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I am not ashamed to admit it but Microsoft licensing confuses me quite a bit. I thought I would ask here first before calling MS directly.

Here is the scenario, I have a very old terminal server in my office that my accountants use to run software to connect to our main financial server (which is intentionally isolated from everything in the network). I would like to replace it with a new terminal server running 2008 R2 Standard. They also use Office on the existing server for Excel and the occasional Word document.

I think I'm okay with the RDS licensing, I only need 5 licenses so I'll just buy a pack of them, but I have no idea what to do about the Office licensing. I keep reading conflicting answers on whether or not I need a volume license for it. I've never dealt with Office licensing before so I'm lost. We do not have an Open License agreement or software assurance thing in my office if that matters.

user77467
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    possible duplicate of [Can you help me with my software licensing question?](http://serverfault.com/questions/215405/can-you-help-me-with-my-software-licensing-question) – GregD Apr 07 '11 at 03:03

2 Answers2

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Ms Office has TS/RDS-specific license keys which are the only ones that'll work in a TS/RDS environment.

If you try and install Office on a TS/RDS with a regular key, you'll get a message telling you that it's not valid for your environment, or 'I see this is a terminal server but you're trying to use a workstation license. No can do'.

You'll know you've sought out appropriate licencing once you manage to get hold of a TS/RDS key for office. As to the specifics of getting hold of one of those keys, see the dupe questions that's linked.

Chris Thorpe
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  • "Ms Office has TS/RDS-specific license keys which are the only ones that'll work in a TS/RDS environment." If I install Office on my TS can I have it use volume licensing? I have a KMS Host/Office volume licensing host. Will each instance of Office see the Office key host and use that key? – Chadddada Apr 11 '11 at 20:52
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    Office installed on RDS can be activated with KMS. Can't answer for your specific licensing scenario, though. – Chris Thorpe Apr 11 '11 at 23:12
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I have had a similar problem a few months back. Called my MS rep, explained situation, and had a PO on my hands in no time. Why waste time on a forum, when you can have a proper answer from an authorised source, and probably faster?

dyasny
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