We have an application where we would like multiple remote students to be able to connect to Win7 desktops running within Hyper-V sessions on WMS via the Internet using RDP over HTTPS. Is this something that WMS 2012 supports as a standard feature (e.g. by simply enabling a web gateway and pointing all inbound HTTPS/Port 443 traffic from the firewall to it) or would this feature require the installation of additional equipment/software ?

If this is possible, the other question is whether any additional licensing is required other than just the standard server CAL + WMS CAL per student ? i.e. as there is remote access to VMs taking place is there any VDA licensing required, or is that already covered within the server CALs and WMS CALs ?

The application is the training of students that are located remote to our company training facility. The other issue in terms of licensing is that the students would be a mix of company employees, partners, and end-users. Not sure if this has any impact on the server CALs and WMS CALs ?

Thanks / JK

Hi JK.NZ this is something that i am very interested in, and would be a deal breaker as to weather we would invest in this.

Mo

Thought I'd bump this question up again as there appears to be some more interest in it ... but as of yet no firm answers ...

We have an application where we would like multiple remote students to be able to connect to Win7 desktops running within Hyper-V sessions on WMS via the Internet using RDP over HTTPS. Is this something that WMS 2012 supports as a standard feature (e.g. by simply enabling a web gateway and pointing all inbound HTTPS/Port 443 traffic from the firewall to it) or would this feature require the installation of additional equipment/software ?

If this is possible, the other question is whether any additional licensing is required other than just the standard server CAL + WMS CAL per student ? i.e. as there is remote access to VMs taking place is there any VDA licensing required, or is that already covered within the server CALs and WMS CALs ?

The application is the training of students that are located remote to our company training facility. The other issue in terms of licensing is that the students would be a mix of company employees, partners, and end-users. Not sure if this has any impact on the server CALs and WMS CALs ?

Thanks / JK

I've been trying to answer the second question on licensing today. Here are the answers I found:

First "there is nothing unique about WMS" (stated by James Duffas, MSFT) when it comes to licensing. This is completely contrary to the impression I originally got from the sales literature for WMS 2012...

That being the case, if you want to run virtualized instances of Windows 7/8:

1) For machines with retail or OEM Windows 7/8 licenses, you have to buy Software Assurance (SA)

2) For zero or thin clients, which do do not have a qualifying OS licenses, you have to buy VDA licenses

This is in addition to the WMS and Server Cals, or the combination Cals.

Thanks,
Shawn

• Edited by golub1 7 hours 19 minutes ago

I've been trying to answer the second question on licensing today. Here are the answers I found:

First "there is nothing unique about WMS" (stated by James Duffas, MSFT) when it comes to licensing. This is completely contrary to the impression I originally got from the sales literature for WMS 2012...

That being the case, if you want to run virtualized instances of Windows 7/8:

1) For machines with retail or OEM Windows 7/8 licenses, you have to buy Software Assurance (SA)

2) For zero or thin clients, which do do not have a qualifying OS licenses, you have to buy VDA licenses

This is in addition to the WMS and Server Cals, or the combination Cals.

Thanks,
Shawn

• Edited by golub1 Sunday, September 22, 2013 3:06 AM

Yes, in the absence of any other licensing information we need to assume that either SA or VDA is required. That means there is no advantage in using WMS over any other virtualization platform. In fact it would be cheaper to install a free Hyper-V or EXSi platform, and use either SA or VDA to provide both the remote access licensing and the right to install Win7/8 in the VMs.