Why did my Remote Desktop Server service stop working?

Question

Why did my Remote Desktop Server service stop working?

Williamson, Scott 20

A server with Remote Desktop Server licenses installed stopped working after working for 6 months. The licenses were activated. What could cause this?

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Answer 1

Hello, first you should check if the licensing service itself is the problem. Head into services.msc and look for the Remote Desktop Licensing service. Make sure it's actually running and set to start automatically. Sometimes it just stops or fails to kick in after a reboot.

The second case could be session host might have lost track of the license server. Even if the licensing server is up and running, your RD Session Host needs to be able to find it. If something changed in your environment like DNS updates, Group Policy tweaks, firewall rules,...

To double-check which licensing server is configured, look in:

Group Policy: Computer Configuration > Administrative Templates > Windows Components > Remote Desktop Services > Remote Desktop Session Host > Licensing

Or use Server Manager or PowerShell to see what's currently set.