MS RDS: How Do You Reset Device License Assignment
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We have a customer with MS RDS server set to device licensing. It has been in use for a while and from what we can tell it is limiting connections due to license exhaustion. Reasonable, they are trying to use very close to the total number of licenses that they have, so going over is easy when device licensed.
I don't know how long RDS holds on to the list of allowed physical devices. I suspect that the first fifteen devices attach and then no more are allowed. That's how it should work. But after some period of time, unused devices should drop off. Does anyone know how long this is and, more importantly, how do we reset it to allow for updated devices?
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Device licenses are held for 90-days, you should be able to force an expiration from within the license manager.
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@DustinB3403 said in MS RDS: How Do You Reset Device License Assignment:
Device licenses are held for 90-days, you should be able to force an expiration from within the license manager.
I knew about the 90 days, didn't know about an ability to force expiration though...
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@Dashrender said in MS RDS: How Do You Reset Device License Assignment:
@DustinB3403 said in MS RDS: How Do You Reset Device License Assignment:
Device licenses are held for 90-days, you should be able to force an expiration from within the license manager.
I knew about the 90 days, didn't know about an ability to force expiration though...
You can but it is quite limited. You can't expire willy billy. You only get a few expiry chances per 90 days.
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@scottalanmiller said in MS RDS: How Do You Reset Device License Assignment:
@Dashrender said in MS RDS: How Do You Reset Device License Assignment:
@DustinB3403 said in MS RDS: How Do You Reset Device License Assignment:
Device licenses are held for 90-days, you should be able to force an expiration from within the license manager.
I knew about the 90 days, didn't know about an ability to force expiration though...
You can but it is quite limited. You can't expire willy billy. You only get a few expiry chances per 90 days.
Correct, 20% of the total license count iirc.
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@DustinB3403 said in MS RDS: How Do You Reset Device License Assignment:
@scottalanmiller said in MS RDS: How Do You Reset Device License Assignment:
@Dashrender said in MS RDS: How Do You Reset Device License Assignment:
@DustinB3403 said in MS RDS: How Do You Reset Device License Assignment:
Device licenses are held for 90-days, you should be able to force an expiration from within the license manager.
I knew about the 90 days, didn't know about an ability to force expiration though...
You can but it is quite limited. You can't expire willy billy. You only get a few expiry chances per 90 days.
Correct, 20% of the total license count iirc.
That fits what we got.
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Just a little more info to add.
User CALs drop after 60 days of non-use or user removal from AD, Device CALs drop after 52-89 days of non-use.
The 20% rule for Device CALs is correct.
User CALS cannot be re-assigned. They drop off your Per CAL usage report and go back to the pool after the user has been deleted from AD OR after 60 days of non-use.
In Per User or Per Device mode, a separate RDS CAL is required for each user or device that accesses or uses the server software on any server. You may reassign a RDS CAL from one device to another device, or from one user to another user, provided the reassignment is made either (a) permanently away from the one device or user or (b) temporarily to accommodate the use of the RDS CAL either by a loaner device, while a permanent device is out of service, or by a temporary worker, while a regular employee is absent.
You'll have to apply your own definition of PERMANENTLY. What if you have an employee who is re-assigned to a department that does not use RDSH servers? And then, a year late they get re-assigned back in to the original department? Was that a PERMANENT re-assignment of the RDS User CAL? Who knows. But many, including experts at MS suggest PERMANENT = "60 days"(Users CALs) or "52-90 days" (Device CALs).
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@scottalanmiller said in MS RDS: How Do You Reset Device License Assignment:
how do we reset it to allow for updated devices?
Open "RD Licensing manager", browse for device who's license you want to "revoke", leftclick on it and choose "Revoke license"
As said, up to 20% of total licenses can be revoked before expiry.
