ThinManager Licensing FAQ

How can a Thin Client run without a ThinManager license on the Terminal Server?

The Thin Client only looks for the ThinManager license when it boots. After that it logs into a Windows Terminal Server on the network and displays a session.

Think about it like buying admission to a theme park - a Terminal Server theme park, if you will. It is summer and so you and seventeen of your Thin Client buddies excitedly approach the front gate. The sign on the gate says that nobody will be let in without a ThinManager license and a Microsoft TSCAL (more on this later). Fortunately you purchased a 25 pack of ThinManager and 20 TSCALs, so all eighteen of you walk right in.

You now have before you a network of streets with a bunch of Terminal Servers scattered around. While you can physically visit any server on the network, this is a very orderly park and the park's mascot, ThinMan, comes up and gives each of you an assignment. Some of you will be visiting servers that have lots of attractions (applications) and some of you will be visiting single attraction servers. ThinMan will also take care to make sure that none of the servers becomes too crowded, and has given you an alternate server in case your primary server has problems during your visit.

If you leave the park (reboot), you get your hand stamped and your place in the server you were visiting will be kept just like you left it. When you re-approach the front gate ThinMan reads your hand stamp (technically your MAC address), checks to make sure you still have valid admission (ThinManager license) and whisks you right back to where you were. If you start to get tired or sick, you can leave the park and let someone else take your place. Once you introduce your replacement to ThinMan he will give your assignment to the new guy who will then take your place on the server you left.

Does ThinManager have to be running for the Thin Clients to work?

No. The ThinManager user interface that is visible to the system administrator allows monitoring and configuration of all the Thin Clients and Terminal Servers on the network. Once the configuration work is done, Thin Clients log into Terminal Servers and run sessions without the need for any additional intervention.

In the theme park analogy, ThinManager would be the tool that the park administrator uses to set up all of the servers, specify which Thin Client can connect to which Terminal Server, and give ThinMan the instructions for smooth park operation. If ThinManager is not online, ThinMan will continue to function, directing Thin Client guests to the appropriate attractions and handling overcrowding or servers being closed. He just can't get any new instructions without ThinManager, and the park administrator can't monitor the parks operation. But if the plan was good, ThinMan is perfectly capable of keeping things running without any new instructions.

What are the CAL and TSCAL, and where should they be installed?

These are licenses from Microsoft, and more can be found about them on Microsoft's site here:

http://www.microsoft.com/windowsserver2003/techinfo/overview/termservlic.mspx

Basically the CAL allows connections to the Terminal Server. This is the least expensive of the two (5 have a list price of less than $200) and some even come with the Terminal Server operating system.

The Thin Client model allows users to essentially display as many copies of Microsoft Windows as they have Thin Clients. If 50 clients are connected to a single server, then the users are displaying 50 Windows interfaces although they only purchased one copy of Windows (for the server). Microsoft uses the TSCAL to make up for the Windows Operating System that you don't need to buy when you use the Thin Clients. Because this is making up for the OS that you are running but didn't purchase, TSCALs are more expensive - 5 of them have a list price of around $750.

People sometimes see this as an extra expense required for Thin Clients, when in reality it is frequently less than the cost that would be paid for an equivalent number of Windows Operating systems if the same system were implemented with PCs.

Usually all the TSCALs, like ThinManager, will go on a single licensing server.

What about Citrix Licenses?

Some of our original customers remember having to activate a license from Citrix (called Device Services) to get ThinManager installed. This was because ACP was licensing the ICA protocol from Citrix. But Microsoft's RDP protocol improved greatly with Windows 2003, to the point that we believe it is now superior to ICA in most respects. Because of that ACP now includes the RDP protocol in ThinManager, and has since September of 2003.

For more information on ACP Industrial Thin Client computers, please visit our web site at http://www.thinmanager.com

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