RDS Licesing Model

[Michael Wrinkle]

I'm having the dickens of a time nailing done exact information we are getting ready to migrate from 2016 servers to 2019 with a smaller Citrix VDI solution we have in place. Originally we were told per Device but have had intermittent issues with apps Published from a virtual app server but don't ever remember RDS issues with Desktops.

 

Here is our environment 1912 LSTR CU5(to be CU 6 when we migrate servers)  

Nutanix Hypervisor 5.20 (to be upgraded to 6.5 later this year.

Access is routed through a pair of high availability ADC Gateways

MCS provisioning

We use both Win 10 virtual desktops and Virtual apps published from server 2016 virtual servers, sessions are non persistent with user profiles on the desktops folder redirected to a share for Citrix profiles on the Nutanix file shares. Desktop sessions are of course single session and Apps on servers are multi session.

Citrix Licensing is Apps and Desktops Advanced Concurrent Model

 

Citrix Engineers refuse to give me a straight answer citing third party for Microsoft I already now we need the licensing upgraded from 2016 to 2019 as 2016 cals are not backwards compatible but not certain on the RDS model needed from Microsoft, originally we were told per Device but most of what I glean out there says per User and for all I know in our situation maybe it's both.  Finally standard RDS deployment  offers to scenarios 1) Virtaul machine based desktop deployment 2 )Session based desktop deployment.  both of which sound like they may apply.

 

Can anyone help me nail this down please?!!

 

Thank you!

 

[CarlStalhood]

When you enable Per User, all enforcement is disabled. You don't need to install any licenses. However, you still must have an RDS Licensing Server. And you must own enough licenses to be compliant.

[CarlStalhood]

What is your question?

 

Per User is not enforced.

[Michael Wrinkle]

Question is there a specific RDS licensing model that should be used in above scenario?  Not sure what your asking, we are using Per Device so Per User would not be enforced or am I missing something rather obvious here?  Does it matter which model you are using? Everything I've read suggest Per User.

[CarlStalhood]

If you configure Per User, then it's not enforced, but you can still make sure you own sufficient Per Device licenses to be compliant.

[CarlStalhood]

Per Device is only helpful in environments that have multiple shifts sharing the same devices. Otherwise, per user is usually the more cost-effective option.

[Michael Wrinkle]

Ok interesting and thank you its not dependent on the Citrix setup at all merely what suits the Enterprise rather than specifically the CVAD.

[Michael Wrinkle]

Also when you say Per User is not enforced you mean if your running with Per device Licensing and set you GPO to Per User it does not enforce it will only enforce if your licensing is Per User?

[Michael Wrinkle]

3 hours ago, Carl Stalhood1709151912 said:

When you enable Per User, all enforcement is disabled. You don't need to install any licenses. However, you still must have an RDS Licensing Server. And you must own enough licenses to be compliant.

Thank you!

[Michael Wrinkle]

Thanks for the help another admin explained the non enforcement part