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So today we are performing our first SBS 2008 production installation. I’d like to say this has gone smoothly without any glitches and for the most part so far it has.
We were all prepared to complete a migration using the technet provided resources but unfortunately the clients already flaky server decided to give up the ghost completely so we have had to resort to a brand new install. We were able to get all the clients data off a current backup including their Exchange data so after importing all the data and running through the to-do list we were ready to install the Client Access Licences (CALs)
After 20 minutes of 4 of us searching trying to find some kind of licensing console and doing some searching on the ‘net it finally dawned on us that there is in fact no licensing console and no licensing enforcement - yep, you heard that right - NO LICENSING CONSOLE AND NO LICENSING ENFORCEMENT!!!
So what does this say about Microsoft? Other software vendors are able (and do) lock out users of their software if the number of licences is exceeded - so why don’t Microsoft? In SBS 2003 via the licensing console we had a basic way of telling how many licences were installed and the maximum usage of those licences since the last reboot - admittedly this wasn’t foolproof but it was better than nothing! Now not only do we have to change our policies to record how many licences a client has, but it is also harder to track how many users/devices they have connected to their server - that’s what I call a huge step backwards!
I would really love someone from Microsoft to provide a single good reason for removing licence enforcement, I really would. In one fell swoop not only have MS made our lives more difficult from a technical/admin point of view, they’ve also made it (even) easier for unscrupulous partners and customers to ignore licensing issues - Come on Microsoft, you need to be sharper than this!
Interesting Stuff. Definately one that will be open to abuse.
Paul
Agree that it makes life a little more difficult for us as trusted advisor’s - there’s no doubt that the majority of clients would be moved to buy licensing to prevent something breaking rather than buying licenses because it’s the “right thing to do”. We’ve now got a tougher job having to explain the legal implications of going unlicensed.
As I understand it, the licensing module was removed because MS realised it simply “didn’t work” in previous versions - and let’s be honest, it really didn’t! I’m assuming that a re-write of the module to enforce licensing would have been a job too far at this stage of SBS?
I have 5 licenses cals sbs user 2008, but i don’t how to active.
It never counted correctly in the last version.
Would you rather that it be done right, correctly or totally and utterly fail and anger you and your clients so much that you’d be taking a pitch fork to them.
Go install EBS. Go see how their CALs block you from access is you don’t assign them correctly. Go think of that console on SBS.
Be glad it’s not there.
Point taken Susan.
The console was there in the beta but as Susan rightly states it never really worked in any version.
And to be fair your customers probably don’t even know about the licensing console, getting them legal is really all that matters and you don’t need a console for that - just give them good advice as I know we all do.
found this by google. We just move from SBS2003 to 2008 and discovered this “feature.”
I welcome this “return to sanity.”
SBS2003 was seriously broken in this area. One install would lose all licensing randomly when windows update was run. we were forced to reinstall the add-on licensing about every 3-5 weeks.
If we as “trusted advisors” don’t tell the client about this, they will not be tempted to run unlicensed to cut costs and will never need be concerned about an audit.