CAL Types

IT Asset Management (Cloud)

A single (User or Device) CAL covers any number of servers for that product. For example, a user with a User CAL for Microsoft SharePoint Server can access any number of Microsoft SharePoint servers within the organization. Some Microsoft server products include client access rights in the server license itself. For products such as SQL Server, instead of buying CALs, you may choose to buy processor-based or core-based licenses for the accessed server applications instead of licensing under the server/CAL licensing model. Certain products like Microsoft SQL Server can be licensed based on the number of processors or cores in the host server.

The licensing rules for CALs differ depending on whether the accessing users are employees of the licensee organization or are external users accessing the licensed servers. Some versions of Microsoft SharePoint Server, such as SharePoint 2013 and SharePoint 2016 require CALs for employee access to those servers, but include rights for external users accessing those same servers. For example, a website powered by an external web server could be accessed by a possibly-unpredictable number of users and should be licensed via a version of SharePoint that includes external access rights or, for earlier versions, an External Connector License is required in addition to the server license. You may wish to check the usage required for servers in your environment and evaluate the various license models available for those servers before making your purchase decision.

For Microsoft servers that have underlying server system requirements, the relevant CALs are required for each server product accessed. For example, Microsoft SharePoint Server installations require both Microsoft Windows Server and Microsoft SQL Server. As such, each accessing user or device must have a Microsoft SharePoint CAL, Microsoft Windows Server CAL and Microsoft SQL Server CAL to comply with license requirements, unless access is provided by the server license itself (as is the case of servers licensed per core or covered by an External Connector License).

CAL types

This section outlines the different license types used in the context of CALs. IT Asset Management only supports Microsoft User and Microsoft Device CALs via the

FlexNet
    Manager for Microsoft

product.

License Type	Description
User CAL	An alternative to a Device CAL, a User CAL is required per user per server product that requires a CAL. A user with a User CAL for a server product can access any instance of that server product within the enterprise via any number of devices. For example, if a user `Peter` has a single User CAL for Microsoft SQL Server product, he can access any installation of Microsoft SQL within the enterprise.
Device CAL	An alternative to a User CAL, a Device CAL is required per device per server product that requires a CAL. An accessing device with a Device CAL for a server product can be used by any number of users to access any instance of that server product. For example, if you have a Microsoft Device CAL for `Microsoft SharePoint Server` for an inventory device, any number of users can access any instance of `Microsoft SharePoint` from this device.

License Type

Description

User CAL

An alternative to a Device CAL, a User CAL is required per user per server product that requires a CAL. A user with a User CAL for a server product can access any instance of that server product within the enterprise via any number of devices. For example, if a user Peter has a single User CAL for Microsoft SQL Server product, he can access any installation of Microsoft SQL within the enterprise.

Device CAL

An alternative to a User CAL, a Device CAL is required per device per server product that requires a CAL. An accessing device with a Device CAL for a server product can be used by any number of users to access any instance of that server product. For example, if you have a Microsoft Device CAL for Microsoft SharePoint Server for an inventory device, any number of users can access any instance of Microsoft SharePoint from this device.

Other related license types

The following related license types are not directly supported by IT Asset Management. To manage any of these licenses, creation of custom license is required.

Client Management License (CML): Required per management server (Microsoft Endpoint Configuration Manager, previously Microsoft SCCM) that is managing devices with non-server operating system (for example, Windows 10). If you procure device CALs for those devices that access the server, you do not require a CML.
External Connector License: Required per server for each server product that is to be accessed by external users (non-employees) from outside the company network. For example, if some users of an external organization have been granted access to your Microsoft Exchange Server, that server requires an External Connector license.
Additive CALs: A CAL required for a specific server, in addition to a User or Device CAL. Additive CAL is required per server when some advanced server functionality is accessed, in addition to the base server functionality. For example, Windows Server Rights Management Services (RMS) CAL is required in addition to Windows Server User or Device CAL.

IT Asset Management (Cloud)

Current