The RDS Licensing group policy settings control the order in which RDS license servers are located, whether problem notifications are displayed, and whether Per User or Per Device licensing is used for RDS Client Access Licenses (CALs).

The Horizon 7 RDS group policy settings are installed in the Computer Configuration > Policies > Administrative Templates > Windows Components > Remote Desktop Services > Remote Desktop Session Host > Licensing folder.

Table 1. RDS Licensing Group Policy Settings
Setting Description
Use the specified Remote Desktop license servers

This policy setting allows you to specify the order in which an RDS host server attempts to locate Remote Desktop license severs.

If you enable this policy setting, an RDS host server first attempts to locate the license servers that you specify. If the specified license servers cannot be located, the RDS host server will attempt automatic license server discovery.

In the automatic license server discovery process, an RDS host server in a Windows Server-based domain attempts to contact a license server in the following order:

  1. License servers that are specified in the Remote Desktop Session Host Configuration tool.
  2. License servers that are published in Active Directory Domain Services.
  3. License servers that are installed on domain controllers in the same domain as the RDS host.

If you disable or do not configure this policy setting, the RDS host uses the license server discovery mode specified in the Remote Desktop Session Host Configuration tool.

Hide notifications about RD Licensing problems that affect the RD Session Host server

This policy setting determines whether notifications are displayed on an RDS host when there are problems with RD Licensing that affect the RDS host.

By default, notifications are displayed on an RDS host after you log on as a local administrator, if there are problems with RD Licensing that affect the RDS host. If applicable, a notification will also be displayed that notes the number of days until the licensing grace period for the RDS host will expire.

If you enable this policy setting, these notifications will not be displayed on the RDS host.

If you disable or do not configure this policy setting, these notifications will be displayed on the RDS host after you log on as a local administrator.

Set the Remote Desktop licensing mode

This policy setting allows you to specify the type of Remote Desktop Services client access license (RDS CAL) that is required to connect to this RDS host.

You can use this policy setting to select one of two licensing modes: Per User or Per Device.

Per User licensing mode requires that each user account connecting to this RDS host have an RDS Per User CAL.

Per Device licensing mode requires that each device connecting to this RDS host have an RDS Per Device CAL.

If you enable this policy setting, the licensing mode that you specify takes precedence over the licensing mode that is specified during the installation of Remote Desktop Session Host or specified in the Remote Desktop Session Host Configuration tool.

If you disable or do not configure this policy setting, the licensing mode that is specified during the installation of Remote Desktop Session Host role service or specified in the Remote Desktop Session Host Configuration tool is used.