS and then between the TS and
the client.
So you have to verify that the TS can locate the LS.
Check the EventLog on your TS, I expect that you find a lot of
events 1004 and 1010 there.

The solution could be to hardcode the address of the LS into the
registry of the TS:

239107 - Establishing Preferred Windows 2000 Terminal Services
License Server
http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=239107

Personnally, I wouldn't rest before I had some understanding as to
*why* and *how* the first installation of the LS "disappeared".
This is certainly not a normal consequence of installing SP4! One
hates to think that there is something else going on, and it could
happen to your new LS as well.....

 

[Matthew Harris [MVP]]

I would remove the MSLicensing key on those client
computers and then have them connect up to the terminal
server. I'm thinking that they've already been working
with the current license server, since they've already
been issued temporary licenses.

-M

 

[RyanB]

I do have the event ID 1004. I can ping the licensing
server from the terminal server by netbios name and by
FQDN, so I think that they are communicating internally.

 

[RyanB]

Q1 - Where is the MSLicensing key on the client?

As some extra info, I ran the lsreport -T <servername>
from the Resource Kit to show all temp licenses issued.
It came back blank, as in, no temp licenses issued. Any
ideas?

R-

 

[Matthew Harrris [MVP]]

The MSLicensing key is here:

HKLM\Software\Microsoft\MSLicensing

Try renaming it and see what happens.

Hmm...that's kinda odd that no temporary licenses have
been issued. My only thought is that those clients are
trying to use invalid licenses, and the license server has
issued them temporary ones in the meantime. ...then
again, you'd think that the license server would report
those temporary licenses then...

-M

 

[RyanB]

I tried this (Establishing Preferred Windows 2000
Terminal) and it did not help. I added a key to the
registry to point to the licensing server and rebooted
that server. No change. Any suggestions?

RyanB

 

[RyanB]

I would like to try this, but am not sure what the
underlying implications are for doing this. Have you
done this before successfully?

RyanB

 

[Matthew Harris [MVP]]

Renaming/removing the key will only force the TS licensing
service to issue the client a new license. The worst that
could happen is that the client consumes another license,
but that only means the original license will be returned
to the free license pool in around 90 days or so.

-M

 

[Vera Noest [MVP]]

Have you checked the EventLog on the LS?

And again, I can't stop worrying about your first LS, which
mysteriously "disappeared". As long as you don't understand how
that happened, it seems a waste of time to try to get a new LS
working (which it obviously doesn't do correctly).

Anything could be going on at your servers, as far as I can tell.