Small Business Server 2000 - Question about Licenses

Post by **FlyingPenguin** » Tue Jul 22, 2003 3:48 pm

I've never purchased SBS 2000 before (all the SBS systems I've managed already had it installed when I started working on them) and the licensing structure is puzzling me.

When you buy it with a server from Dell, they only sell it with a 5 client license (WTF happened to 10 client licenses?).

QUESTIONS:

- Does that really mean that only 5 people can be logged on at once? I remember the NT Server licenses didn't actually restrict the number of clients. There probably will only be 5 people on this server at any one time, but we might occasionally have someone remotely connect or have someone jack in a laptop, and we need to cover that.

- If we need more licenses, is there usually an order form or order number that comes with the OS to order more licenses?

Thanks...

Post by **FlyingPenguin** » Wed Jul 23, 2003 12:08 pm

Moved this to General forum because I wasn't sure if anyone saw it in OS...

TheManiacal1 · Post by **TheManiacal1** » Wed Jul 23, 2003 1:11 pm

the 5 cals do not restrict your login sessions to 5 concurrent logins. with SBS, you can have up to 20 (or 25, i forget what the magic number is) users max. but for the price, you also get all the other goodies like exchange and crap.

you can order CALs individually or in bulk. places to consider include:
cdw
atomic park
softchoice

atomic park has slightly better prices, but softchoice deals pretty much ONLY in software so they know licensing much better than the others.

Post by **FlyingPenguin** » Wed Jul 23, 2003 4:10 pm

Okay so you're saying that the 5 license SBS 2000 won't have a fit if we happen to have 6 users, right?

Yeah, I wouldn't be going with SBS but they want to use Exchange for in-office email. Personally I don't like SBS for small businesses - the beast really requires a full time administrator.

TheManiacal1 · Post by **TheManiacal1** » Thu Jul 24, 2003 9:43 pm

i'll be honest, FP... MS licensing has changed so much in the past 5-6 yrs that i don't know what the exact specifics are anymore. if i remember correctly, you will need an extra CAL if you're going to have 6 different nodes accessing that server.

you're right about SBS needing an administrator. not necessarily full time, but someone readily available at least. it's a great bargain if you use the functionality but run a small shop. however keeping an eye on exchange AND SQL server AND IIS AND Terminal Services Server AND ISA AND... that can get really tedious and time consuming