Additional RD Session
Host Server Configuration Tasks
In addition to just
installing the RD Session Host role service, there are several
additional configuration tasks that administrators might want to
complete on an RD Session Host server. These tasks are described in the
following sections.
Denying New User Logons
Called “Terminal Services Server
Drain mode” in Windows Server 2008, an RD Session Host server can be
configured to prevent new user sessions from being created. Reasons why
an administrator might want to prevent new user sessions from being
created include planned server outages for maintenance or to install new
applications. Called User Logon mode in Windows Server 2008 R2, the
following modes can be used:
Allow All Connections—
This is the default setting that is selected and allows users to connect
remotely to the RD Session Host server.
Allow Reconnections, but
Prevent New Logons— When selected,
users are prevented from creating new sessions on an RD Session Host
server. However, users that already have a Remote Desktop session
running can still use and even reconnect to their session. Once the RD
Session Host server is rebooted, no users will be able to connect to
that server.
Allow Reconnections but Prevent New Logons Until
the Server Is Restarted— When selected,
users who already have a remote session can connect to the RD Session
Host server. However, new users without a session will not be able to
create new sessions. Then once the RD Session Host server is restarted,
the User Logon mode is reset to Allow All Connections.
Use the following steps to
configure the User Logon mode on an RD Session Host server:
1. | Open the
Remote Desktop Session Host Configuration tool by clicking Start,
Administrative Tools, Remote Desktop Services and then select Remote
Desktop Session Host Configuration.
|
2. | In the Edit Settings area, double-click the User Logon
Mode setting.
|
3. | On the
General tab of the Properties dialog box, select the desired User Logon
mode.
|
Additionally, the User Logon
mode can be configured using the command line:
change logon /drain—No
additional users will be able to log on to this system.
change logon /drainuntilrestart—After the server is restarted, user logons will
automatically be reenabled.
change logon /enable—User logons are
enabled.
Setting Up Printer
Support
By default, when printer
redirection is enabled, an RD Session Host server will first attempt to
use the Remote Desktop Easy Print driver. If the client cannot use this
driver, the server will then attempt to match the printer driver on the
client. To support the usage of other printer drivers, administrators
mush either preinstall the matching printer driver on an RD Session Host
server or create a custom printer mapping file.
To change the default
printer driver behavior, an administrator can use GPOs to modify the Use
Remote Desktop Services Easy Print Printer Driver First policy setting.
This setting is located under the following node: Computer
Configuration\Policies\Administrative Templates\Windows
Components\Remote Desktop Services\Remote Desktop Session Host\Printer
Redirection. When enabled or set to Do Not
Configure, this policy setting forces the RD Session Host server to use
the Remote Desktop Easy Print driver first. If that fails, the server
then looks for a matching printer driver. Conversely, when disabled, the
policy setting forces the RD Session Host server to look for a matching
printer driver first. If that fails, the server attempts to use the
Remote Desktop Easy Print driver.
Other printer
redirection policy settings available under the noted node include the
following:
Do
Not Allow Client Printer Redirection
Do Not Set Default Client Printer to Be
Default Printer in a Session
Redirect
Only the Default Client Printer
Defining Remote Desktop
IP Virtualization
To configure Remote Desktop
IP Virtualization, use the Remote Desktop Session Host Configuration
tool. On the RD IP Virtualization tab, administrators can define the
following settings:
Enable or disable RD IP
Virtualization.
Select
the network adapter to be used for RD IP Virtualization.
Define if RD IP Virtualization
is per session or per program.
For per-program virtualization, a list of programs
can be defined that can use RD IP Virtualization.