Microsoft's licensing FAQs state that you don't need the connector if (a)
you use the web server edition, which most web sites probably would, but
Pearson doesn't want us to for this, or (b) if everyone who uses the site
does so anonymously.  It's quite clear that they demand you get the
connector, or CALs, if the users of the web site authenticate to the site
in any fashion, not just if  they're known to Active Directory.  The good
news is Dell/ASAP was way off on the price the first time, it turned out
to be 78.05 for the server license, and 361.74 for the connector license. 
For the in-house use of the site, I have CALs through our school
agreement, they're very cheap that way, I think I'm only paying $100
annually or so for the whole school.

A word on Dell/ASAP, to those who've found Dell non-responsive lately - I
found Nora DeAvila, who's the rep now, to be lousy at returning e-mails,
but she seems to always answer her phone, and if you call and bug her,
she'll then respond to the e-mails.  224-543-5324.


Bob Wickberg
Technology Coordinator
Brattleboro Union High School District # 6
802-451-3418

School Information Technology Discussion <[log in to unmask]> writes:
>I looked on Powersource and saw a discussion on this, there is some
>ambiguity on the need for these licenses. For one thing if you do not
>authenticate to the server (not using AD to log onto the server) then you
>should not need CALS. Websites
>running on Windows servers do not need connector licenses or CALS to use
>the web pages. If you ask my opinion I think that Pearson is using this
>ambiguity as another ploy to get us to use their hosted solution.
>Certainly if this pans out to be true
>we will not be upgrading either. I also agree since they no longer have
>any choice in server OS's ( not that I would ever use Xserver) that we
>should push them into porting over to Linux. I also found out that my
>CALS for server 2003 do not transfer to
>Windows 2008 ( I'm retiring my old 2003 Server ) so even my domain is
>going all Linux. I've been an supporter of MS products for over 20 years
>but I've had it. Time to demand better, I'm going Open source and
>converting to all Linux servers in the near future.
>
>Wes Vaughan
>Technology Director
>WNESU
> 
>
>> Date: Fri, 15 Jul 2011 17:56:46 -0400
>> From: [log in to unmask]
>> Subject: Re: PowerSchool 6.2 to PowerSchool 7 - if you use powerschool
>please read this
>> To: [log in to unmask]
>> 
>> I just started looking at this upgrade. We need Windows Server 2008 R2,
>> SP1 to run it on, and nothing less will do, according to the
>> documentation. It further goes on to say we need windows server client
>> access licenses for everyone inside the network who uses it, and an
>> external connector license if we're going to let parents in to the
>parent
>> portal. I asked Dell/Asap for a quote on the latter alone, and the
>answer
>> I got was $5311! Is this for real?!?!?! I called Pearson tech support,
>> and they said yup, that's what you need. If this is true, I don't think
>> I'm gonna be upgrading this summer. I think it's time for the whole PS
>> user community to rise up and demand they port the server to another OS,
>> if this is what it's gonna cost just to license the OS on the server.
>> 
>> Thoughts?
>> 
>> Bob Wickberg
>> Technology Coordinator
>> Brattleboro Union High School District # 6
>> 802-451-3418
>> 
>> School Information Technology Discussion <[log in to unmask]>
>writes:
>> >Hi all!
>> >
>> >?
>> >
>> >We were wondering what districts have and/or will be making the move
>from
>> >PowerSchool 6.2 to PowerSchool 7 this summer. For those of you that
>have
>> >already made the move, did you do the update and/or the new install
>> >yourself or did you pay PowerSchool technicians to do it for you? Also,
>> >if you did the move yourself, did you find it somewhat
>straight-forward?
>> >
>> >?
>> >
>> >We are trying to determine if we want to try doing a clean install on a
>> >virtual server ourselves or if we should pay Pearson/PowerSchool to set
>> >it up for us. 
>> >
>> >?
>> >
>> >Any insight would be appreciated.
>> >
>> >?
>> >
>> >Thank you!
>> >
>> >?
>> >
>> >Michelle M. Devino
>> >