Issue/Symptom/Question

A high RDS CAL license bill may indicate that the PENTA RDS Group allowed to use the environment has excess users.  Per Microsoft, each CAL license must be purchased for each user that has access to the environment.  It is important to maintain the AD Group that has permissions to the RDS environments, often called "PENTA RDS". 

Applies To

Managed Hosting Customers.

Resolution/Fix/Answer

1. Log into an AD server as an administrator
2. Launch Windows Administrative Tools > Active Directory Users and Computers
3. Find your RDS Users group (varies depending on AD configuration)
4. Right click the group and select Properties > Members
5. Remove any unneeded users

Cause 

Users in the RDS Group are able to log into the remote desktop and must be licensed. RDP licenses are billed monthly as a pass through cost from Microsoft based on the users listed in the PENTA RDS Group.