Read Windows Server 2008 R2 Unleashed Online
Authors: Noel Morimoto
Remote Desktop for Administration
Remote Desktop for Administration is included and installed with the Windows Server
2008 R2 operating system and only needs to be enabled. This eases automated and unat-
tended server deployment by allowing an administrator to deploy servers that can be
managed remotely after the operating system has completed installation. This mode can
also be used to manage a headless server, which reduces the amount of space needed in
any server rack. More space can be dedicated to servers instead of switch boxes, monitors,
keyboards, and mouse devices.
The Remote Desktop for Administration limits the number of terminal sessions to only
two parallel connections (three, if the administrator uses session 0, the local console), and
only local administrators can connect to these sessions by default. No additional licenses
are needed to run a server in this Remote Desktop mode, which allows an administrator to
perform almost all the server management duties remotely.
Even though Remote Desktop for Administration is installed by default, it has to be
enabled. Some organizations might see using this feature as an unneeded security risk and
choose to keep it disabled or limit access to remote sessions. However, Remote Desktop for
Administration can also easily be enabled by using a group policy, a PowerShell-based
command/script, or good old manual means. Lastly, this mode of Remote Desktop is avail-
able in every Windows Server 2008 R2, Windows Server 2008, and Windows Server 2003
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version and, as mentioned before, Windows XP Professional, Windows XP Media Center
and Tablet PC Editions, Windows Vista Ultimate, Enterprise, and Business Editions, and
Windows 7 Ultimate, Business, and Professional.
NOTE
Starting with Windows Vista/Windows Server 2008 and on to Windows 7/Windows
Server 2008 R2, there have also been a number of changes to how Remote Desktop
works. A listing of these changes can be found in the “Why Implement Remote
Desktop Services” section found earlier in this chapter.
Remote Desktop Services
Remote Desktop Services allows any authorized user to connect to the server and run a
single application or a complete desktop session from their client workstation. Running
Remote Desktop Services requires the purchase of a Remote Desktop Services client access
license (CAL) for each simultaneous connection. To manage these CALs, a Remote
Desktop licensing server is needed to allocate and track the licenses for Remote Desktop
Services. The Remote Desktop Licensing role service can be installed on any Windows
Server 2008 R2 Standard, Enterprise, or Datacenter Edition member server.
It should also be noted that before installing applications that will be used in Remote
Desktop Services, it is recommended that administrators follow a strict validation process
to ensure that each application runs as it should in multiple user sessions. Some applica-
How Remote Desktop Works
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tions might not be properly suited to run on a Remote Desktop server; in such cases,
extensive Remote Desktop Services application compatibility testing should take place
before deployment. The results of such testing can both determine if an application is
compatible and if any custom installation steps or scripts need to be created for these
applications to run correctly.
NOTE
Remote Desktop Services is not available in Windows Server 2008 R2 Web and
Windows Server 2008 R2 Itanium Editions.
Client-Side Remote Desktop Services
Windows XP Professional, Windows XP Media Center and Tablet PC Editions, Windows
Vista Ultimate, Enterprise, and Business Editions, and Windows 7 Ultimate, Business, and
Professional all have a scaled-down version of Remote Desktop. This version of Remote
Desktop allows a user to connect to a workstation and remotely take over the workstation
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to run applications that he or she would normally run from their desk locally. As an
administration tool, this client-side Remote Desktop can be used to install software on an
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end user’s workstation from a remote machine. Also, it can be used to log on to a user’s
desktop environment to remotely configure a user’s profile settings.
Remote Assistance
Remote Assistance is a feature that has been present in Windows since Windows Server
2003 and Windows XP Professional. This feature allows a user to request assistance from a
trusted friend or administrator to help deal with desktop issues and configurations. This
feature gives the end user the power to control what level of participation the remote
assistant can have. The remote assistant can be granted the ability to chat with the end
user, view the desktop, or remotely control the desktop. During remote assistance
sessions, both the end user and remote assistant can hand off control of the keyboard and
mouse. Remote assistance uses the underlying Remote Desktop Protocol (RDP) used by
Remote Desktop.
Remote Desktop Connection
The Remote Desktop Connection client is the newly improved and renamed Terminal
Server client. This full-featured client allows the end user to control Remote Desktop
session settings such as local disk, audio, and port redirection, plus additional settings
such as running only a single program or logging on automatically and so on. Remote
Desktop Connection information can be saved and reused to connect to Remote Desktop
Services with previously defined session specifications.
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CHAPTER 25
Remote Desktop Services
As mentioned earlier in this chapter, Windows Terminal Services was renamed to Remote
Desktop Services in Windows Server 2008 R2. Table 25.1 lists the Terminal Services role,
role services, and related components that have been renamed and their new Windows
Server 2008 R2 name.
TABLE 25.1
Parameters and Values for Creating an Unattended Answer File
Previous Name
Windows Server 2008 R2 Name
Terminal Services
Remote Desktop Services
Terminal Server
Remote Desktop Session Host (RD Session Host)
Terminal Services Licensing (TS Licensing)
Remote Desktop Licensing (RD Licensing)
Terminal Services Gateway (TS Gateway)
Remote Desktop Gateway (RD Gateway)
Terminal Services Session Broker (TS
Remote Desktop Connection Broker (RD
Session Broker)
Connection Broker)
Terminal Services Web Access (TS Web
Remote Desktop Web Access (RD Web Access)
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Access)
Terminal Services Manager
Remote Desktop Services Manager
Terminal Services Configuration
Remote Desktop Session Host Configuration
TS Gateway Manager
Remote Desktop Gateway Manager
TS Licensing Manager
Remote Desktop Licensing Manager
TS RemoteApp Manager
RemoteApp Manager
Understanding Remote Desktop Services
Although some of the features in Remote Desktop Services have already been touched on,
this section covers features that are important, new, or improved in Windows Server 2008
R2–based Remote Desktop Services.
RD Session Host
The Remote Desktop Session Host (RD Session Host) role service was previously known as
the Terminal Server role service in Windows Server 2008. This role service is used to host
Windows-based applications or a full Windows desktop for users who connect to an RD
Session Host using either Remote Desktop Connection or RemoteApp.
The new features that have been introduced in Windows Server 2008 R2 for the RD
Session Host role service are discussed in the following sections.
Understanding Remote Desktop Services
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Per-User RemoteApp Filtering
Using per-user RemoteApp filtering, an administrator can now filter the list of RemoteApp
programs that are available to users when they log on to RD Web Access. Prior to this
feature being introduced, each user was presented with a list of all RemoteApp programs
regardless of whether they had rights.
Fair Share CPU Scheduling
In previous versions of Terminal Services, the Windows scheduler had a fair scheduling
policy that distributed processor time evenly across all threads of the same priority level.
Although this scheduling methodology was a good mechanism to prevent any one user
from completely monopolizing the CPU, it was not able to evenly distribute the processor
time based on dynamic loads. To better handle dynamic loads, the Fair Share CPU
Scheduling feature in Remote Desktop Services uses a Windows Server 2008 R2 kernel-level
scheduling mechanism to dynamically distribute processor time across sessions based on
the number of active sessions and load on those sessions.
NOTE
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By default, the Fair Share CPU Scheduling feature is enabled. To disable this feature,
set the following Registry entry as 0:
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HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\SessionManager\
DFSS\EnableDFSS.
Windows Installer RDS Compatibility
In previous versions of Terminal Services, only one Windows Installer installation was
supported at a time. This meant that user-related MSI actions (like personalization) were
limited to one concurrent run per Terminal Server. To streamline application deployments
to RS Session Host servers, the Windows Installer RDS Compatibility feature is designed so
that per-user application installations are queued by the RD Session Host server and then
handled by the Windows Installer.
NOTE
Windows Installer RDS Compatibility is enabled by default. You can disable this feature
by configuring the following Registry entry to 0:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Policies\Microsoft\Windows NT\Terminal
Services\TSAppSrv\TSMSI\Enable.
Client Experience Configuration Page
During the installation of the RD Session Host role service using Server Manager, one of
the steps in the wizard is the Client Experience Configuration page. Using this page, an
administrator can configure the following client experience features:
. Audio and video playback redirection
. Audio recording redirection
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CHAPTER 25
Remote Desktop Services
. Desktop composition (user-interface elements of the Windows Aero desktop experi-
ence within an RD Session Host session)
NOTE
When any of these features are configured using the installation wizard, the Desktop
Experience role service is also installed and Windows Audio service is started on the
RD Session Host server.
Roaming User Profile Cache Management
Caching of roaming profiles is often enabled in a Remote Desktop Services deployment to
improve end-user experience. Unfortunately, the profile cache tends to grow very large
and in certain cases can consume all the available disk space on a server. Roaming user
profile cache management is a new Remote Desktop Services feature that is designed to
limit the overall size of the roaming profile cache. When enabled and the roaming profile
cache has exceeded the specified size, Remote Desktop Services will continue deleting the
least recently used profiles until the cache size is below the defined quota.
NOTE
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The profile cache size can be limited using the Group Policy setting Computer
Configuration\Policies\Administrative Templates\Windows
Components\Remote Desktop Services\Remote Desktop Session
Host\Profiles\Limit the Size of the Entire Roaming User Profile Cache.
When enabling this setting, both monitoring interval (in minutes) and a maximum size
(in gigabytes) must be defined.
Remote Desktop IP Virtualization
In certain cases, an application might require that each initialized instance of that applica-
tion must be assigned a unique IP address; for example, a CRM application that binds to a
temporary database instance, which is listening on a network port. In previous versions of
Terminal Services, these types of applications presented a deployment challenge for
administrators. However, by using the new Remote Desktop IP Virtualization, an IP
address can now be assigned to a remote desktop connection on a per-session or per-
program basis.
RD Virtualization Host
The Remote Desktop Virtualization Host (RD Virtualization Host) role service works in
conjunction with Hyper-V to host virtual machines for Remote Desktop Services. Users
can connect to a virtual machine using either RemoteApp and Desktop Connection or
Remote Desktop Web Access (RD Web Access). These virtual machines can either be
deployed as a personal virtual desktop (each user is assigned a unique virtual machine) or
part of a shared virtual desktop pool (a virtual machine is dynamically assigned).
Personal virtual desktops are assigned to individual users by using the Remote Desktop
Connection Manager. Users can only be assigned one virtual desktop; additionally, a
Understanding Remote Desktop Services
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virtual desktop can only be assigned to one user. By keeping the relationship one-to-one,
all customizations that are made to a personal virtual desktop by a user are preserved and
available for future use.