Simple question

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Brad

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I am TOTALLY new to Windows Terminal Services. Actually, as of this week.
Hopefully this is a simple question. We are running Windows Terminal
Services 2003. We have about 70-100 thin client terminals that use Terminal
Server for their applications. It seems like the license on the machines
expires about every 45 days and then the client has to reconnect to the
Terminal Server to reaquire the license. This has to be done by IT or a
system administrator manually as we log in as Administrator, access the
license server to aquire the license, and then reboot so the login script
signs in under a guest account. This process is painless, however the
company I am at is a 24-7 industrial plant. Getting a call at 2 in the
morning and having to drive many miles just to do this seems pointless.

Without giving the end user the administrator password over the phone and
walking them through the process, is there any way to automate the reaquiring
of licenses for these clients?

Thanks for the information.
 
Re: Simple question

This process should be completely automatic and transparent to the
user. The fact that it isn't means that there is something not
quite right at your company.

First of all, your 45 days limit can't be right.
Either clients get a permanent license, which expires after a
random period of 52-89 days after issueing, and the clients
automatically start trying to renew the license 7 days prior to
expiration.
Or, in the absence of a free permanent license, clients can receive
a temporary license (only once per client), which expires after 90
days.

I'm assuming that your clients are using permanent licenses (check
in TS Licensing Manager).
The main thing that can go wrong is that the user doesn't have the
necessary rights to the registry key which stores the permanent
license. Also thin clients have a registry and they store the
license locally.

See here for the registry key. Some thin clients have an
administrative option in their setup menu to delete the registry
key, and thereby forcing the client to grab a new temporary
license, or access it in some other way.

187614 - Removing Terminal Server Licenses from an RDP Client
http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=187614

I'm not exactly sure where the problem lies, but it seems that you
have restricted your users a little bit too much.

It is also possible that there is a specific problem with your thin
clients. Does the same problem occur when a user works on an XP
client? If not, then check with the vendor of the thin clients for
a firmware update.

Also check the EventLog on the TS for more info. It could shed more
light on exactly why the TS isn't able to renew the license on
behalf of the client (because that's what is supposed to happen).

_________________________________________________________
Vera Noest
MCSE, CCEA, Microsoft MVP - Terminal Server
TS troubleshooting: http://ts.veranoest.net
*----------- Please reply in newsgroup -------------*

=?Utf-8?B?QnJhZA==?= <Brad@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote on 21
feb 2008:

> I am TOTALLY new to Windows Terminal Services. Actually, as of
> this week. Hopefully this is a simple question. We are running
> Windows Terminal Services 2003. We have about 70-100 thin
> client terminals that use Terminal Server for their
> applications. It seems like the license on the machines expires
> about every 45 days and then the client has to reconnect to the
> Terminal Server to reaquire the license. This has to be done by
> IT or a system administrator manually as we log in as
> Administrator, access the license server to aquire the license,
> and then reboot so the login script signs in under a guest
> account. This process is painless, however the company I am at
> is a 24-7 industrial plant. Getting a call at 2 in the morning
> and having to drive many miles just to do this seems pointless.
>
> Without giving the end user the administrator password over the
> phone and walking them through the process, is there any way to
> automate the reaquiring of licenses for these clients?
>
> Thanks for the information.
 
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