This content is 18 years old. I don't routinely update old blog posts as they are only intended to represent a view at a particular point in time. Please be warned that the information here may be out of date.
I just had a call from a client who was concerned that he couldn’t add client access licences (CALs ) for his new Exchange Server in the Licensing administrative tool. I’ve never really used this tool so I had to do some research before I could answer his question. Microsoft knowledge base article 824196 describes the license logging service (LLS) but the key points to note are all in the article summary:
- LLS was originally designed to help administrators manage licenses for Microsoft server products that are licensed on a per-server basis (the server CAL model).
- LLS was introduced with Windows NT Server 3.51 but it is disabled by default in Windows Server 2003.
- Because of design constraints and evolving licencing terms, LLS cannot provide an accurate view of the total number of per-user CALs purchased, compared with the total number of CALs that are used on a single server or across the enterprise.
- LLS will not be included in future versions of the Windows operating system.
Basically, it seems that LLS is a hangover from Windows NT and nowadays there is no real reason to use it in Windows Server 2003.