The Remote Desktop Web Access website does not show any published RemoteApp programs

Revision 2.0 of KB 2705427 was just released. I don’t recall ever seeing the 1.0 version of this KB, but it’s an interesting one.

Article ID: 2705427 - Last Review: June 13, 2012 - Revision: 2.0
The Remote Desktop Web Access website does not show any published RemoteApp programs if a RemoteApp source is offline in Windows Server 2008 R2.

“…Consider the following scenario:

• You configure a Remote Desktop Web Access (RD Web Access) server on a computer that is running Windows Server 2008 R2.
• You install the Remote Desktop Session Host role service on some servers that are running Windows Server 2008 R2, and then you publish some RemoteApp applications on these servers.
• You configure these Remote Desktop Session Host servers as the RemoteApp source of the RD Web Access server.
• You shut down one of the Remote Desktop Session Host servers.

In this scenario, you notice that the list of the RemoteApp applications in the RD Web Access website is returned as blank.

This issue occurs because of a design flaw in the RD Web component. The RD Web component stops enumerating applications as soon as the component encounters a session host that is unavailable…”

Source: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2705427/en-us?sd=rss&spid=14134

New Article: Remote Apps and the Metro RDP client

My new article titled “Remote Apps and the Metro RDP client" on virtualizationadmin.com just got published. The article is about the integration of RemoteApps running on Windows Server 2012 (8 Beta) launched from a Windows 8 client.

“…Introduction

Remote applications that run seamlessly on a client desktop have been around for some time now. With Windows Server 8 Beta, Microsoft has put in a good effort to make the RemoteApps on the Windows 8 desktop interact and integrate better than before. In this article, we will look at the integration of RemoteApps running on Windows Server 8 Beta launched from a Windows 8 client...”

Read the complete article here:
http://www.virtualizationadmin.com/articles-tutorials/vdi-articles/general/remote-apps-and-the-metro-rdp-client.html

RDS in WIN8 Feature highlight no. 4 Installing RDSH prior to a scenario based deployment, no requirement anymore

RDS in WIN8 Feature highlight no. 4  Installing RDSH prior to a scenario based deployment, no requirement anymore

This is more of a bug fix then a feature highlight of course, but if you have read one of my previous blog posts back in October 2011, I wrote that having the RD Session Host role installed was a prerequisite for being able to successfully walk through the new the Scenario Based deployment. Described here: http://microsoftplatform.blogspot.com/2011/10/take-rds-management-to-higher-level.html

Since the Beta release of Windows Server 8, this is no longer necessary. Therefore, the deployment of the scenario is now even faster than before.

I tested the quick scenario based deployment on a single server on the Beta Edition of Windows Server 8, within a few mouse clicks and an automatic reboot afterwards all the roles (RD Session Host, RD WebAccess and RD Connection Broker) are installed and the first Session Collection (QuickSessionCollection) is created. The scenario deployment runs very smooth.