Best practices for setting up Remote Desktop Licensing (Terminal Server Licensing) across Active Directory Domains/Forests or Workgroup. V Windows Server 2012. Windows 2000 Server Terminal Services usually uses a license server in the local domain; however, you might want to have a central license server for audit purposes or use a server in another domain. Perform the following steps to designate the license server you want a Terminal Services server to use: Start regedit.exe.

Suppose I have a Virtualized Windows 2012 R2 RDP Terminal Server. Suppose this RDP (Terminal) server is virtualized on VMWare. Suppose that all of my clients are Windows 7 Pro or higher. Suppose I wanted to spin up a server dedicated to providing RDP access to only one app (IE) on said virtualized Windows RDP server.

With the Release of Server 2012 R2 Microsoft completely changed how Remote Desktop Services are deployed and managed. This change tossed many like myself for a loop as I could not find any documentation on how to do what was once a 5 minute task.

Hopefully after reading this article this once simple task will be simple once again

13 Steps total

Step 1: Open Server Manager

Click Manage and Select Add Roles and Features

Step 2: Select Remote Desktop Services installation

Select Remote Desktop Services installation and click next

Step 3: Select Quick Start

Select Quick Start and click next

Step 4: Select Session-based desktop deployment

Select Session-based desktop deployment and click next

Step 5: Server Pool

Make sure the server you are installing on is listed in the server pool.

If you are installing on the same server you are physically logged into then the server should be there by default

Click Next

Step 6: Installation Checks

Once the installation checks are completed choose to allow (or not) your server to restart automatically if required as part of the install and click Deploy

Step 7: Wait

Hurry up and wait while your server does the install

Step 8: Success!

Click Close to continue

Step 9: Add TS Licensing

Open Server Manager and go to 'Remote Desktop Services' on the left menu. This will show you the Overview with the status and settings for your terminal server.

If you plan to install the licensing services locally on this server click the RD Licensing icon in the 'deployment overview' window. Then follow the instructions to install the licensing service locally and add your purchased licensing.

I am going to use a licensing server in this example so I won't go into detail on this option

Step 10: Add Licensing Server

If you have more than one TS like I do you will want to use a Licensing server. This allows you to share your client TS licenses across all of your terminal servers making it easier to purchase and manage your license needs.

To uses this option click 'Tasks' and Edit Deployment Properties'

Step 11: Edit Deployment Properties

Click 'RD Licensing'

Select your licensing type, I am using Per User

Server 2012 Check Terminal Services Licensing

type in the name of your licensing server and hit add. Your licensing server will be contacted, verified and added to the list.

Click OK

Step 12: Set Who Can Log into this server

Go to System >> Remote Settings >> Select Users and add the Group or Users who will be allowed to connect to this server

Step 13: Verify User Connectivity

At this point users should now be able to log into this server. Test your connectivity out with a regular user account and you should be good to go!

The process as been re-arranged and is very different when compared to previous versions, but once you get a grasp for where things have been moved to it still works very much the same as it always did.

References

• RD Licensing Configuration on Windows Server 2012
• Windows Server 2012 R2 Remote Desktop Services (RDS) Installation And Publish RemoteApp

17 Comments

• Chipotle
  mdcarver Jan 29, 2016 at 03:07pm

  Thanks, This was exactly what I was looking for. Got us upgraded.

• Tabasco
  MichaelT@ToE Sep 20, 2016 at 02:45pm

  Awesome - so easy to follow. Thanks!!!

  Question - is terminal services licensing similar to open licensing in that it's on a trust basis with Microsoft? Don't really see where to add CALs.

• Pimiento
  danstones Jan 12, 2017 at 01:16am

  @MichaelIT@ToE - Hopefully you've found the answer by now, but for future readers...

  Absolutely not. Once you install RDS, you are in a 120-day grace period for licensing. After 120 days, if you don’t install a license server, add licenses to it and configure the RDS server to point to the license server your RDS will be unusable until you fix that. When you install licenses, it registers with Microsoft Clearing House.

  After step 11 above, if the License Server Manager role is not already installed, it will install it. From there you need to launch the License Server Manager, click the 'Review' button under Configuration column > Click 'Add to Group' > Click OK.
  Right-click the server and click Activate > Follow the wizard and fill in the contact and address details from your license order, and add your license details. You should then see them as active. Check the RD License Diagnoser console to confirm that RDS is seeing the licenses.

• Pimiento
  Schikitar Jan 23, 2017 at 10:05am

  Hi, I know this comment is coming a bit late but I've recently attempted this on Windows Server 2016 but it will not allow more than one person to connect at a time;

  Remote Desktop Connection
  Do you want to allow to connect to this machine?
  Click OK to disconnect your session immediately or click Cancel to stay connected.
  No action will disconnect your session in 30 seconds.

  Did something change between 2012R2 and 2016 - is it possible to have a traditional terminal server anymore?
  

• Poblano
  SeansPCPower IT Mar 20, 2017 at 09:00am

  This might help.
  Open RD Gateway Manager.
  Under configuration tasks click View or modify certificate properties.
  In the general tab make sure Allow maximum supported simultaneous connections.
  Or perhaps there is a limit set. Note the default is 1.

• Thai Pepper
  camerones Aug 30, 2017 at 11:22pm

  well done sir. this was good insight into setting up new features and roles. Straight forward and to the point.

  Glad I happened across it.

• Pimiento
  curtisvaughan Sep 7, 2017 at 04:13am

  Ok, I'm having issues. Every time I try to add TS it errors out, all services provided the Server Manager go red and the only way to fix it, as it suggests, is to reboot. I've tried 3 times, hoping maybe something was a fluke. BTW, I have all licenses, etc. But haven't gotten to the point to even apply them. Any ideas?

• Mace
  molan Sep 7, 2017 at 05:45am

  Make sure no group policies are applied to the server by moving it to an OU with no attached policies and then force a gpupdate. Then try the install again.

  Certain policies can cause the install to fail.

  Also if you have antivirus or other security software installed remove it until after the ts roles are installed.

• Pimiento
  curtisvaughan Sep 7, 2017 at 01:02pm

  Thank you for responding. Ok, I think I've figured out something. I don't have WID installed. That is, it was installed, but because, as I now know, I changed to an AD server that cause WID to be unable to login. So I changed to the login to Administrator. Based on MS articles I should have changed it to login as service. Anyhow, now it's seems to be gone.
  However, I got it reinstalled. Switched to login as service. Tried installing TS and it failed.....
  After reboot. WID is gone again.
  As for your suggestion, I created a new group, made sure it didn't have any policies, moved the server to that group and did a gpupdate. However, user policies still applied! Also turned off the AV app.
  Nonetheless, same result.

• Pimiento
  jacobouaknine Dec 15, 2017 at 12:01pm

  Hi All,

  Like many I came across this article because of i was looking to understand what changed from 2008 to 2012. I really like the article and thank you very much for taking time to share.

  I have a question: we setup Remote Desktop server 2012 (under role based features) instead of this option (your first or second print screen)

  Is there a major different? Should role back and set it up this way instead ?

  What we are simply trying to do is give external users a Remote session with a familiar windows7 /windows 10 feel so they can work remotely (Quickbooks etc... ).

  Right now with the standard Remote Desktop setup, they get the 2012 theme without start menu and can see the admin tools etc... they get frustrated and don’t want to use it.

  Any advise or guidance will very much appreciated.

• Serrano
  ITGirl and Cat5 Feb 6, 2018 at 06:22pm

  Why does it always seem like MS can take a 5 second process and make it into 10 min? Thanks for saving me the headache on this one. Due to some Citrix restrictions, I am only just now making 2012 terminal servers for the first time.

• Pimiento
  jrosique Apr 4, 2018 at 10:09pm

  I am struggling to understand this new RDS. All we want is to provide the same RDC experience my users had with 2008 Terminal Server. I have followed Molan's tutorial as well as many others and can't get it to work. At this point, I am willing to pay anyone (out of my pocket) to get it done.

  Here's the issue, my 200+ users in three countries are used to open remote desktop connection on their Windows desktops and connect to corporate.mypublicdomain.com which resolved to an NLB cluster of two 2008 R2 servers. In my lab deployment there is no NLB anymore (as Connection Broker should take care of the load balancing) so when I connect (using Remote Desktop) to newcorporate.mypublicdomain.com (resolves to the public IP of the RDS Gateway), I am presented with the 'Only members of the Remote Desktop Users group is allowed' message which makes no sense as I am using my domain admin account for testing.

  As I mentioned, at this point, I am ready to pay ayone that makes this thing works. I am tired of roaming the internet searching for answers.

• Sonora
  Doug7207 Apr 19, 2018 at 08:55pm

  I am having the same problem. I just cannot get RDS to work on this brand new server. I am just going to call Microsoft and pay. I cannot afford to dump any more time down this hole. I am glad MS gets rewarded for making their products next to impossible to configure.

• Pimiento
  spicehead-r081 Nov 2, 2018 at 07:34am

  Recently, I tried to install using the way mentioned above but getting an exception/error as mentioned below;

  I got Index out of Bound error on the Installation/Deployment Wizard.

• Pimiento
  spicehead-lw9xi Feb 27, 2019 at 02:54am

  i have struggled with this issue myself until i took the time out and figured out what was missing from our friends explanation. even after configuring all the necessary settings which im sure everyone was able to do yet it still did not work because the missing piece is editing the 'allow remote desktop users logon' under group policy. in defining this policy every user with remote access still has to be included here for the remote desktop service to work, even admins.
  hope im not too late

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Applies to: Windows Server (Semi-Annual Channel), Windows Server 2019, Windows Server 2016

Each user and device that connects to a Remote Desktop Session host needs a client access licenses (CAL). You use RD Licensing to install, issue, and track RDS CALs.

When a user or a device connects to an RD Session Host server, the RD Session Host server determines if an RDS CAL is needed. The RD Session Host server then requests an RDS CAL from the Remote Desktop license server. If an appropriate RDS CAL is available from a license server, the RDS CAL is issued to the client, and the client is able to connect to the RD Session Host server and from there to the desktop or apps they're trying to use.

Although there is a licensing grace period during which no license server is required, after the grace period ends, clients must have a valid RDS CAL issued by a license server before they can log on to an RD Session Host server.

Use the following information to learn about how client access licensing works in Remote Desktop Services and to deploy and manage your licenses:

Windows Server 2012 Terminal Service

• License your RDS deployment with client access licenses (CALs)

Understanding the CALs model

There are two types of CALs:

• RDS Per Device CALs
• RDS Per User CALs

The following table outlines the differences between the two types of CALs:

When you use the Per Device model, a temporary license is issued the first time a device connects to the RD Session Host. The second time that device connects, as long as the license server is activated and there are available CALs, the license server issues a permanent RDS Per Device CAL.

When you use the Per User model, licensing is not enforced and each user is granted a license to connect to an RD Session Host from any number of devices. The license server issues licenses from the available CAL pool or the Over-Used CAL pool. It's your responsibility to ensure that all of your users have a valid license and zero Over-Used CALs—otherwise, you're in violation of the Remote Desktop Services license terms.

To ensure you are in compliance with the Remote Destkop Services license terms, track the number of RDS Per User CALs used in your organization and be sure to have a enough Per User CALs installed on the license server for all of your users.

You can use the Remote Desktop Licensing Manager to track and generate reports on RDS Per User CALs.

Windows Server 2012 Terminal Services License Expired

Note about CAL versions

Server 2012 Terminal Services Licensing

The CAL used by users or devices must correspond to the version of Windows Server that the user or device is connecting to. You can't use older CALs to access newer Windows Server versions, but you can use newer CALs to access earlier versions of Windows Server.

The following table shows the CALs that are compatible on RD Session Hosts and RD Virtualization Hosts.

Server 2012 Terminal Services License Server

Windows Server 2012 Terminal Services License Price

Any RDS license server can host licenses from all previous versions of Remote Desktop Services and the current version of Remote Desktop Services. For example, a Windows Server 2016 RDS license server can host licenses from all previous versions of RDS, while a Windows Server 2012 R2 RDS license server can only host licenses up to Windows Server 2012 R2.