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I can not get Licensing issue resolved on Essentials server for Remote access. While I'm familiar with Windows server, I"m less familiar with the Essentials SKU.

The user has deployed Windows 2016 Essentials and completed the Access Anywhere wizard.

It appears to deploy all the RDS roles, it configures it for per-user licensing and the essentials server is listed as the licensing server. There are no errors around the deployment other than the licensing notice. licensing mode remains "Remote Desktop for Administration". I've noticed in the Technet forums where this was present on 2012 servers, but it seemed related to users who manually deployed the RDS role. In this case, everything was configured thru the Essentials wizard, so I assume here - all the roles should be deployed including the session host server.

If this were a standard deployment we would load up the CALs and call it a day - but there should be no additional license configuration needed for an Essentials server.

I've re-run the wizard and repaired the anywhere access - but nothing has changed. Curious if anyone has hit this with 2016 and what they did to resolve it.

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Essentials will not work with the RDS roles at all, with the exception of RD Gateway. MS Support pointed me to the Server 2012 Licensing page, and referenced the fine-print, where is says "(8) Only the RD Gateway role service is installed and configured, other RDS role services including RD Session Host are not supported." https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/licensing/product-licensing/windows-server-2012-r2.aspx#tab=1

None of this is mentioned in any of the Remote Desktop Services licensing information, and it is also not mentioned in any way in the 2016 Essentials documentation.

No way around it.

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  • thanks for the answer. I came to the same conclusion. I don't work much with Essentials, but it's spot on - you can't deploy those other roles and expect it to work. Oct 24, 2017 at 12:28

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