Microsoft software and licenses

MS Windows, Office & Co.


Microsoft 365 A3 (M365)

Currently, the use of M365 with cloud services is only available for research (professors and academic staff) and students.
However, there are plans to make this option available to non-academic staff in the future. You will find information on this here in the future.

Microsoft 365 is a comprehensive package of productivity and collaboration tools from Microsoft. It includes

  • local applications such as Word, Excel and PowerPoint,
  • cloud-based versions of these apps for flexible online collaboration as well as
  • special cloud-based services such as Microsoft Teams for communication and collaboration.

Further information:


Microsoft Office

Office 365 (desktop apps from M 365 Apps for Enterprise)


Office 365 is available to all employees and students at RPTU as part of the Microsoft 365 A3 license .

Office 365 (O 365 ) can be installed by or for employees on up to 5 official PCs, plus 5 official tablets, plus 5 official smartphones, which are used as the main user. Remote use of these devices is permitted.

O 365 can also be used on company loaner devices .

Office 365 is a personal license that is regularly authenticated to Microsoft in the background via an online connection.

You can obtain your license via the service portal. The required installation files are also made available there.

 

Office 365 contains classic Office applications such as MS Word, MS Excel, MS PowerPoint and MS Outlook.

Depending on whether you also want to use other Microsoft cloud services or not, you have 2 options for obtaining a license for Office 365.

1. Microsoft 365 Apps

Office 365 with a pseudonymized M 365 account

An M 365 account is created whose account name cannot be traced back to your RPTU account. For this variant, a separate password is also generated for the M 365 account . This pseudonymized M 365 account is then used to log in to the locally installed Office 365 applications.

It is not possible to use Microsoft cloud services with this variant.
You can create the required pseudonymized M 365 account in the RHRZ ServicePortal under the menu item "Microsoft 365 Apps".

Further information:

2 Microsoft 365 Cloud

Office 365 with a standard 365 account

The M365 Cloud version is currently only available to researchers (professors and academic staff) and students.
However, it is planned to make this variant available to non-scientific staff in the future. You will find information on this here in the future.

When using this variant, an M 365 account is created whose account name is identical to your RPTU account. When creating the M 365 account in this variant, the following information is transmitted to the Microsoft Cloud: First name, last name, display name, RPTU email address.
The use of other Microsoft cloud services(Teams, OneDrive, SharePoint, Office web applications) is possible with this variant.
You can create the required M 365 account in the RHRZ ServicePortal under the menu item "Microsoft 365 Cloud".

Further information:

Office Professional Plus (OPP)

In the past, Office Professional Plus was the type of use and activation used for local Office applications. With the introduction of Office 365, however, the terms of use for OPP were severely restricted. The use of OPP should therefore remain limited to special cases.
Office Professional Plus (OPP) may only be installed locally by or for employees on one device that is used as the main user, for example on the personal workstation computer.

Remote use or use of the installed OPP by other users of the device is not permitted.

OPP may not be installed on business loan devices .

Further information:


Desktop operating systems

Windows 10 / Windows 11


Employees

As part of the Campus Agreement, Windows 10 can be installed on up to 5 work PCs or laptops for each employee, provided he/she is the main user of these devices.

As this is an upgrade license, a qualifying base operating system must be installed on the respective device.

Remote access to the user's own work device used as the main user is possible regardless of the device or operating system being accessed.

Other users must use a company-licensed Windows device for remote access.

Please only use the installation files from the service portal, as these contain the necessary data protection adjustments.

 

Students

Windows for private devices is not made available to students at RPTU.


Server operating systems

Windows server operating systems must be licensed individually. A server flat rate is no longer available. The licenses used must be reported to the RHRZ via the IT contact persons by the deadline of 1.5.

All systems and their license assignments must be properly documented.

 

Windows Server (Standard + Datacenter)

Windows Server Standard or Windows Server Datacenter may be installed on all company servers(not on PCs).

Windows Server must be licensed per device (90-day rule) and is activated via Key Management Service(KMS).

Remote use is only permitted for administrative purposes. As an RDS solution, it is only possible with (expensive) RDS licenses for all users or devices.

Licensing rules for Windows Server:

  • All CPU cores of the hardware must be licensed.
  • At least 8 cores per CPU.
  • At least 16 cores per system.
  • Windows Server Standard allows a maximum of 2 instances per hardware system.
  • Licenses are currently still paid centrally, but must be documented!
  • All hostsof a virtualization cluster must be licensed.

Before operating Microsoft servers on your own hardware, check whether you can use the virtualization offer of the RHRZ, which includes the licenses.

Windows Server Standard allows 2 virtual Operating System Environments (OSEs). It is permitted to run 2 VMs with Windows Server on a base system that is fully equipped with server standard licenses (this also includes 2 hyper containers as an alternative). Additional server standard core licenses must be assigned to the server for further instances.

In contrast to this are the Windows Server Data Center licenses. The same basic conditions apply here, but with full licensing it is permitted to run an unlimited number of Windows Server VMs on the base system (virtualization rights).

 

Microsoft application server

Decentrally operated Windows Microsoft application servers that are not managed by the RHRZ must be licensed individually. A server flat rate is no longer available.

Those who operate their own Microsoft application servers are responsible for ensuring, both technically and organizationally, that only licensed users have access to the systems:

  • Active Directory: Only create accounts for users with a license.
  • Exchange: Only create accounts for users with a license.
  • Server in general: Only allow access for users with a valid CAL.

 

Client Access Licenses (CALs)

In addition to the actual server license, a user- or device-based Client Access License (CAL) is also required for licensing Microsoft server services.

The RHRZ handles the correct licensing of the Windows Server systems it operates with Client Access Licenses.

For decentrally operated Office servers (such as Exchange, SharePoint, Skype for Business), the required Client Access Licenses are already included in the Microsoft 365 A3 license availablefor every employee and student at RPTU.

This also applies to the Windows Server CALs required for access to Windows Server operating systems. These Windows server CALs are also included in the existing Microsoft 365 A3 license.

Other CALs that are required for the decentralized operation of other Microsoft server systems (such as MS SQL Server, Windows Remote Desktop Services, etc.) must be procured separately. Employees at RPTU can obtain CALs for a fee via the Microsoft Select Plus contract from the Asknet web store.


Other Microsoft Software

All employees at RPTU have the option of purchasing Microsoft software that is not included in the Microsoft Campus Agreement (such as MS Project, Visio, MS SQL Server, etc.) for a fee via the Microsoft Select Plus contract. This can be done via the Asknet web store, for example.

Microsoft 365

MS Word, MS Excel, MS PowerPoint, MS Outlook, OneDrive, Teams, SharePoint, ...

Microsoft Campus Agreement

General information for employees and students

Microsoft Campus Agreement for Admins

Further information for administrators

Key Management Service (KMS)

Simplified activation of Microsoft products

KMS instructions

Troubleshooting when activating Microsoft Windows or Office via KMS