Windows 2000 Terminal Services in Windows NT 4.0 Domain Cannot Find Windows 2000 Terminal Services Licensing Server

Windows 2000 Terminal Services in a Microsoft Windows NT 4.0-based domain may not be able to find a Windows 2000 Terminal Services Licensing server. This behavior occurs when the Windows 2000 Terminal Services Licensing server is located across a trust to a Windows 2000-based domain. Therefore, the Terminal Services clients receive a temporary 90-day Terminal Services Client Access License (CAL). When the 90-day CAL expires, the clients can no longer access the Windows 2000 Terminal Services server and are denied service.

This behavior can also occur in a Windows NT 4.0-based workgroups The Windows 2000 Terminal Services server may not be able to find the Windows 2000 Terminal Services Licensing server to obtain CALs for the Terminal Services clients. The same resolution applies to both environments.

The following error message is recorded in the System event log on the Windows 2000 Terminal Services server:

When a Windows 2000 Terminal Services server is in a Windows NT 4.0-based domain, the Windows 2000 Terminal Services server is not able to use Active Directory services to find the Windows 2000 Terminal Services Licensing server.

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To resolve this issue, add a registry setting for the preferred license server so that the Windows 2000 Terminal Services server can locate the Windows 2000 Terminal Services Licensing server in the Windows 2000-based domain or in the Windows NT 4.0-based domain. For additional information, click the article number below to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base: To select a specific licensing server, locate the following path in the registry: Add the following value:

The Windows 2000 Terminal Services server must be able to query Active Directory. The Terminal Services Licensing Server object is stored in the Configuration container. This container is replicated to every domain controller in the forest. The information stored in this object should be kept to an absolute minimum.

The distinguished name (DN) for the object is: The client reads this information to get the licensing server information. If more than one licensing server is listed, one is chosen at random. If there are no enterprise servers in the client's site, or if the site name cannot be retrieved (as in Microsoft Windows 95/Microsoft Windows 98), the client searches Active Directory Services for objects of the correct common name (CN), regardless of the site.

For additional information about Windows 2000 Terminal Services Licensing server discovery, click the article number below to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base: