This blog post introduces the new Centralized Licensing Management work, implemented in Windows Server 2008 R2 Service Pack 1 (SP1) as a part of the RemoteFX feature, for centrally managing the licensing configuration in a Microsoft Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI) deployment.
This post assumes that you have a basic understanding of the following:
Centralized Licensing Management is a new sub-feature that has been implemented in Windows Server 2008 R2 SP1, as a byproduct of RemoteFX work. It enables Microsoft VDI administrators to specify licensing configuration for the entire VDI deployment centrally from one place; that is, from the RD Connection Broker server.
Until Windows Server 2008 R2, in a VDI deployment the RD Virtualization Host server was not aware of licensing settings because only the RD Session Host server participated in licensing and performed license validations for the client session/connection requests. But the new licensing model for Microsoft VDI (in Windows Server 2008 R2 SP1) requires that the Remote Desktop licensing mode and the list of Remote Desktop license servers must be specified in all RD Session Host servers (configured in VM redirection mode) as well as in all the RD Virtualization Host servers (with RemoteFX enabled), because the RD Virtualization Host servers can also participate in VDI licensing. Therefore, an option was provided for the admins to specify licensing configuration on the RD Connection Broker server. This would address the following concerns:
As a part of this feature, the licensing settings (Remote Desktop license type and the list of specified Remote Desktop license servers) can be specified on the RD Connection Broker server. This feature also provides an option to turn centralized licensing management ON or OFF (in case the VDI administrator decides to configure licensing separately on different servers). A VDI administrator can configure centralized licensing management on the RD Connection Broker server by using one of the following:
If these licensing settings need to be modified later, just open this Properties page again, update the licensing mode or the list of Remote Desktop license servers, and then click OK or Apply . The modified settings will be applied on all the servers that are configured on the RD Connection Broker server.
If the administrator decides that the licensing settings should not be centrally managed and wants to specify different licensing settings manually on different RD Virtualization Host servers, he can simply clear the Apply the following settings to all servers check box and specify licensing settings separately on all the RD Virtualization Host servers which have RemoteFX enabled.
If these licensing settings need to be modified later, in an elevated Windows PowerShell window, execute import-module remotedesktopservices; cd RDS:connectionbrokerVirtualDesktopsLicensingSettings; and update the licensing mode or the list of Remote Desktop license servers as desired. The modified settings will be applied on all the servers that are configured on the RD Connection Broker server.
If the administrator decides that the licensing settings should not be centrally managed and wants to specify different licensing settings manually on different RD Virtualization Host servers, he or she can simply execute set-item UseCentralLicensingSettings 0 and specify licensing settings separately on all the RD Virtualization Host servers that have RemoteFX enabled.
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