We’re very happy to report that Windows Server 2008 R2 Remote Desktop Service Resource Kit, by Christa Anderson and Kristin L. Griffin with the Microsoft Remote Desktop Services Team (ISBN 9780735627376; 720 pages) has shipped to the printer.
In-depth and comprehensive, this official Microsoft Resource Kit delivers the information you need to plan, deploy, and administer Remote Desktop Services in Windows Server 2008 R2. You get authoritative technical guidance from those who know the technology best—leading industry experts and members of the Microsoft Desktop Virtualization Team. Coverage includes scenarios for Remote Desktop Services (formerly known as Terminal Services), virtualizing roles, setting up Remote Desktop Virtualization Host (RDVS), managing application compatibility, customizing and locking down the user experience, using Windows PowerShell™ for configuration and management, administering security features, deploying a farm, publishing resources, managing sessions, and other life cycle issues. In addition, the Resource Kit CD features a fully searchable electronic version of the book, along with sample scripts, white papers, links to tools and videocasts, and other essential resources.
This book will be available through online book retailers on December 15, and in bookstores shortly thereafter.
Here is a brief look at the Table of Contents as well as an excerpt from the book’s Introduction. Enjoy!
Chapter 1 Introducing Remote Desktop Services
Chapter 2 Key Architectural Concepts for Remote Desktop Services
Chapter 3 Deploying a Single Remote Desktop Session Host Server
Chapter 4 Deploying a Single Remote Desktop Virtualization Host Server
Chapter 5 Managing User Data in a Remote Desktop Services Deployment
Chapter 6 Customizing the User Experience
Chapter 7 Molding and Securing the User Environment
Chapter 8 Securing Remote Desktop Protocol Connections
Chapter 9 Multi-Server Deployments
Chapter 10 Making Remote Desktop Services Available from the Internet
Chapter 11 Managing Remote Desktop Sessions
Chapter 12 Licensing Remote Desktop Services
Welcome to the Windows Server 2008 R2 Remote Desktop Services Resource Kit! This is a detailed technical resource for planning, deploying, and running Microsoft Remote Desktop Services (RDS). Because some features of RDS are brand new, this book is valuable both for those completely new to RDS and those who have used Terminal Services (its former name) in previous versions of Microsoft Windows.
Within this resource kit, you’ll find in-depth information about the improvements in RDS introduced in Windows Server 2008 R2. This book combines underlying architectural concepts with practical hands-on instructions that allow you to set up a working RDS ecosystem, understand why it’s working, and give you some guidance about how to fix it when it’s not. You’ll also find detailed information and task-based guidance on managing all aspects of RDS, including deploying RD Session Host servers, integrating RDS role services with other key parts of the Windows Server 2008 R2 operating system, and extending the reach of RDS to outside the corporate network. Finally, the companion media includes additional tools and documentation that you can use to manage and troubleshoot RDS role services. Although we mention some third-party tools in the course of this book, this book is fundamentally about running RDS using only the tools found in the operating system. You can do what we’ve done here using only Windows Server 2008 R2. Nor do we get into extensive discussion of any of the third-party tools that many people use with native Remote Desktop Services. For example, many people with high-complexity RDS deployments use management software from Citrix or Quest or other RDS partners, but we don’t discuss it here because it’s not included with the operating system.
Remote Desktop Services in Windows Server 2008 R2 took a lot of the improvements added in Windows Server 2008 and added the features people had asked for. Want native support for VDI? It’s added to RD Connection Broker. Want fewer logons, security filtering, simplified discovery of available applications and virtual machines (VMs)? It’s in the new version of RD Web Access. Want to address problems discovered via Network Access Policies (NAP), not just shut people out of the network? It’s in the new edition of RD Gateway. Want improved application compatibility? See RD Session Host for IP address virtualization and dynamic fair share scheduling that proactively prevents one session from taking all the processor cycles. Want to stop installing printer drivers on both sessions and VMs? Easy Print now works for both virtualization options.
For those who went straight to Windows Server 2008 R2 from Windows Server 2003, let’s take a look at what the new features add to the former model of a terminal server and a license server.
Terminal Services in Windows Server 2003 presented all remote applications from a desktop, completely separating the display of local and remote applications. RemoteApp programs (introduced in Windows Server 2008) launch from a server, but integrate with the local desktop so they look like they’re running locally.
Not only do the applications integrate better with the local desktop, they’re easier to find and distribute, thus making it easier to support a larger and more complex deployment. One of the issues in enabling remote access is how to get the most complete and up-to-date set of remote resources to your user base. This is especially true when you’re providing access to individual applications, not to a full desktop. Using RDS Web Access, you can present links to individual applications or to entire desktops and know that these links will always be up to date. In Windows Server 2008 R2, RD Web Access can present RemoteApp programs from more than one farm as well as VMs. It also, however, supports security filtering so that you can manage an aggregated source for all remote resources but only display to people the ones they should use.
The Session Directory service in Windows Server 2003 offered the beginning of farm support, but was only available for Enterprise SKUs and didn’t include any load balancing—it just kept track of where connections had gone. In Windows Server 2008 R2, RD Connection Broker is available on the Standard SKU, supports load balancing, and can broker connections to both sessions and VMs.
One of the key benefits of Remote Desktop Services is its ability to support mobile workers. We had a great (and extremely itinerant) tech editor, RDS MVP Alex Juschin, for this edition of the book. He’s got a great description of how he used Remote Desktop Services while completing his part.
In your book you can mention that I have been reviewing your book all over the world using the RDP protocol to connect to my home in Dublin via 3G or WiFi . I’ve worked while on a smelly Kebap Bus in Poland, in a freezing hotel in Latvia, while being driven in a high-end coach in Estonia, on the ferry to England, in a pub in Ireland, on a train going down the coast from Belfast, while tasting wine in France, sitting in a nice Brasserie on the island of Jersey, eating Belgian chocolate in Brussels, on a plane to Germany, on a bench with a beautiful view in Zurich, in a café near the Berlin Wall, in a prison in Finland (ok, hotel, but it used to be a prison), and on the highest point of Germany (Zugspitze).
In Windows Server 2003, Terminal Services didn’t support secure Internet access except across virtual private networks. In Windows Server 2008 R2, Remote Desktop Services supports connectivity over Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) via RD Gateway. RD Gateway allows you to set up different rules for local and remote access and does not require any client-side setup. Introduced in Windows Server 2008, in R2, RD Gateway now enforces device and resource redirection decisions made at the gateway and supports NAP remediation.
RDS assumes that a lot of people will be working from computers with local resources, and that those people won’t want to be cut off from their resources when they’re working in their session or VM. It also assumes that the server administrators don’t want to spend more time than necessary making these resources available.
Although printer redirection, as it’s been known in earlier versions of Terminal Services, still works as it did, Easy Print, introduced in Windows Server 2008, helps simplify printer redirection. Rather than requiring administrators to install printer drivers on the server, Easy Print allows redirected printers to use the drivers already installed on the client computer. In Windows 2008 R2, RD Easy Print works with even more printer types and works from both sessions and VMs.
Part of the rich remote work experience is using local devices. Support for local devices has been expanded through the Plug and Play Device Redirection Framework, introduced in Windows Server 2008.
Per-user licensing was introduced in Windows Server 2003 but didn’t include any tracking, so you couldn’t easily tell if you were in compliance. Windows Server 2008 R2 allows you to track Per-User RDS CAL usage. Additionally, the Licensing Diagnostics feature can help you resolve licensing issues. Windows 2008 R2 RD License servers can now migrate licenses from one server to another without the help of the Microsoft Clearinghouse. This can be done even if a license server is out of commission.
This is only a partial list of new features—Chapter 1, “Introducing Remote Desktop Services,” describes the Remote Desktop Services features in Windows Server 2008 R2, and the rest of the book explains how to use them. But these are some of the highlights that show how the role has expanded in management and user experience.
Our goal in writing this book is to help you set up a working Remote Desktop Services farm, as well as VDI pooled and personal VMs using all the pieces in the operating system, while understanding the greater context of the circumstances under which Remote Desktop Services is useful, how it works, and how Windows Server 2008 R2 compares to previous versions. This book has twelve chapters.
■ Chapter 1, “Introducing Remote Desktop Services,” explains where RDS came from and how it has evolved as a platform, what new features are available in this latest iteration, and what you can accomplish with this new version of the product. It also explains how other services support RDS. ■ Chapter 2, “Key Architectural Concepts for Remote Desktop Services,” dives into RDS internals and relevant Windows Server 2008 R2 internals. It also shows you how to determine the hardware and software you will need to support this product in your environment. ■ Chapter 3, “Deploying a Single Remote Desktop Session Host Server,” shows you how RD Session Host servers work, and how to install and configure this role service. ■ Chapter 4, “Deploying a Single Remote Desktop Virtualization Host Server,” explains what VDI is, how Microsoft VDI works, and how to install and configure a RD Virtualization Host and the supporting roles. ■ Chapter 5, “Managing User Data in a Remote Desktop Services Deployment,” discusses the different types of profiles that work with RDS and how to deploy and troubleshoot user profile solutions and folder redirection. ■ Chapter 6, “Customizing the User Experience,” discusses how remoting works, promoting good client experience in the remote session, and how to print from RDS sessions. ■ Chapter 7, “Molding and Securing the User Environment,” explains why you should lock down the RDS environment and how you should do it, and describes how to provide remote assistance to users from within the user session. ■ Chapter 8, “Securing Remote Desktop Protocol Connections,” discusses RDP encryption, server and client authentication, and how to configure security settings on the RD Session Host server. ■ Chapter 9, “Multi-Server Deployments,” introduces key concepts for multiserver deployments, shows how to create RD Session Host farms, and explains how to publish applications and display resources through RD Web Access. ■ Chapter 10, “Making Remote Desktop Services Available from the Internet,” shows you how to install and configure RD Gateway to provide access to RemoteApps, desktop sessions, and pooled and personal VMs to users located outside the corporate network. ■ Chapter 11, “Managing Remote Desktop Sessions,” shows you how to monitor and terminate processes and users sessions running on an RD Session Host server, how to provide help with remote control, and how to drain RD Session Host servers for maintenance. ■ Chapter 12, “Licensing Remote Desktop Services,” discusses the new RDS licensing paradigm, including both RDS and VDI licensing. This chapter explains how licenses are tracked and enforced; how RD License server assign RDS CALs; how to install, configure, and maintain RDS License servers; how to diagnose licensing issues with the Licensing Diagnosis tool; and how to migrate licenses from one server to another.
dogmatrixtechnology.com.au is great in remote support.No headache once you inform the problem.Instant solution.