Terminal Services

No. It is not possible to run Terminal Services in Application Server mode on SBS 2003 R2. Running Terminal Services in Application Server mode on a domain controller presents a potential security risk to your network and so application mode is disabled. If you want to use Terminal Services in Application Server mode, we recommend that you purchase an additional Windows Server 2003 license and install an additional server running Windows Server into the SBS 2003 R2 domain. You could also run Microsoft Virtual Server 2005 on SBS 2003 R2 and then run Windows Server 2003 in terminal services mode within Virtual Server. See the Microsoft Web site for running a Terminal Server in a SBS environment.

There is a security risk involved in running Terminal Services in application sharing mode on a domain controller. Since SBS is always a domain controller, we have disabled this functionality so to improve the security of our customers’ networks. If you have a hardware constraint, there is a whitepaper that explains how to run Windows Server with Terminal Services from within a Virtual Server on your SBS machine.

You still need an SBS 2003 R2 CAL for each user or device that authenticates on the SBS 2003 R2 network. When you log on to a Terminal Server session, you authenticate on the network, which requires you to have an SBS 2003 R2 CAL.” In addition, you will also need Terminal Server CALs for each Terminal Services user. See http://www.microsoft.com/windowsserver2003/howtobuy/licensing/ts2003.mspx for more information on Terminal Services licensing requirements. You do not require Windows Server CALs, as those are covered by your SBS CALs.

"Multiplexing" is a term that sometimes used to describe the pooling of hardware or software so that the number of CALs needed is reduced. However, Microsoft licensing does not allow multiplexing and therefore does not reduce the number of CALs required. Any user or device that accesses the server, files, or data or content provided by the server, or that is made available through an automated process, requires a CAL. For example, you cannot create two generic user accounts on Terminal Server and let all employees log onto the server to gain access to information on the network. Each employee would still require a user CAL or device CAL, as appropriate. See http://download.microsoft.com/download/8/7/3/8733d036-92b0-4cb8-8912-3b6ab966b8b2/multiplexing.doc for more discussion on multiplexing.