Advice badly needed: rdesktop with Win2K Terminal Services

[theYinYeti]

I'm in the process of making my company switch one of its servers to Linux, and "sort of" switch all their PC to linux too. Here's what I plan:

- A Windows 2000 Terminal Services server for all Win32 apps, and remote display

- A Linux server for everything else (files, printers, backup, firewall, DHCP, Apache, LDAP...)

- rdesktop (RDP protocol) on Linux for all PCs (Linux is used, but hidden under the Win32 desktop)

- Authentication with LDAP/Samba

 

Now I've read this article: http://mcpmag.com/columns/article.asp?EditorialsID=295 and I'm becoming very concerned (and worried) about licences, and authentication.

 

I have NO experience with Windows Terminals, and NO experience with Samba and LDAP authentication, and besides, English is not my mother-tongue.

So please advise me:

 

1- Do I understand wrong, or do I have to purchase Windows client licences for Linux clients (!!!) running rdesktop?

* if so, where does Linux store the license file?

* if not, will Linux clients be allowed to connect to the Win2K server?

 

2- Do I have to run Win2K Terminal Services with Active Directory, or will the server accept to use an external LDAP server for authentication?

 

3- In short, am I going straight to trouble :?

 

Yves.

[johnnyv]

Ok im not conversant on win2k terminal server but

 

As far as i know microsoft server requires a license for every connected user thats why samba servers are so popular(you don't have to pay for seats on the server).

 

Normally the purchase of a server product comes with a certain number of user licenses, if you want to connect more users to the server you need to buy a extra license pack which was on a disk that you run on the server to allow more users to connect to it.

 

Note that i haven't been following this sort of thing for sometime now, as i am only using linux servers, so things may have changed (though i doubt it, and if so not for the better).

[ranger]

Ok im not conversant on win2k terminal server but

 

As far as i know microsoft server requires a license for every connected user thats why samba servers are so popular(you don't have to pay for seats on the server).

 

Normally the purchase of a server product comes with a certain number of user licenses,  if you want to connect more users to the server you need to buy a extra license pack which was on a disk that you run on the server to allow more users to connect to it.

 

Be very careful with licensing ... it changes often.

 

1)For NT4, licenses are based on the number of clients connecting to a server (IIRC NT4 essentially only had per-server licensing). This made running samba servers a good licensing option even if your DCs were Windows

2)With win2k, per-seat licensing is cheaper in bigger installations, and is determined by the number of users authenticated by a server, so here you don't win financially if you have a Windows DC (you would have to run a samba DC, which is what many people are starting to do).

3)"Server/Authentication" licensing is much different from "Application Server" licensing, such as SQL Server, Terminal Server etc, and they each require their own licenses, regardless of any other licenses (although they are bunlded in Small Business Edition).

4)NT4 required you to purchase additional Terminal Server Licenses for each client

5)Windows 2000 Pro now includes a Terminal Server License, which IMHO should be an issue for Anti-trust cases ...

 

I haven't used rdesktop against a TS in Application Server mode, so I can't answer much more, such as whether the "don't request server license" does anything useful.

 

Maybe it would be better to get Win4Lin server?

[theYinYeti]

microsoft server requires a license for every connected user thats why samba servers are so popular

Win4Lin server?

:shock: :shock: :!:

Coooooooool ! I did not even know that it existed !

Is that what johnnyv means by "samba server"? Because ultimately, you have to make win32 apps work for each terminal, so this implies a Terminal Server of some sort.

 

I looked at NeTraverse's WTS2 page, and this seems to be too good to be true! What I don't understand is what version of Windows has to be used (unlike wine, Win4Lin needs a real Win licence, AFAIK):

- If it is Win2k TS or the like, I'm affraid their claims are wrong, because the Windows licence clearly states that TS-like services, whichever way they are provided, require one TS client licence per connected PC.

- If it is Win2k Pro, or WinXP Pro, or WinNT Wks, or Win9x/ME, (especially later case) then I don't see how WTS2 can manage TS sessions, because those products aren't created for doing so, and user's settings and documents, and profile/home may not be isolated as expected.

- If it is same as above, but forked for each connection (better isolation expected), then it seems Windows is running N times, hence requiring N licences.

 

I'm a little lost here, but I'll surely explore this way.

 

Yves.

[johnnyv]

microsoft server requires a license for every connected user thats why samba servers are so popular

Win4Lin server?

:shock: :shock: :!:

Coooooooool ! I did not even know that it existed !

Is that what johnnyv means by "samba server"? Because ultimately, you have to make win32 apps work for each terminal, so this implies a Terminal Server of some sort.

 

I only meant samba server in regards to a pdc/file server not a terminal server.

 

btw what applications are you going to be serving to the thin clients?

[theYinYeti]

I looked at Win4Lin Server. It won't do for my company, even though it's a good product. The server will have to run Office2000, Visual Studio, Access, and much much more.

 

Yves.