Terminal Services vs. Remote Desktop Connection...

[Guest]

Hello all-
I have three 2003 Servers (STD). I have received a licensing error
concerning Terminal Services, basically telling me my 120 grace period has
expired. I can no longer remote in to the servers.
I am somewhat new to 2003 being groomed in the NT4 and Win2000 eras. I
recall Windows 2000 allowing for an "Administration" mode for TS which gave
you 2 connections for administrative purposes. I have discovered this is
still available however; the way to configure this has changed. What I have
learned is to enable this "Administrative" mode you perform the same
configurations as you would setting up an XP workstation for the same
purpose. Unfortunately, this is not how my servers were originally
configured. Terminal Server was installed on all three thus the 120 grace
period error.
My question-
Can I just uninstall terminal services through add/remove and enable remote
desktop connection through the remote tab in system properties to regain this
administrative functionality?
Thank you in advance for any light you can shed on this topic.

Thanks again,
Phil Tancreti

 

[Vera Noest [MVP]]

Yes, that should fix it.

 

[Guest]

Thank you Vera, for responding so quickly! I had assumed as much but wanted
to be sure.
But…
When going through the steps to remove TS from the server a warning is
displayed concerning applications which were installed after TS, must be
reinstalled to function correctly. I have the sneaky suspicion this is not
entirely true however; some of the apps are too important to move ahead
without knowing if they will be affected. For instance, Exchange Server 2003
was installed after TS. Obviously this is a crucial system and I would be a
fool to go forward without knowing exactly what removing TS from the system
will do to Exchange and other important apps. Do you know the answer to this
or perhaps you could point me in the right direction for answers.
Again, many thanks for any help concerning this matter.

Sincerely,
Phil T.

 

[Vera Noest [MVP]]

Mmmm, tricky question.
There are problems with toggling Terminal Services on and off.
The main problem lies in going in the other direction: from Remote
Admin mode to Application mode. That is certainly going to mess up
your previously installed applications, since they were installed
while the system was not "multi-user aware".

Since you are going in the other direction, I would not expect many
(if any) problems. But unfortunately, you will not get any
guarantees (not from me, and I don't think from anyone else
either). I can't speak from any real-life experience, since I've
never performed this on anything else than a testserver.

If I were in your position, I would take *all possible*
precautions, like a ghosted image of the server, full backups, etc.
before uninstalling TS.

I would even consider to keep TS installed, install a TS Licensing
Server and buy a few TS CALs. Might be the cheapest and safest
solution. But of course: running Terminal Services also has a
performance impact on your Exchange Server (since the server is
tuned differently when you install TS). If that is important or not
in your environment I don't know.

I would also consider reinstalling the server from scratch.
Much depends on how much downtime you can get away with when things
go really wrong.

This article uses the W2K terminology, but the principles are the
same in 2003:
252330 - Toggling Terminal Services to Application Server Mode May
Cause Programs Not to Work
http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=252330

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

 

[Guest]

You are most kind Vera, I appreciate the help!

This is a tricky decision indeed however; I spoke to a college about the
matter and he suggested I install Terminal Server Licensing component onto
the "Domain" controller and activate it. He seemed to think and I agree,
that with a licensed copy of Windows 2000/XP you are given a terminal CAL for
free allowing workstations, which were properly licensed, to connect to a
terminal server via RDC without any licensing infringement. Before I
instituted this solution I wanted to get you thoughts on it.
Again, I thank you in advance for any information concerning this topic; you
are a credit to your field.

Thanks again,
Phil T.

 

[Vera Noest [MVP]]

Glad to be of help, Phil!

Unfortunately, your colleague is (partly) mistaken about the free
licenses.
Windows 2000 Pro and Windows XP Pro clients receive a free TS CAL
from the TS Licensing Server *when they connect to a W2K Terminal
Server*, but *not* when they connect to a 2003 TS.
You can however apply for a free TS CAL for every copy of XP Pro
that you owned before 24 April 2003 (a so-called Transition TS
CAL).

Details are here:

Terminal Server CAL Transition Plan FAQ
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsserver2003/howtobuy/licensing/tscal
transfaq.mspx

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

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