Revoke a Terminal Services Per Device Client Access License
Applies To: Windows Server 2008
When a terminal server is configured to use Per Device licensing mode, and a client computer or device connects to a terminal server for the first time, the client computer or device is issued a temporary license by default. When a client computer or device connects to a terminal server for the second time, if the Terminal Services license server is activated and enough TS Per Device CALs are available, the license server issues the client computer or device a permanent TS Per Device CAL. If the license server is not activated or does not have any TS Per Device CALs available, the device will continue to use the temporary license. The temporary license is valid for 90 days.
A permanent TS Per Device CAL issued by a license server is configured to automatically expire after a random period between 52 and 89 days, at which time the TS Per Device CAL will return to the pool of available TS Per Device CALs on the license server.
In some circumstances, you might want or need to return a TS Per Device CAL that has been issued back to the available pool on the license server before the automatic expiration period has been reached. For example, you might want to do this if the client computer or device is no longer a part of your environment.
In Windows Server 2008 you can revoke a TS Per Device CAL by using the TS Licensing Manager tool.
Important
In Windows Server 2008 you can only revoke a TS Per Device CAL. You cannot revoke a TS Per User CAL.
After you have revoked the TS Per Device CAL, that TS Per Device CAL will be immediately available to be issued to another client computer or device. Revocation is not a substitute for ensuring that you have enough TS Per Device CALs to support your environment.
You can only revoke up to twenty percent of the number of TS Per Device CALs of a particular version installed on your license server. For example, if there are 100 Windows Server 2003 TS Per Device CALs installed on the license server, you can only have 20 of those Windows Server 2003 TS Per Device CALs revoked at any given time. If you also have 200 Windows Server 2008 TS Per Device CALs installed on the license server, you can revoke up to 40 of those Windows Server 2008 TS Per Device CALs in addition to the Windows Server 2003 TS Per Device CALs that you have revoked.
Use the following procedure to revoke a TS Per Device CAL by using TS Licensing Manager.
Membership in the Administrators group, or equivalent, is the minimum required to complete this procedure. Review details about using the appropriate accounts and group memberships at Local and Domain Default Groups (https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=83477).
To revoke a TS Per Device CAL by using TS Licensing Manager
Click Start, point to Administrative Tools, point to Terminal Services, and then click TS Licensing Manager.
Expand the node that represents the license server that issued the TS Per Device CAL, and then select the node that represents the version of TS Per Device CAL that was issued. For example, click Windows Server 2008 - Installed TS Per Device CALs.
From the list of issued TS Per Device CALs, select the TS Per Device CAL that you want to revoke.
On the Action menu, click Revoke TS CAL.
To confirm that you want to revoke this TS Per Device CAL, click Yes.
If the revocation was successful, a message will appear confirming that the TS Per Device CAL was revoked and telling you how many more TS Per Device CALs of that version you can still revoke.
Click OK to close this message. The Status column for the TS Per Device CAL will show a status of Revoked when the TS Licensing Manager display is refreshed.