Are CALs needed for a Home Server?

[waddled_away]

SO I plan on getting a home server that will only have at max 4-5 connection ever. I was wondering if CALs are only needed for businesses in case of audits or if they are still needed on a home server. I was also wondering that if I don't have the CALs would Microsoft ever be able to / go through with auditing my home server. Just wondering as I'm new to server things and I want to make sure of this before I start buying and running a home server. Any advice / help is much appreciated, sorry if this question is in the wrong forum.

[BrinkGG]

8 minutes ago, waddled_away said:

SO I plan on getting a home server that will only have at max 4-5 connection ever. I was wondering if CALs are only needed for businesses in case of audits or if they are still needed on a home server. I was also wondering that if I don't have the CALs would Microsoft ever be able to / go through with auditing my home server. Just wondering as I'm new to server things and I want to make sure of this before I start buying and running a home server. Any advice / help is much appreciated, sorry if this question is in the wrong forum.

My knowledge of CALs isn't great, but I do have to use them in my work environment so I have some experience with them.

For Windows Server, you use CALs when you have more then 2-5 devices connecting to the same server for something like RDP, local web log-in access, etc. Their use cases are fairly specific, and most home users shouldn't need them. You do not need them for having multiple devices access a file share or some other shared services. (I'm not sure of the full list) 

With that said, what are you planning on using the server for?

If you need to have more than 2 simultaneous RDP connections, you would need either a UserCAL (If your RDP sessions aren't all connecting via the same user account) or a Device CAL (logs the MAC address of the client and saves that to the CAL) for each connection. I usually recommend User CALs unless you have more users then devices, as you can RDP with 1 user account from multiple devices.

[waddled_away]

On 1/24/2020 at 9:22 AM, BrinkGG said:

My knowledge of CALs isn't great, but I do have to use them in my work environment so I have some experience with them.

For Windows Server, you use CALs when you have more then 2-5 devices connecting to the same server for something like RDP, local web log-in access, etc. Their use cases are fairly specific, and most home users shouldn't need them. You do not need them for having multiple devices access a file share or some other shared services. (I'm not sure of the full list) 

With that said, what are you planning on using the server for?

If you need to have more than 2 simultaneous RDP connections, you would need either a UserCAL (If your RDP sessions aren't all connecting via the same user account) or a Device CAL (logs the MAC address of the client and saves that to the CAL) for each connection. I usually recommend User CALs unless you have more users then devices, as you can RDP with 1 user account from multiple devices.

Okay, so if I have two users on the server and only  2 users that could use RDP at any time, I shouldn't need to worry aboiut CALs for my home server? I plan to use this server as a Proxy server and a storage server.

[BrinkGG]

11 minutes ago, waddled_away said:

Okay, so if I have two users on the server and only  2 users that could use RDP at any time, I shouldn't need to worry aboiut CALs for my home server? I plan to use this server as a Proxy server and a storage server.

Correct. As far as my knowledge goes, Proxy and storage do not count towards CALs and you have only 2 RDP sessions at the same time. So you don't need them