Microsoft CAL for Moto devices

H Harry Banias 3 years 5 months ago
2 2 0

Team, One of my clients looks like they be audited by Microsoft and is asking what is Motorola's stance on CAL's for our devices? Basically it gets down to a change in the licensing which occurred in 2003 which slipped under a lot of peoples radar. In the original pre 2003 documentation there were some example scenarios which indicated that if you used authentication, file or print service then you needed a CAL. The wording is this: •        You must acquire and assign a CAL to each device or user that accesses your instances of the server software directly or indirectly.  A hardware partition or blade is considered to be a separate device. Note especially the "or indirectly" which is where MOST of the problems occur. You will get pinged on this in several ways 1) Network Layer If the device uses ANY services from a Windows Server for network access then it will need a CAL. Consider the following scenarios a) PEAP authentication The mobile device uses PEAP to connect to the server, and the account is in Active Directory. BINGO b) Microsoft Internet Authentication Services If the mobile devices uses ANY component of this service including simple RADIUS proxying BINGO. c) DHCP The device obtains a IP address from a DCHP pool managed by a Windows Server. BINGO again Anyone have any input what is Motorola official Stance on this? Apparently this also extends to MSP, Wavelink/Soti where mangement is used to run OS updates to a device. Say a new OS image is deployed in an automated way and the OS is stored on a Windows Server then BINGO - Microsoft gets you again. Regards Harry

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R Richard Linsley-Hood

Extract from an appropriate current Microsoft CAL agreement below. See section on device CALs for WM devices. Motorola would almost certianly recomend that the customer follows whatever sever CAL requirements are setout by the server provider. I should add that Microsoft Exchange and SQL both require additional CALs (but those do not count towards the sever CAL count). The choice between Device CALs and User CALS is a customer one. ----- Microsoft has introduced new licensing options with the release of Windows Small Business Server 2008 ... ...
Server Licensing Requirements The Windows Small Business Server 2008 license gives you the right to install and use the server software. The purchase of a Windows Small Business Server 2008 comes with five CALs, which give you the right to have five devices or users access the server software.

CAL Requirements With Windows Small Business Server 2008, use of server services does not activate CALs. Instead, businesses choose how CALs will be used based on how the server needs to be accessed on a regular basis. Both editions of Windows Small Business Server 2008 offer two types of CALs to choose from: device-based (device CALs) or user-based (user CALs) options. These options give you the flexibility to choose the CAL that best suits your organization.

Device CALs
With device CALs, you acquire a CAL for every device—such as laptops, desktop computers, and Microsoft Windows Mobile—based Pocket PCs and smartphones—that needs access to your server. With this option, any user can access the server on the licensed device. Device CALs might make the most economic and administrative sense for an organization that has multiple users for one device, such as shift workers. If you choose device CALs, then each device that accesses the Windows Small Business Server 2008 server will consume a CAL, and you can reallocate that CAL if you retire a device.

User CALs
With user CALs, you acquire a CAL for individuals who are given named access to your server. Licensed users can access the server from any device. User CALs might make the most sense for an organization that has many roaming employees who need access to the corporate network from mobile devices or employees who use multiple devices to access the network. You can reallocate a user CAL if a reassignment is permanent. You can also temporarily reassign a user CAL if the user is on leave or the device is disabled.

CAL Compliance When completing the CAL license document, you can specify whether you would like a per-user or a per-device CAL. For CAL add-in packs, separate versions are available for per-user and per-device preferences.

For license compliance, it is recommended that you maintain records of your purchase and CAL assignments. ---

S Steffen Pohl

Do we have any experiences or recommendations in case of MSP? Does a customer requires CALs for their MCs managed by MSP? Is there a difference if they are using the IIS ftp server or an independant ftp server? I already have two customers asking for clarification and they expect an answer from us, because the answer by Microsoft is obvious.

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