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Terminal Services Licensing service discovery

Article ID: 301932 - View products that this article applies to.

This article was previously published under Q301932

SUMMARY

This article describes the Terminal Services Licensing service discovery methods that are used by Windows Server 2003-based servers.

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If a server that has Terminal Server enabled is a member of workgroup or a Windows NT 4.0 domain, there are two methods that you can use to discover a Terminal Services Licensing server. After a Terminal Services Licensing server is located, the discovery process stops.

Method 1: LicenseServers Registry Key Query

A server that has Terminal Server enabled first queries any servers that are listed in the LicenseServers registry key that is described in the following Microsoft Knowledge Base article:

279561

(http://support.microsoft.com/kb/279561/EN-US/ )

How to Override the License Server Discovery Process in Windows Server 2003 Terminal Services

Method 2: Mailslot Broadcast

A server that has Terminal Server enabled issues a mailslot broadcast. All Terminal Services Licensing servers that receive the broadcast respond. The server that has Terminal Server enabled then selects one of the Terminal Services Licensing servers at random.

Microsoft Windows Server Domain

If the server that has Terminal Server enabled is member of a Windows Server-based domain, there are three methods that you can use to discover a Terminal Services Licensing server. After a Terminal Services Licensing server is located, the discovery process stops.

Method 1: LicenseServers Registry Key Query

A server that has Terminal Server enabled first queries any servers that are listed in the LicenseServers registry. This registry key is described in the following Microsoft Knowledge Base article:

279561

(http://support.microsoft.com/kb/279561/EN-US/ )

How to Override the License Server Discovery Process in Windows Server 2003 Terminal Services

NOTE: You can now run the Terminal Services Licensing service on member servers and on domain controllers. If the service runs on a member server, you must implement the LicenseServers registry key because the discovery process cannot locate it.

Method 2: Enterprise License Server Query

A server that has Terminal Server enabled queries the Active Directory directory service site for the following object, where site-name is the name of the site in which the server that has Terminal Server enabled resides, and domainname is the domain name that the server that has Terminal Server enabled is a member of:

LDAP://CN=TS-Enterprise-License-Server,CN=site-name,CN=sites,CN=configuration,DC=domainname,DC=com

Method 3: Domain License Server Query

A server that has Terminal Server enabled queries all domain controllers in the site. If no Terminal Services Licensing servers are found in the same site, the search ends. Use Method 1 to specify the license server.

References

For additional information about discovery in Windows 2000, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

232520

(http://support.microsoft.com/kb/232520/ )

Description of Terminal Services License Server discovery

For additional information about overriding the license server discovery process in Windows Server 2003 Terminal Services, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

279561

(http://support.microsoft.com/kb/279561/ )

How to override the license server discovery process in Windows Server 2003 Terminal Services

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