Kelly and I were having a discussion the other day about Microsoft licensing for a customer and the question of CAL\u2019s came up.\u00a0 Kelly was a bit confused by the whole concept (and she\u2019s NOT alone in that \u2026) so I had to explain to her what it is all about.\u00a0 She said, \u201cThere\u2019s a blog post in that!\u201d, so here it is \u2026<\/p>\n
CAL\u2019s (Client Access License) are the \u201cright to connect\u201d licenses that Microsoft sells alongside all of their server products.\u00a0 As a general rule of thumb, you require a CAL to connect to a given server (like Server 2012 R2) or a server service <\/em>(like SQLserver) and the CAL needs to match what you are connecting to.\u00a0 So, if you have a Server 2012 R2 server that hosts SQLserver you would need both a Windows Server CAL and a SQLserver CAL to \u201ctalk\u201d to SQL on the server.\u00a0 And, as you might surmise, this can get a whole lot more complicated if you have a lot of Microsoft server products installed.<\/p>\n There are multiple ways of licensing CAL\u2019s but the basics are actually pretty simple \u2026 you can CAL by DEVICE or by USER.\u00a0 A DEVICE CAL will license a given device<\/strong><\/em> to connect to the appropriate server or service regardless of the user logged in to the device.\u00a0 A USER CAL will license a given user<\/strong><\/em> to connect to the appropriate server or service regardless of the device used.\u00a0 Read the two preceding sentences carefully because there is a world of difference between the two CAL types and a possible monumental (and costly) licensing headache for you if you get it wrong.\u00a0 Generally, CAL\u2019s are simply a license that you buy and keep \u201con the shelf\u201d so that you can pull them out for examination if Microsoft ever audits you (don\u2019t laugh, we have seen a marked uptick recently in the number of Microsoft customers that are getting audited for license compliance).\u00a0 However, there are some types of CAL\u2019s that are actually applied<\/em> to a server; good examples would be Terminal Server\/RDS CAL\u2019s and SharePoint Enterprise CAL\u2019s.\u00a0 And, in the case of Terminal Server\/RDS CAL\u2019s you absolutely have to get the CAL type correct as you cannot mix and match DEVICE and USER CAL\u2019s on the same Terminal\/RDS server.<\/p>\n Now you might be thinking that CAL cost could quickly add up, and you would be correct, specially so when you start talking about things like SQL CAL\u2019s.\u00a0 Microsoft does have some licensing tricks to help soften the financial blow for certain types of CAL\u2019s.\u00a0 For example, you can license SQLserver using the \u201cprocessor model\u201d instead of the CAL model.\u00a0 In this case you can purchase SQLserver licenses that license unlimted user\/device connections by the CPU socket<\/em> (physical or virtual) on the SQLserver.\u00a0 There are a clearly defined set of rules that need to be followed in this instance in order to ensure you have the correct number of licenses purchased.\u00a0 But all of that said, it is much more cost effective to go this route if you have a reasonable number of users as CAL cost can mount up very quickly.\u00a0 In many cases the \u201ccross over point\u201d for SQL is between 25 and 30 CAL\u2019s.<\/p>\n Microsoft Cloud services such as Office365 and Azure essentially provide implicit USER CAL licensing, there is no extra explicit CAL licensing required (a definite advantage over traditional licensing and one you need to factor into your calculations when you compare on-premises licensing costs against Cloud licensing costs).<\/p>\n Keep in mind that when you purchase Microsoft on-premise licensing it is incumbent upon you, as part of accepting the licensing agreement, to ensure you have also purchased the appropriate number and type of CAL\u2019s.\u00a0 CAL\u2019s are as much a part of the licensing equation as the actual server license itself.\u00a0 And CAL\u2019s are invariably the thing that organizations get caught out on when they get audited.\u00a0 Rule of thumb:\u00a0 When in doubt make sure you double check with your Microsoft reseller or even with Microsoft themselves.\u00a0 Microsoft, like other software vendors, takes a dim view of organizations that attempt to \u201cskirt the rules\u201d.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"