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Managing Windows Small Business Server 2011 : Adding a Terminal Server (part 1)

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3/9/2013 11:37:32 AM

1. New Remote Desktop Services Features

Windows Server 2008 R2 Remote Desktop Services (RDS) is a significant update from the Terminal Services in Windows Server 2008 or Windows Server 2003. Not only has the name changed, but some significant new capabilities were added as well. The three major new features (when compared to Windows Server 2003) are Remote Desktop (RD) Gateway, RemoteApps, and RD Web Access. For most SBS environments, the first two of these are the most important. RD Gateway is used by the new Remote Web Access (RWA), and RemoteApps gives you the ability to use specific applications running on a terminal server as if they were local. RD Web Access is also useful, but rather than setting up a traditional web server to provide access to applications, we’ll integrate them directly onto Companyweb, the SBS intranet.

1.1. RD Gateway

The RD Gateway role service is not installed on the main SBS 2011 server, but the functionality is enabled to support RWA. In SBS 2003, Remote Web Workplace (RWW) acted as a proxy for the Remote Desktop Protocol, using port 4125 as the incoming port to connect remote users to clients in the SBS domain. This worked well and was the big application in SBS 2003. In fact, it was so successful that a lot of enterprise networks were envious of the technology.

Windows Server 2008 R2 uses RD Gateway to allow a similar functionality, but instead of using an RDP proxy across port 4125, RD Gateway tunnels traffic over HTTPS to help form a secure, encrypted connection between remote users on the Internet and the remote computers on which their productivity applications run, even if their use is located behind a Network Address Translation (NAT) Traversal–based router.

The SBS team chose to use the RD Gateway functionality of Windows Server 2008 R2 for Remote Web Access. Which allows us to do some really cool things with RWA, including adding links to applications that can be run directly from RWA across the Internet.

1.2. RemoteApps

RemoteApps was the single best feature added to Windows Server 2008, except for Hyper-V. But Hyper-V isn’t exciting—it just makes our jobs easier. RemoteApps is actually exciting, and it gives us a way to give our users a better experience.

Terminal Services has always enabled us to allow users to run entire desktops as if they were local while actually using the power of the server. But RemoteApps takes this to a whole new level, allowing us to run just specific applications on the RemoteApp server and have them behave just as if they were local applications. This makes the entire process transparent to the user. The application runs on the server, using the server’s memory, CPU, and resources, but it displays on the user’s computer just as if it were running locally. It’s uncanny how natural it feels. We use it here in our office all the time. Because we’re constantly building and rebuilding new computers and virtual machines, it’s a nuisance to try to have a single, predictable and accessible location for data files—especially when we have multiple domains here. But by enabling RemoteApps, we always have the same view of our environment.

Because RemoteApps lets you create .msi files for deployment, you can use Group Policy to deploy the remote applications. The applications can even be configured to take over the file association for a file type, just as if they were local applications—again making the user experience completely natural.

1.3. RD Web Access

RD Web Access provides a web-based front end that allows you to publish applications to a web page for easier user access. In SBS 2011, you can use RD Web Access to publish the application links directly in the SharePoint Companyweb site. 

2. Concepts

Remote Desktop Services is a new concept for many system administrators who expect systems to be essentially single-user. It brings true multiuser capability to Windows. Each user who connects to a Windows Server 2008 R2 server using Remote Desktop or a RemoteApp is actually using the resources of the server itself, not the particular workstation at which he or she is seated. The user’s experience doesn’t depend on the speed of the workstation—the user’s workstation is actually sharing the processor, RAM, and hard disks of the server itself.

Each user gets his or her RDS session, and each session is completely isolated from other sessions on the same server. An errant program in one session can cause that session’s user to have a problem, but other users are unaffected.

Each user who connects to a Windows Server 2008 R2 server using Remote Desktop is actually functioning as a terminal on that server. RDS supports a wide variety of computers as terminals—from diskless display stations running a version of Windows entirely in memory, with no hard disk at all, to legacy Windows desktop computers that are otherwise too underpowered for satisfactory use. Because the terminal is responsible solely for the console functions—that is, the keyboard, mouse, and actual display—the processing and RAM requirements for the terminal are minimal. All other functioning resides on and is part of the server, although the disks, printers, and serial ports of your local workstation can be connected to the remote session.


Warning:

IMPORTANT Versions of Windows prior to Windows XP SP3 can’t install the latest version of the Remote Desktop Client software. All client workstations should be updated to Windows XP SP3 or later to take full advantage of the features of Windows Server 2008 R2 Remote Desktop Services, and to protect the security of the network.


2.1. Remote Access

RDS provides an ideal solution for the mobile user who needs to be able to run network-intensive or processor-intensive applications even over a dial-up connection. Because the local computer is responsible only for the actual console, the responsiveness and bandwidth requirements are substantially better compared to trying to run applications across a slow connection. The actual bandwidth used for Remote Desktop Services can be tuned by enabling or disabling certain graphics features to improve responsiveness over a slow connection.

2.2. Central Management

Because all applications in an RDS session are running on the server, management of sessions and applications is greatly simplified. Any changes to applications or settings need only be made once, on the server, and these changes are seen by all future RDS sessions.

In addition, RDS allows an administrator to view what is happening in a user’s session, or even to directly control it. Help desk personnel can actually see exactly what the user is seeing without leaving their desks. If the user is configured accordingly, the Help desk person can share control of the session, walking the user through a difficult problem.

REAL WORLD: Requirements

The requirements for an RD Session Host (terminal server) depend on the number of users and the type of applications they run. Because each user will be executing his or her programs on the server itself, you need to determine exactly how your users work and what their real requirements are. Microsoft publishes a detailed white paper on capacity planning for an RD Session Host (which you can see at http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/en/confirmation.aspx?displaylang=en&FamilyID=ca837962-4128-4680-b1c0-ad0985939063) that has far more details than we can cover here and yet still manages to hedge its recommendations. And rightly so—capacity planning is subject to an enormous number of variables. So take the following as merely basic guidelines, and carefully consider how your environment affects these numbers.


Warning:

IMPORTANT Numbers in this sidebar are not intended to be definitive, but are a reflection of the authors’ experience in real-world usage. System administrators and consultants should refer to the “RD Desktop Session Host Capacity Planning in Windows Server 2008 R2” white paper referenced above before making final recommendations.


RAM

Each session on the RD Session Host for a typical knowledge worker of Microsoft Office 2010—including Microsoft Word, Outlook, Excel, and PowerPoint—consumes roughly 70 Mb per session. If the available memory per user drops below this point, excessive paging can occur, causing an unacceptable user experience. Thus, a server or virtual machine running Windows Server 2008 R2 with 6 GB of RAM will easily support all the users you can have in an SBS environment.

CPU

Predicting exactly how much CPU power will be required per user is difficult because each user has a different mix of applications and expectations. A physical server with a single quad-core processor Windows Server 2008 R2 with sufficient RAM present to avoid swapping can realistically host somewhere between 100 and 150 users—in other words, more than an SBS network has to worry about. Even when that server is a virtual machine, the numbers are quite similar if the CPU supports Second Level Address Translation (SLAT). Without SLAT, the maximum number of users drops to roughly 50–70 users for a four-processor virtual machine—still enough to handle the vast majority of SBS environments.

One factor that affects the number of users per CPU core is the color depth used for each RDS session. Limiting the maximum color depth to 16-bits per pixel (bpp) significantly improves the capacity of the RD Session Host server. However, if your RD Session Host is supporting no more than 50 users, enabling Desktop Composition (Aero) and 32-bit color should not be an issue.

Network

A typical SBS network with 1 Gbps networking has more than sufficient network bandwidth to support as many Remote Desktop clients as necessary. If your network is limited to older 100 Mbps networking, you might end up with network bandwidth issues if your RDS users run graphics-intensive applications, even on an SBS-sized network. Remote users can tailor their RDP settings to limit bandwidth use over slow connections.

RemoteApps

The maximum number of RemoteApp users that a given server can support is actually slightly fewer than if the users were running full sessions with the same application mix. But the difference is small and is caused by higher CPU usage for RemoteApp scenarios.


2.3. Licensing

Remote Desktop Services use requires special licensing considerations. In addition to normal Client Access Licenses (CALs), which are covered by your SBS licensing, you also need to have an RDS CAL for each user or device that uses RDS functionality. Note that this includes RD Gateway or RD Web functionality beyond that included in Windows Small Business Server 2011 Standard. Unfortunately, RDS CALs are not included as part of either SBS or the Premium Add-on.

You’ll need to install an RD Licensing server in the SBS 2011 network within 120 days of initially enabling the RD Session Host role, and you’ll need to choose either per user or per device licensing mode for that RD Session Host server. The RD Licensing role service can be enabled on the same server as the RD Session Host role service. It should not be enabled on the main SBS server.

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