Hi and welcome everybody to the next blog post of a series about installing and configuring Citrix XenApp 7.13 on Windows Server 2016. After the sucessfull installation of the Microsoft Remote Desktop (RDS) Licensing component we now need to configure it.

• Windows Rds Licensing

So today we will configure Microsoft RDS Licensing. The RD Licensing Manager can be started over a Start Menu link or through a link in the Servermanager. It is not necessary to add RDS Licenses if you are in a lab environment because the License Server will issue temporary licenses for 180 days and in most cases this should be sufficient for a few tests or demos.

The first thing you will notice is that the License Server is not activated. You can see that on the red mark left to the server name.

Little fighter 2.5 download. If the license server is installed on a domain controller, the Network Service account must also be a member of the Terminal Server License Servers group To restrict the issuance of RDS CALs, you can add RDS Host Servers into Terminal Server Computers group on RDS Licensing server and then enable the License server security group policy setting on RDS Licensing server.

• Dec 14, 2012  to the 'Terminal Server License Servers' group in Active Directory. Hope that makes more sense. I need to identify what are the security risks associated with adding users to terminal server license server. If you can point me in the right direction that would be very helpful thanks. Thursday, December 6, 2012 1:50 PM.
• During good old Windows 2003 times, the Terminal Licensing Servers were published in the Active Directory using the Sites object and the entry TS-Enterprise-License-Server as explained here. Under WIndows 2008R2, the RDS Licensing role service registers a service connection point; however few documents tells you where to find this SCP in your AD: it is.
• If the Terminal Server License Servers built-in group is not present, you can add it using Active Directory Users and Computers. It belongs in the Builtin container, and make sure you get the name right.
• I'm trying to figure out if there is any security issues I should look into regarding adding a server to the 'Terminal Server License Servers' group in Active Directory. Hope that makes more sense. I need to identify what are the security risks associated with adding users to terminal server license server.

If you right click on the server name you can open the configuration of the server. You can see that the Discovery Scope of the License Server is configured to Domain.

To change the scope the user we use to reconfigure this option needs to have Enterprise Admin privileges in Active Directory. Click CONTINUE.

In the next screen you can choose The forest. Click OK.

Choosing Forest makes this Licensing Server available to multiple domains within the forest. Click OK again to finish the configuration for the scope.

In the next step we will add this License Server to the Terminal Server License group. Without this configuration the License Server won´t issue CALs to users and no reporting will be possible. Click ADD TO GROUP.

In the next screen click CONTINUE.

Click OK in the next screen to finish the configuration.

The next screen shows green checkmarks for all configuration items. Click OK.

Now right click on the server name again and start the Activate Server Wizard. Click NEXT.

There are a few options you can choose to activate the license server. I have internet access and therefor I will leave it on Automatic connection (recommended).

In the next screen type in your First name, last name, company and Country. Click NEXT.

Add further company information. Click NEXT.

With the next screen we are ready to activate the license server. Leave the checkmark next to Start Install Licenses Wizard now activated.

The Activate Server Wizard opens. Click NEXT.

Again we have a few options to choose for a license program. As Microsoft partner we have access to a few licenses. I will leave License Pack (retail Purchase).

On the next screen we need to type in a License code. Click ADD and NEXT.

We´re done with adding Licenses. Click FINISH.

Now you should be able to see the newly added Licenses in the RD Licensing Manager.

That´s your Microsoft RDS Licensing server on Windows Server 2016.

Windows Rds Licensing

Cheers,
Sinisa