Scott Mueller's Upgrading and Repairing PCs Forum

I know this is the Server Hardware forum, and this is more of a "Server Software" question, but, I just want to be clear how this works.

I think I understand it from what I've been reading but want to be sure.

It seems like every device and/or user that accesses a service on the server requires a CAL.

I've seen things listed such as "Windows Server 2008 R2 with 5 CAL's".

But it seems that even a company such as my own, lets say they have 4,000 users and 500 printers would need at least 4,500 CAL's?

Is that where Microsoft's Volume Licensing comes in? As a personal user, I obviously do not have access to pricing on something like this, but, it seems like that could get astoundingly expensive.

We have several "web apps" and I've been told this consists of 3 components. A web server, an application server, and a database server, all of which could reside as VM's on different physical servers. I'm curious if the same 4,500 CAL's cover each VM or if each VM needs CAL's for all of the users and devices that would attach to it?

It all seems so confusing!

A Client Access License (CAL) is required for each user (or user device such as a computer, pad, phone, etc.) on the network. Shared items like drives and printers do not require CALs. You can see more information on CALs here: https://www.microsoft.com/OEM/en/licens ... r-cal.aspx