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Windows 2003 Server licenses

jackarmy83

Hi guys,

Can't get my head around the licensing for 2003 server! Just read the licensing section in the MSPress book and still confused!

We will shortly be deploying 2003 server and I was wondering if anybody could help me with the following scenario:

We are planning on buying 2 servers with windows 2003 server on them. They will act as PDC and File and Print Servers.

Server2 will be a replica of server1 in that I will set it up the same except it will be housed at a datacentre and only be used in the event of failure to the first server.

We have roughly 25 users in our company.

Will I need the 2003 server license plus 25 CAL's or A windows 2003 server license for both servers AND 50 CAL's?

Your help would be greatly appreciated.

Regards.. Karl

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Comments

Silver Bullet

Sounds like you have a good understanding of it.

As long as the 2nd server is not online and users aren't accessing that 2nd server, then you will only need 25 CAL in order for the Server to support 25 concurrent connections. Licensing mode will be "Per Server". In the event you decide to put the 2nd Server online then you will need an additional 25 CAL.

vex

In the event that you had to put the second server into production while the first was still running, you could switch to "Per User or Device" and not have to buy any additional licenses.

jackarmy83

The second server will be online, it's just that nobody will be accessing it unless something happens to the first server (ie, hardware failure, fire, etc).

Why can't I just have a Per User or Per Device license from the start?

Silver Bullet

jackarmy83 wrote:

Why can't I just have a Per User or Per Device license from the start?

You can. By default, it is set to per server mode. You are allowed to make the change to per user or per device one time.

jackarmy83

So to summarise, the following will be ok.

- Setup two servers that are online (Server 1 in use until a failure occurs).
- Buy 2 x Windows 2003 licenses and 25 CAL's
- Setup both servers to per user or per device

Is this legal?

jescab

yes - that is good to go...........

jackarmy83

Thanks all.