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where to buy CAL's for SBS2003

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gorilly

Member
Joined
Jul 16, 2004
Location
uxbridge, London, UK
i need to buy some CAL's for SBS2003. i just need a 5 pack. anyone know where i can buy them online?

do i just buy server 2003 cals or do they have to be sbs2003 cals?

also can someone explain in deatil the difference between user and device cals.. i understand the general idea but i cant see how the server can track attached devices? for example i have print servers etc... or is it controlled by DHCP?

cheers
 
I always go with Device and not user... this means that each MACHINE needs a cal, but can have as many users as you want. You can get cal's here, although shop around you could get better pricing im sure: http://www.viosoftware.com/Small+Business+Server+2003/?osCsid=380e05fa198ffa467896170837d5cd40

The server has a licensing service that tracks the CAL's. If you went per user, each user in AD would need a cal, very rarely would this make more sense than per device as like I said, you could have say 10 workstations and get just 10 cal's. Now 1000 people could take turns using the workstations and that is perfectly fine. If you had 10 workstations and 1000 users (unlikely I know, just an example) and went with per user cal's, you'd need 1000 cal's.
 
nikhsub1 said:
I always go with Device and not user... this means that each MACHINE needs a cal, but can have as many users as you want. You can get cal's here, although shop around you could get better pricing im sure: http://www.viosoftware.com/Small+Business+Server+2003/?osCsid=380e05fa198ffa467896170837d5cd40

The server has a licensing service that tracks the CAL's. If you went per user, each user in AD would need a cal, very rarely would this make more sense than per device as like I said, you could have say 10 workstations and get just 10 cal's. Now 1000 people could take turns using the workstations and that is perfectly fine. If you had 10 workstations and 1000 users (unlikely I know, just an example) and went with per user cal's, you'd need 1000 cal's.


thanks for that mate,

i've never had to buy CALs before so its something new to learn about all the red tape.

i thought one cal was going to be about £20/$40

how can i tell how i already have my cals set up? user of device?

cheers

lol i think it must be set to per device as i have about 30+ users accounts
 
When the OS is installed, you choose your CAL preference, Device or User... In administrative tools there should be a licensing tab.
 
I don't think you need to buy cals. You can just go to the control panel and up the number of cals to whatever you want.
 
Ahh no, I beleive you can do this on any copy of Windows 2003 or Windows 2000. You just change the server licensing. MS is very unclear about their licensing and they tend to change it frequently so its difficult to determine what is legal in terms of cals. I beleive the only cals for windows server they still sell are terminal services cals.

BTW, I have run networks for two businesses and currently work in a data center with over 10,000 servers so perhaps you want to retract your comment.
 
Ebola, I do believe that cal's are legally required for each device or user on the domain. There are seperate TS cal's as well.
 
nikhsub1 said:
Ebola, I do believe that cal's are legally required for each device or user on the domain. There are seperate TS cal's as well.


Well here is my definitive answer on CALs.

Per Seat (Device and User) - If you have two servers with 5 cals each then a total of ten users can access these servers at the same time. You could have 9 users on one server and one on another and so on as long as the total is 10 or less.

Per Server - If you have two servers with 5 cals each, only 5 users can access each servers. The licenses do not overlap.

Web users (non authenticating users) do not count as users who need cals. You can have unlimited web users. Windows 2003 Web edition does not use CALs.

According to the Windows 2003 Admin Companion licensing mode can be changed once if you select Per server.

The number of licenses can be manually adjusted without entering new keys. If you have multiple servers in per seat mode, you are probably ok anyways. The license logging service can also be safely disabled to prevent notifications.

Small Business server uses slightly different CALs and I believe they do not work with other versions of Server. This is because SBS integrates Exchange and SQL into its CAL licensing. So you will have to buy SBS CALs.

Does that cover it?
 
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