CAL enforcement

Hi,

I have been trying to understand how CAL enforcement works but haven't been able to find a definitive answer. The 5 CALs that come with SBS 2003 are described as Universal CALs, so they can be either user or device CALs. The Microsoft Liensing faq http://www.microsoft.com/windowsserver2003/sbs/evaluation/faq/licensing.mspx says that

"At the top of the CAL Microsoft Software License Terms in the retail packaging, you can choose to allocate these CALs (up to a maximum of five) to either user or device."

This is a documentation issue and doesn't relate to physical enforcement as there is no option in SBS 2003 to do this, unless I haven't looked in the right place! Other sources say CALs are tracked by network authentication which is fine. However, I have a client who has 7 users defined and 6 client computers defined and have been able to logon with 6 users concurrently!

I have advised them they need to purchase an additional 5 user/device CAL which is strictly true but is there enforcement? Also, it seems that RWW and OWA require a CAL as well.

Is anyone able to clarify this for me, I'm confused?

Regards,

Vijay

iQubed Ltd

Microsoft Small Business Specialist 

The long and the short of it is that licensing is implemented in a way that will protect against abuse and any customer who is using more than their requirement is breaking their licensing agreements and requires more CALs.  The actual methods we use to try to diagnose abuse versus anything else are not public, but as always, as we enhance our products we will continue to tweak these checks.

How happy are you working with a customer who is prepared to be mis-licensed?  This is piracy and this is a big area of development for Microsoft.

 

ttfn

 

David

Hi Dave,

I'm never happy working with customers who break licensing conditions which is why in my post I stated that I had advised them on increasing their CALs, which they don't have an issue with. My question was, are domain logons denied when CALs are all assigned and say another user/device tries to logon? I have read from other sources, i.e. Harry Brelsford that this is the case. I'm not really asking what the underlying mechanisms and techniques are to enforce this.

I apologise if I gave the impression that my customer was prepared to be mis-licensed, they are definitely not!

Cheers,

Vijay

Vijay,

I understand your position and did not want to suggest you were dishonest - perhap I typed a little in haste.  Anyway, yes, after a period of time or under more extreme abuse logins will be denied.

 

thanks

David