Introduction to Windows PowerShell scripting in Windows Server 2012 Remote Desktop Services (by RDS team)

The Microsoft RDS team released a new blog post on using Powershell for Remote Desktop Services in Windows Server 2012. It’s discusses the RemoteDesktop module, and contains many examples on the different cmdlets!

“…One of the new features that we’re all very proud of in Windows Server 2012 is a new Windows PowerShell layer, which provides a powerful set of functionality to set up, configure, and control your Windows Server 2012 Remote Desktop Services (RDS) deployments. The feature is too big to cover in one post, but I wanted to give you a quick introduction to help you get started with scripting your deployments in the Windows Server 2012 Release Candidate build. In this post I’ll give a brief overview of the kinds of tasks you can perform by using the new RDS Windows PowerShell layer, and then go a bit more in-depth with one of the Windows PowerShell cmdlets that you’ll likely be using a lot in your scripts (Get-RDServer), and finally finish up with a practical example showing how to use that cmdlet to install the Desktop Experience feature on all of the Remote Desktop Session Host (RD Session Host) servers in your deployment…”

Source: http://blogs.msdn.com/b/rds/archive/2012/06/28/introduction-to-windows-powershell-scripting-in-windows-server-2012-remote-desktop-services.aspx

Remote Desktop Web Access single sign-on now easier to enable in Windows Server 2012

The Microsoft RDS team posts a new blog that explain the way to setup Single Sign On (SSO) with Windows Server 2012. The setup has been made a lot easier compared to what you had to configure with Windows Server 2008 R2.

“…Hi, I’m Sergey, one of the developers on the team that produces Remote Desktop Services. In Windows Server 2008 R2, we introduced Web Single Sign-On (web SSO), which reduced the number of times a user was asked for credentials when accessing RemoteApp programs published through Remote Desktop Web Access (RD Web Access). Enabling this was complex and difficult for users. In this post, I'll explain how easy it is to set this up in Windows Server 2012. It basically works "out of the box…”

Source:http://blogs.msdn.com/b/rds/archive/2012/06/25/remote-desktop-web-access-single-sign-on-now-easier-to-enable-in-windows-server-2012.aspx

New article: Troubleshooting RDS in Windows Server 2012

My new article titled "Troubleshooting RDS in Windows Server 2012" on virtualizationadmin.com just got published. The article is about ways to gather information to troubleshoot and debug RDS deployments using Windows Server 2012.

 Introduction
In this article we will look at some ways of collecting valuable information for troubleshooting issues in RDS environments when running Windows Server 2012 (up until now Windows Server 8 Beta…”

“…The different roles that are part of the Remote Desktop Services Platform have several log files, trace files and also event logs where information, statuses and errors are stored. This information can be rather useful when troubleshooting an installation or configuration.

The main part of this article will be around a log file that contains information about the installation and configuration process. This log file is called RDMSDeploymentUI.txt. You can find this log file…”

Read the complete article here:
http://www.virtualizationadmin.com/articles-tutorials/general-virtualization-articles/troubleshooting-rds-windows-server-2012.html

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

RD Gateway in Windows Server 8 supports UDP

Remote Desktop Services in Windows Server 8 (Beta) supports the UDP protocol. The UDP transport protocol provides a better experience for users that connect to a RDS session on a server running Windows Server 8. TCP as well as UDP protocols can now be used for the RDP session.

The Remote Desktop Gateway (RD Gateway) in Windows Server 8 extends this UDP functionality by supporting it in the gateway. If the client or endpoint does not support UDP, RD Gateway will automaticially switch back and thus the selection process of the best possible transport protocol is completely transparent to the end-user as long as the it has been enabled in the RD Gateway and the client and RDP endpoint support a UDP connection. The client has to be equipped with Remote Desktop Client 8 to support UDP.

To configure the RD Gateway to use UDP when possible, open the RD Gateway manager and then select the "Transport Settings" tab. Here you have the option to enable UDP support. Of course, the UDP settings can also be configured using GPO's. E.g. there is a setting "Turn off UDP On Client" to configure it on the the client and setting "Connections - Turn Off UDP On Server" to force it to turn of on the RDSH server.

Expired passwords in RD WebAccess on Windows Server 8 revisited.

In one of my previous blog posts (http://microsoftplatform.blogspot.com/2012/03/rds-in-win8-feature-highlight-no_12.html )I showed that Windows Server 8 (Beta) now also has a functionality to have a user reset his password using RD WebAccess.

In that blog post, I wrote that I was wondering whether the final release of Windows Server 8 would contain a link to that password reset page on the logon page itself to guide the user to the password reset page. I’ve done some editing, and it seems that it’s extremely easy to add this functionality yourself. This the line of text I added containing a link:

However, the real intention of this new password reset functionality seems to be the ability to have a user change his expired password. See the screenshot below. Notice that a notification text is added saying that the password has expired with a link to the password reset page! Great feature!

RemoteApp improvements in Windows Server 8

There have been numerous improvements regarding the way end-users experience RemoteApps in Windows Server 8. In this blog post, I’ll discuss some of the improvements that might at first seem very small but will definitely help end users to adopt Remote Apps even more.

With Windows 7, new features were introduced, such as grouping of applications, pinning, tabbed windows, overlay icons etc. However, RemoteApps didn’t allow full compatibility with these newly introduced features. Windows Server 8 (Beta) crosses the bridge and has the capability to allow compatibility with these features!

Users can now also pin RemoteApp applications to the client taskbar just like they were locally installed applications.

Users can now easily spot the difference between RemoteApps and workspaces by a unique icon. This identifier is in the form of an icon overlay in the form of the Remote Desktop logo.

Users can now see a change in the status of an application as icon overlays is now also supported for Remote Apps.

And users can now also see the difference between multiple instances of an application by being able to see tabs in the RemoteApp preview.

It's good to see that these features made it to the Windows Server 8 (Beta) release, it definitely makes Remote Apps more user-friendly!

How to configure High Availability for RD Connection Broker on Windows 8

In a previous blog post (Better HA on de RDCB) I wrote a quick feature highlight of the new High Availability options for RD Connection Broker on Windows Server 8 (Beta). I promised to write a more detailed blog post on how to actually set this up. So here it is!

The process for setting up a highly available (HA) RD Connection Broker has changed and improved a lot in Windows Server 8 (Beta). As also seen in my previous blog post on this, a wizard has been added to the new server manager to guide you through the process of setting up the HA and adding new RD Connection Broker servers.

Prerequisites
Before we start to configuration, I’ll quickly sum up the prerequisites. At this point we assume that there is a RD Connection Broker already in place (e.g. during the setup of a quick deployment). The prerequisites for High Availibility for the RD Connection Broker are:

• A Microsoft SQL Server with write permissions granted to all RD Connection Broker servers that will be part of the deployment

• The Microsoft SQL Server Native Client is installed on all RD Connection Broker servers that will be part of the deployment

• Static IP addresses have been assigned to all RD Connection Broker servers that will be part of the deployment

• DNS resource records with a single DNS name have been created for all RD Connection Broker servers that will be part of the deployment

Step 1. Preparing the Broker for HA

Before adding a second server with the RD Connection Broker role we need to prepare the current RD Connection Broker for HA. Which means that during this process, the wizard will create a central database on a central MS SQL Server instance and will transfer the configuration to this database.

We open the Server Manager on the machine that is currently holding the RD Connection Broker Role and we navigate to “Remote Desktop Services” and then “Overview”. We right-click the RD Connection Broker and choose “Configure RD Connection Broker for HA”.

On the "before you begin" screen the previously discussed prerequisites are summed again, we press “Next”. On the “Configure High Availability” screen we enter the details of the HA setup.

We need to specify the following parameters:

Database connection string
The wizard will use this string to create the database. Pay close attention to the format of the string. Copy the string below and change only replace the <name of SQL server> and <name of database> values.

DRIVER=SQL Server Native Client 10.0;SERVER=<name of SQL server>;Trusted_Connection=Yes;APP=Remote Desktop Services Connection Broker;Database=<name of database>

Folder to store databasefile
Here we need to specify the folder on the SQL Server where we want the databases to be stored. For demo purposes I placed in C:\RCDB, but in most environments you will probably use an existing HA SQL environment and enter the desired values. Note that we specify the location for the .mdf as well as the .ldf file, so no separation there. However, you should be able to change that in using SQL Server manager after the installation.

DNS Resource Record name
Here we specify the DNS name that we want this HA RD Connection broker farm be accessible on.  For this demo I used rdcb.lab.local

We click “Next” and click “Configure” on the confirmation page. Shortly after that we get the confirm that the configuration has succeeded.

 A database is created on the SQL Server we specified.

Remember that this was just step 1. We now have prepared the current RD Connection Broker for HA purposes.


Step 2. Adding a RD Connection Broker

As the next step we will add a new RD Connection Broker to the HA setup we just created.

We go back to the server manager and we now have the option available “Add Connection Broker Server”.

After clicking next on the prerequisites page we are presented with the screen below. We select the server that we want to add as a RD Connection Broker and click next. (Please remember that before we are able to add a server here that server must be added to the Server Manager to be able for it to configure it).

We click “Add” on the confirm dialog and the wizard will remotely install the RD Connection Broker on the server we selected and add it to HA environment.

And that’s it!

We are now able to remotely connect to the DNS farm name (rdcb.lab.local) we created by using mstsc. An initial connection (as seen here) will be hosted by one of the active RD Connection Broker servers and we get be redirected to one of the RD Session Host Servers in the Session Collection! (And of course this also works in conjunction with the RD Gateway and RD Web Access).


Conclusion
Windows Server 8 (Beta) supports a true active-active HA solutions for the RD Connection Broker  Big improvement !

Test lab guides for RDS in Windows Server 8 Beta

Microsoft released several test lab guides to get you started with setting up Remote Desktop Services on Windows Server 8 Beta in a lab environment. If you used the labs you can give feedback on the lab pages by rating it and adding a comment.

Test Lab Guide: Remote Desktop Services Session Virtualization Quick Start
This topic contains instructions for setting up a test lab based on the Test Lab Guide: Base Configuration and deploying Remote Desktop Services Session Virtualization Quick Start deployment using two server computers and one client computers. The resulting Session Virtualization Quick Start deployment test lab demonstrates how to successfully deploy a Session Virtualization Quick Start deployment.
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/hh831754.aspx

Test Lab Guide: Remote Desktop Services Session Virtualization standard deployment
This paper contains instructions for setting up a test lab based on the Test Lab Guide: Base Configuration and deploying Session Virtualization using two server computers and one client computer. The resulting Session Virtualization standard deployment test lab demonstrates how to successfully install and configure a Session Virtualization standard deployment.
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/hh831610.aspx

Test Lab Guide: Remote Desktop Services Publishing
This paper contains instructions for setting up a test lab based on the Test Lab Guide: Demonstrate Remote Desktop Services Session Virtualization Standard Deployment and publishing and managing resources using four server computers and one client computer. The resulting centralized resource publishing test lab demonstrates how to successfully install and configure resource publishing.
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/hh831442.aspx

RDS in WIN8 Feature highlight no. 7 SSL configuration made easy.

RDS in WIN8 Feature highlight no. 7  SSL configuration made easy.

If you ever had to set up or configure certificates for a Remote Desktop Services environment based on Windows Server 2008 (R2), you’ve probably dealt with having to setup certificates in many different places on many different machines running the various RDS roles. With Windows Server 8 (Beta) SSL certificate management has been made much easier for the administrator.

If you open up the server manager en browse to “Remote Desktop Services” from the left pane and select “Collections” you have the ability to choose “Edit Deployment Properties”.

A dialog will appear in which we select “Certificates”. Using this dialog we can actually setup the SSL certificate for the Redirector, publishing and RD Web Access all from the same console!

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.

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