This blog post introduces the new Centralized Licensing Management work, implemented in Windows Server 2008 R2 Service Pack 1 (SP1) as a part of the RemoteFX feature, for centrally managing the licensing configuration in a Microsoft Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI) deployment.

 This post assumes that you have a basic understanding of the following:

• Windows PowerShell
• Various Remote Desktop Services role services
• Remote Desktop Licensing
• Microsoft VDI with Remote Desktop Services

What is Centralized Licensing Management?

Centralized Licensing Management is a new sub-feature that has been implemented in Windows Server 2008 R2 SP1, as a byproduct of RemoteFX work. It enables Microsoft VDI administrators to specify licensing configuration for the entire VDI deployment centrally from one place; that is, from the RD Connection Broker server.

Why is centralized licensing management required?

Until Windows Server 2008 R2, in a VDI deployment the RD Virtualization Host server was not aware of licensing settings because only the RD Session Host server participated in licensing and performed license validations for the client session/connection requests. But the new licensing model for Microsoft VDI (in Windows Server 2008 R2 SP1) requires that the Remote Desktop licensing mode and the list of Remote Desktop license servers must be specified in all RD Session Host servers (configured in VM redirection mode) as well as in all the RD Virtualization Host servers (with RemoteFX enabled), because the RD Virtualization Host servers can also participate in VDI licensing. Therefore, an option was provided for the admins to specify licensing configuration on the RD Connection Broker server. This would address the following concerns:

1. Lack of a GUI interface for specifying a licensing configuration on an RD Virtualization Host server, which makes it difficult for VDI administrators to configure this on multiple RemoteFX-enabled RD Virtualization Host servers.
2. Licensing mode mismatch across the RD Session Host server configured for VM redirection and RD Virtualization Host servers. (Licensing mode inconsistency across the deployment leads to license wastage and/or potential service denials.)

How does centralized licensing management work?

As a part of this feature, the licensing settings (Remote Desktop license type and the list of specified Remote Desktop license servers) can be specified on the RD Connection Broker server. This feature also provides an option to turn centralized licensing management ON or OFF (in case the VDI administrator decides to configure licensing separately on different servers).

Source:  http://blogs.msdn.com/b/rds/archive/2010/12/05/centralized-licensing-management-for-microsoft-vdi.aspx