TFS Licensing

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TFS Licensing Confusion

Licensing of TFS can be very confusing. Even though Microsoft has published much about this topic, many have unanswered questions.

This page hopes to answer some of these questions.

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TFS Free Trial

Microsoft provides the ability to use TFS on a free trial basis for 180 days.

They will also allow you to reset the trial license once more.

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TFS Full Licenses Edition

Team Foundation Server is the workhorse of Team System. TFS provides a number of central services including: version control, work item tracking, reporting, and automated builds.

TFS also provides a number of key innovations to solve core problems in team development scenarios, such as complete integration between the client products and the server to facilitate collaboration, flexible process configuration to help deliver predictability, and detailed, metric-based reporting for insight into the development process.

TFS uses Microsoft SQL as its data repository.

A restricted-use version of SQL Server Standard Edition is included with TFS, which is installed separately.

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TFS Licensing Model

This next section is taken from the Microsoft TFS White paper.

Microsoft licenses Team Foundation Server under the Server/CAL licensing model.

You must purchase a server license for each running instance of the server software, and a Team Foundation Server Client Access Licenses for each user or device that accesses Team Foundation Server.

Organizations may choose to purchase user CALs, device CALs, or a combination of both.

User CALs are typically used when one user may be accessing the server from multiple devices or locations; device CALs are typically used when multiple individuals share a device to access the server.

• Any device running a licensed copy of the server software.
• Up to two devices or users that only access the server software to administer it

As noted earlier, each licensed user of a team edition receives a Team Foundation Server CAL with their client product license. You may purchase additional Team Foundation Server CALs for users who are not licensed for the client products.

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Multiple Server Licensing

If you have a multiple server configuration, you need a TFS license for each server.

For instance, if you have a TFS application server and a TFS SQL server, you would require a TFS license for each server.

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TFS Server CAL Requirements

A Team Foundation Server CAL is required for users or computers who:

• Directly access Team Foundation Server.
• Indirectly query or write data to Team Foundation Server through another software application or device.

A Team Foundation Server CAL is not required for users who:

• View static data that has been manually distributed outside of Team Foundation Server.
• Receive Team Foundation Server reports through e-mail and do not directly/indirectly access the server to refresh, create, or update data.
• Receive printed Team Foundation Server reports.

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TFS Links

• Team Foundation Server
• TFS Licensing White Paper

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