Licensing and Resource mailboxes (2002 SP3)

[ghersey]

Hi - I have a question about setting up resources like rooms in Outlook. Does a resource account require an additional license? We are trying to start some sort of institutional calendar and have around 60 rooms that would need to have mailboxes added. We are concerned about what that means to our licensing. Thanks!

[jhelfer]

Well, you would really have to talk to your Microsoft license vendor to get the most accurate answer.

But, I've never heard of any MS licensing scheme that limited the number of mailboxes that you could create. Usually, you buy CALs, Client Access Licenses, that limits the number of clients (i.e. people) that can connect to your server.

[unkamunka]

The issue appears to arise from the newer versions of Exchange Server - where you have to create a User Account in Active Directory to set up a new mailbox. It could well be, however, that two separate issues are being conflated. "Seats" on the Server can require a license, but these mailboxes will not be accessing the Server themselves. (Acknowledgements don't really count for this purpose.) These mailboxes will also not have their own versions of Windows installed. Lazy man's logic - under the new Exchange Server - would say that # of Mailboxes = # of Users in Active Directory = # of Licenses. As you can see from the above, however, the third part of the equation should be "(# of Licenses + # of Resource Accounts)". HTH