About CAL
Client Access Licenses or CAL are a category of licenses sold by Microsoft that provide access to server software. 
Client Access Licenses (CALs) are applicable to server products licensed under the Server/CAL and Per Core/CAL licensing models. Under these models you license your use of the server software via Server or Core licenses, and you separately license access to that server software via CALs. CALs themselves do not provide any software or services; they simply provide the right to access server software.
Types of CALs
CALs are typically available on a per user or per device basis. User CALs permit the licensed user to access the server software from any device, whereas Device CALs permit any user to access the server software from the licensed device.
Figure: User and Device CALs
Base and Additive CALs
Base CALs: used to access Base Server functionality​. Base CALs are the minimum requirement for accessing any of the applicable server product’s functionality. For example, anyone in your organization accessing any Windows Server functionality requires a Windows Server CAL, which is the Base CAL for Windows Server,
Additive CAL*: used to access advanced functionality (like RDS, Active Directory Rights management)​. For example, remote access to Window Server requires Windows Server Remote Desktop Services CAL (an Additive CAL for Windows Server) in addition to Windows Server Base CAL.
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*Note: Additive CALs are required to be purchased in addition to Base CALs for advanced server functionality​ .
Figure: Base and Additive CALs
Figure: Microsoft Windows server product terms on CAL access
Other Important Details
1. Access to multiple server editions
Base and Additive CALs are tied to the specific functionalities they enable access to and not the different editions of the server software. For example, Windows Server Standard CAL licenses access to base functionality whether provided via Windows Server Standard or Windows Server DC
2. Only 1 user/device CAL required to access any number of licensed servers
You only need one user or device Additive CAL to use the services on any number of your licensed servers. For example, a Remote Desktop Services User CAL allows one user to access Remote Desktop Services functionality on any of your servers licensed for Windows Server
3. Provision of Downgrade Rights
CALS also provide downgrade rights (current version of CAL can cover for lower versions). However, to access higher versions you will need Software assurance
Support on ServiceNow SAM Pro
Let’s understand the steps to configure Microsoft Windows Server CALs on SAM Pro.
1. Create entitlement(s) and software model (s) for Base and Additive CALs for Microsoft Windows Server
It’s essential to understand that licensing your Windows Server installations is based on a different metric, such as Per Core (with CAL). Therefore, be sure to include both entitlements—CALs are only needed for licensing user or device access, not the installation itself. As a result, you must have entitlements for both Per Core (with CAL) and User/Device CALs."
Navigate to software entitlement on License Operations and select a PPN for Base /Additive CAL. This should auto create software model(s). Make sure to use the license metric as user or device CAL depending on your entitlement purchased.
Figure: Windows Server Base CAL entitlement
Figure: Windows Server RDS CAL entitlement
2. Discover the base CAL for Windows/SQL server and determine CAL usage for Additive CALs
Run ServiceNow discovery on your environment to discover Base CAL usage. Refer to Xanadu release notes for the same here:
You can view the details of discovery on this table-> samp_user_device_license_consumption
Figure: Base CAL discovery for Windows/SQL Server on ServiceNow
Here in, you can determine the user/devices accessing Windows Server. Determine the count of users accessing Windows Server, as well as their names.
Currently ServiceNow does not discover additive CALs usage such as RDS CAL. Herein, you can request your Windows Server admin to provide you with the Windows Server RDS CAL usage report.
3. Create the CAL records for the base and additive CALs
From the above discovered table, you get an understanding of which users have accessed Windows Server and their count.
Navigate to License Operations-> Client access> Client access and click on New
You can create separate CAL records for base and additive CALs
For Base CAL
- Enter a name, software model (use the software model created on the entitlement record), Type (User/device CAL) and count (this is the count of users accessing the Windows server software).
- On the users tab you can provide the user /devices names of user accessing the software. This is optional as SAM Pro will consider the count while licensing your CAL records. However, it is advisable to have it for record keeping purposes.
Figure: Windows Server Base CAL record
Figure: Windows Server Base CAL user records
For RDS CAL
Follow the same mechanism for each additive CAL
Figure: Windows Server RDS CAL record
Note: You don’t need to add anything on Devices with installation for Microsoft Server products. The use case is applicable for other server products.
4. Run Reconciliation and view results
- You should be able to see the software model on the License work bench and navigate to License metric results to see License compliance details i.e., Licenses owned vs Licenses required
- Thereby you can click on Licenses required to view consumption details
- You can again click on Licenses required -> License required breakdown to determine which user/devices are consuming from this license
- You should be able to view the results for each of the software models for base CAL and additive CAL (such as RDS)
Figure: Windows Server Base CAL License compliance
Figure: Windows Server Base CAL License consumption
Figure: Windows Server Base CAL License consumption details
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