RDS in WIN8 Feature highlight no. 3 Change password option in RD WebAccess

RDS in WIN8 Feature highlight no. 3  Change password option in RD WebAccess

This is a long waited feature for RD WebAccess! You will now be able to let your users perform a change of their domain password. The password change option is not enabled by default. Using the application settings section in IIS Manager, you are able to change the parameter “PasswordChangeEnabled” from false to true.

After that you will be able to browse to the following URL:
https://<Server Or DNS>/RDWeb/Pages/en-US/password.aspx

Note that if you did not set the PasswordChangeEnabled to true browsing to the above URL would result in a redirect to login.aspx.

If PasswordChangeEnabled is set to true the following screen will appear in which a user is able to change his password.

By default, the file is located here: C:\Windows\Web\RDWeb\Pages\en-US\password.aspx

I would assume that a link to this page would be showing up on the main page called e.g.“change password” to lead the user to this page, but there is not, at least not yet in the Beta version of Windows Server 8. Maybe it will be added to the final version. And if not, you could of course change the login.aspx yourself as needed

RDS in WIN8 Feature highlight no. 2 RD Dedicated Redirector now part of RD Connection Broker

RDS in WIN8 Feature highlight no. 2  RD Dedicated Redirector now part of RD Connection Broker

If you read the previous feature highlight on RD Connection Broker (http://microsoftplatform.blogspot.com/2012/03/rds-in-win8-feature-highlight-no.html) you know that the RD Connection Broker in Windows Server 8 will play a more central role. This feature highlight will amplify that statement even more. Within Windows Server 8 (beta) the RD Connection Broker is by default now also the your RD Dedicated Redirector.

Let’s quickly recall what the function of the RD Dedicated Redirector is. The RD Dedicated redirector was introduced in Windows Server 2008. It’s a server role, which can be part of an RDS deployment. The RD Dedicated Redirector is in fact a RD Session Host server that runs in Drain Mode en therefore does not host any active sessions. Its purpose is to serve as the initial connection. Users will connect their RDP session to this dedicated redirector. The dedicated redirector, as it is running in drain mode, will contact the RD Connection Broker, which in turn will return the final RD Session Host to connect to (either based on RD Connection Broker load balancing or redirecting to disconnected sessions).

The fact that the RD Dedicated Redirector is now integrated with the RD Connection Broker is great because this means that when you install and configure your RD Connection Broker you immediately have your RD Dedicated Redirector, and thus your Initial connection point up and running. Therefore, the RD Connection Broker will be running in RD Session Host drain mode. This also means that when you make your RD Connection Broker High Available, which, as we’ve seen in the previous feature highlight has become much easier in Windows Server 8 Beta, you also make your Initial Connection (Dedicated redirector) High Available. In my opinion, a great move! You can expect a blog post here soon in which I will discuss the actual setup in detail.

RDS in WIN8 Feature highlight no. 1 Better High Availability of the RD Connection Broker

RDS in WIN8 Feature highlight no. 1 Better High Availability of the RD Connection Broker

The RD Connection Broker plays a central role in the Remote Desktop Environment. That’s not a new thing of course, however, with the release of Windows Server 8 Beta the RD Connection Broker is now even playing a more important role than before. As with any important role in any environment, High Availability is crucial! It’s good to see that the way to make the Broker High Available has improved a lot in Windows Server 8.

After performing your first scenario based deployment and open up the server manager you have an option to make the RD Connection Broker High Available called “Configure RD Connection Broker for HA”.

Doing so launches a wizard to configure the HA. The result is an active-active HA configuration for the RD Connection Broker! By default the RD Connection Broker role uses a Windows Internal Database to store session information. As you can imagine, setting up HA properly for your RD Connection Broker role requires a central SQL Server instance (which is preferably also HA itself of course). That’s why the wizard will ask for a Database Connection String, folder and DNS record name.

I’ll do a separate blogpost in the near future containing a step-by-step guide on how to configure HA for the RD Connection Broker.

RDS in Windows Server 8 (Beta) Feature Highlights

Windows Server 8 Beta is available since last week. I've already set up Windows Server 8 Beta in my lab to test some of the new features for Remote Desktop Services. Coming up on this blog is a series of at least 7 "Feature Highlight" blog posts in which I will discuss some of the great new features for RDS in Windows Server 8.

I'll update this blog post along the way as new feature highlight blog posts by adding links of the newly added blog posts. You can expect frequent updates, stay tuned!

Feature highlight no. 1 "Better High Availability of the RD Connection Broker"
http://microsoftplatform.blogspot.com/2012/03/rds-in-win8-feature-highlight-no.html

Feature highlight no. 2 "RD Dedicated Redirector now part of RD Connection Broker" http://microsoftplatform.blogspot.com/2012/03/rds-in-win8-feature-highlight-no-2-rd.html

Feature highlight no. 3 "Change password option in RD WebAccess"
http://microsoftplatform.blogspot.com/2012/03/rds-in-win8-feature-highlight-no_12.html

Feature highlight no. 4 "Installing RDSH prior to a scenario based deployment, no requirement anymore"
http://microsoftplatform.blogspot.com/2012/03/rds-in-win8-feature-highlight-no-4.html

Feature highlight no. 5 "E-mail subscription for Remote Apps"
http://microsoftplatform.blogspot.com/2012/03/rds-in-win8-feature-highlight-no-5-e.html

Feature highlight no. 6 "Demo environment within just a few minutes"
http://microsoftplatform.blogspot.com/2012/03/rds-in-win8-feature-highlight-no-6-demo.html

Feature highlight no. 7 "SSL configuration made easy"
http://microsoftplatform.blogspot.com/2012/03/rds-in-win8-feature-highlight-no-7-ssl.html

MVP Summit 2012, great experience!

Can't believe the MVP Summit 2012 is already over. It went by in a flash but it was a great event. It was good to meet my fellow (RDS) MVP's in person as well as meeting people from the RDS product team!

There were lot's of sessions with the RDS product group and with my fellow (RDS) MVP's. Great discussions and very interesting topics. Some of the details discussed are under NDA of course, but there are a lot of new features introduced in the Beta compared to the pre-beta. Since Windows Server 8 Beta was released Wednesday those features are not under NDA anymore so expect some new blog posts coming up here on those subjects!

Apart from the sessions, many additional events were being held throughout the week, a welcome reception, product group dinner, a great closing party at the CenturyLink field stadium! It’s been an awesome week!

I want to thank Microsoft for great Summit!
Hopefully I will be here next year!

What’s new in Remote Desktop Services Windows Server 8 BETA

A new document was published in regard to what’s new in Remote Desktop Services Windows Server 8 BETA.

"...Applies To: Windows Server 8 Beta

[This topic is pre-release documentation and is subject to change in future releases. Blank topics are included as placeholders.]

 

The Remote Desktop Services server role in Windows Server® “8” Beta provides technologies that enable users to connect to virtual desktops, RemoteApp programs, and session-based desktops. With Remote Desktop Services, users can access remote connections from within a corporate network or from the Internet.

In Windows Server “8” Beta, Remote Desktop Services offers enhanced support for the following scenarios:

• Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI) deployments
• Session Virtualization deployments
• Centralized resource publishing
• Rich user experience with Remote Desktop Protocol (RDP)
  

Each of these is described in the sections that follow..."

You can check it out the full document here: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/hh831527.aspx

New Article: Remote Desktop Server farms explained (Part 1)

My new article titled "Remote Desktop Server farms explained (Part 1)" on virtualizationadmin.com just got published.

"...Introduction
In this article, we will be taking a closer look at Remote Desktop Farms in Windows Server 2008 R2. A Remote Desktop Server farm consists of multiple Remote Desktop Session Host Servers. Why would you need a RDS Farm? What are the options? What are the scenarios? These are some of the questions we will answer in this article. There are of course also 3rd party tools available that work on top of and extend RDS farms, but in this article our main focus will be out-of-the-box Microsoft solutions..."
Read the complete article here: http://www.virtualizationadmin.com/articles-tutorials/vdi-articles/general/remote-desktop-server-farms-explained-part1.html

Next month a part II will be coming up, stay tuned.