How to Reset Terminal Server Licensing

In older Windows networks, Terminal Service licensing was controlled by a central server. If you exceeded the amount of allowable connections, your users were unable to connect to the remote servers. If your license server failed to update a license disconnection, your user sessions stay open and the license isn't reused by the server. When this happens, the network administrator must reset the license to free it from being locked.

Instructions

1. Click the Windows "Start" button on your license server. Click "Settings" and then click "Control Panel." Double-click "Services" to open a list of background applications running on the computer.

2. Scroll down to "Terminal Services Licensing." Right-click it in the services window and select "Stop." This stops license allocation on the network.

3. Double-click "My Computer" on the desktop. Double-click the "C" drive to open the hard drive view. Double-click the "Windows" directory, then the "System32" directory. Double-click "Lserver" to view the list of license files.

4. Right-click "Hydra.mdb" and select "Rename." Rename the file to "Hydra.old" and press "Enter."

5. Click the Windows "Start" button again. Select "Settings," "Control Panel" and double-click "Services." Right-click "Terminal Services Licensing" and select "Start." This restarts the Terminal Services background application, so your users can re-establish a remote connection.

References

• Microsoft: How to Reset the License Information in Terminal Server License Manager