2012 Licensing Problem

Question

I would like to make everyone aware of an issue with RDS and the FIX from Microsoft services which I consider unacceptable.
The setup is as follows. One 2012 DC with Terminal server licensing installed. Two 2012 servers with RDS enabled. Take note that RDS was NOT deployed using the wizard as there is no need
for all of the resources of a server farm for 2 servers. On each of the RDS enabled servers, group policey was used to enable and specify the RDS server and licensing mode. The RD Licensing Diagnoser was used to verify, and report that no licensing
problems for the Remote Desktop Session Host Server existed, and the tray icon that reports that you are running a trial version of RDS does NOT appear.
Advance forward a few months and users start reporting that they cannot login and that they are receiving “The remote session was disconnected because there are no RDS license servers available
to provide a license."
After doing all that I could I filed a case with Microsoft Support at the Highest Level Possible. After a month I finally was able to talk to someone. After 2 more weeks, here is the solution
they gave me….
Open the registry, Navigate to HKLM\System\CurrentControlSet\Control\TerminalServer\RCM
Delete the GracePeriod Key
Reboot
This continues to occur every few months. I wish someone at MS would FIX the problem.
Lee

Answer 1

sure.
i have 5x 2012 RDS farms, nearly identical in configuration dispersed throughout the globe, each farm has:
2x RDSH
1x RDCB, RDWeb, RDLicense server with 2012 CALs deployed as User Mode
We are pointing directly to the license server in our collection settings (only 1 collection per farm) and also again via GPO settings to override license server auto discovery options
These systems were rolled out using scenario-based installs so while RDWeb is there, it's not actually being used (nothing published to it), users are leveraging session-based desktops via RDP client both internally and externally
systems are all domain joined, we're still on 2003 functional level in AD
i first encountered this issue around the 120 days mark after the first farm went into production, we saw that users could not login and event ID 1130 was being thrown for every login attempt.
i saw this article and followed the steps to resolve it:
http://www.360ict.nl/blog/no-remote-desktop-licence-server-availible-on-rd-session-host-server-2012/
however, after another 120 days passed, i ran into the same issue again, realizing this was not a permanent fix.  after just opening the case with MS on this a couple of weeks ago, they've told me it's a bug and so for now, i proactively purge the
L$RTMTIMEBOMB_nnnn key under HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Terminal Server\RCM\GracePeriod, i restart
TermService so i don't have to reboot the whole box and it's fine for another 120 days
during the issue and even when it's not occurring, licensing diagnostics come up clean, i haven't taken a report while the issue is occurring but when it's not occurring the reports  show CALs being assigned to all users by the license server.
basically, it seems like even though we have a license server that is activated with user CALs, the Review section shows green checks under both sections, and reporting is fine - the system is stuck in 120 day trial mode for some reason.
now MS did say they know about this and they're working on a fix, hopefully not to just get me off the phone, but they didn't have a different workaround and advised that i continue doing what i'm doing.
what i don't really understand is that when i remove the L$RTMTIMEBOMB_nnnn
key from the registry, it gets recreated upon the first user logon that has to go talk to the license server. in a working 2012 environment, should this key even exist if an active license server is already available?