Posts tagged ‘RDS’

Install Office on Remote Desktop Server

You cannot install a standard version of Office on an RDS server.  Prior to Office 365 you had to buy Enterprise licenses for each user which are quite expensive.  I understand Enterprise licenses are still available and I assume they will still work but you may already have a suitable Office 365 subscription, or you can upgrade to one that will.   Your Microsoft 365 license must include Office Pro Plus, a Business Standard license will not work.  There is an Office Pro Plus license or an E3 or higher license includes Office Pro Plus.  With Office/Microsoft 365 you can use your current licenses but have to download a special installation version and jump through a few hoops.  This method is supported by Microsoft.

(Oct 2020 update: Microsoft has changed the naming of it’s Office 365 subscriptions to new Microsoft 365 names. I believe the minimum license level now is Microsoft 365 Business Premium but be sure to confirm with your vendor. The following is a Sept 2020 article referencing the install with the new licenses https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/deployoffice/deploy-microsoft-365-apps-remote-desktop-services#:~:text=If%20you%20use%20Remote%20Desktop%20Services%20%28RDS%29%20to,installation.%20The%20following%20are%20two%20common%20RDS%20scenarios%3A )

Note: when installing apps on terminal servers in the past you had to put the server in “Install mode” by running from an elevated command prompt 

  •    Change User /Install
  • and to exit Install mode run
  •    Change User /Execute

Though this is still recommended, I tried it without doing so and it worked, but make sure you are an administrator of the machine (local or domain) and all other users are logged out. I recommend a clean reboot before starting.

Create a shared folder such as \\RDS\O365 pointing to C:\Temp\O365  

Download the Office deployment tool from the link below and extract to your shared folder  \\RDS\O365

https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=36778

Create an .xml configuration file for the download and save to the same folder. I named DownloadConfig.xml 

<Configuration> 
  <Add SourcePath="\\RDS\O365" OfficeClientEdition="64"> 
   <Product ID="O365ProPlusRetail" > 
     <Language ID="en-us" />      
   </Product> 
   </Add> 
</Configuration>

Download the custom version of Office.  To do so open an elevated command prompt, change to the directory containing the .xml file  C:\Temp\O365\MayBeSubfolder and run the following command.

setup.exe /download DownloadConfig.xml

This may seem like it hangs, but wait.  I believe it took about 15 minutes with my connection.

Create another .xml configuration file for installation and save again to the same folder. I named InstallConfig.xml

<Configuration>
  <Add SourcePath="\\RDS\O365"
       OfficeClientEdition="64" 
       Channel="Monthly">
    <Product ID="O365ProPlusRetail">
      <Language ID="en-us" />
    </Product>
  </Add>
  <Display Level="None" AcceptEULA="True" /> 
  <Property Name="SharedComputerLicensing" Value="1" />
  <Logging Level="Standard" Path="C:\Temp" />
</Configuration>

Deploy Office using:  \\RDS\O365\setup.exe /configure  \\RDS\O365\InstallConfig.xml

Note: you must use the full path

Again it may appear to hang, but be patient

If you ran Change User /Install before starting, run Change User /Execute

Microsoft has more detailed information and options to customize the xml files at:

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/deployoffice/deploy-microsoft-365-apps-remote-desktop-services

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/deployoffice/office2019/deploy

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Category:

Office, Outlook, Server 2019, TS/RDS, Uncategorized

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Add 2012 RDS server to SBS 2008/2011

Server 2012 has a new Remote Desktop Services (RDS) feature set which is a great addition to any network.  A common reason for wanting to implement 2012 RDS is for the Remote FX feature, RDP on steroids, which provides substantially better performance when remotely running graphic intensive applications, but there are other Remote FX bonus elements as well, in addition to other 2012 RDS features.  Remote FX was included with Server 2008 R2, but the pre 2012 hardware requirements were more restrictive, and configuration was a little more involved.

Remote Desktop Services is installed a little differently than it’s predecessor Terminal Services.  Most current instruction sets advise you to use the  “Remote Desktop Services installation” wizard, seen in the third image below.  However this automatically installs related services that conflict with those already installed on SBS, such as the Remote Desktop Gateway Service.  Therefore you need to install using the “Role Based or feature-based installation” method and manually select the features to be installed.

Installation:

To add a Server 2012, running the RDS role, the steps are as follows.

  • Install the basic Server 2012 operating system.  This can be on either a physical or virtual machine
  • Next join the computer to the domain. Where this is an SBS domain you want to do this for obvious reasons, but just to note; Server 2012 RDS does require it be domain joined.  To do so open the Server Manager Dashboard, click on “local server”, in the window to the right click on “Workgroup”, in the resulting window click “Change” and then select “Domain” and enter your internal domain name, such as MyDomain.local

image

  • Once completed and you have reboot the server, I recommend installing all Windows updates.
  • You can now begin the RDS installation.  Make sure you have first logged in with a Domain Admin account and not a local administrator account.
  • First from the Server Manager Dashboard select “Add roles and features”

image

  • Next, as mentioned earlier, choose “Role Based or feature-based installation”

image

  • Select the local server

image

  • Select the “Remote Desktop Service” role and click next

image

  • Do not select anything in the Features window, click next

image

  • There will be a pop-up window where you can select the RDS features you wish to install.  Select only the “Remote Desktop Session Host” option.  You may also want to add the “Remote Desktop Licensing” service, though you can do so at a another time.  The Licensing service will be discussed a little later on.  Click next

image

  • Click Add Features.

image

  • Select restart the server automatically, and choose install.

image

  • After a reboot the RDS service should be installed.

Tweak and configure access

There are some minor configurations to be done as well.

  • Computer OU: Firstly, on the SBS, in Active Directory Users and Computers (ADUC) you should move the new server from the Computer OU to the MyBusiness\Computers\SBSServers OU.  This will allow it to show up in the Windows SBS Console under the Computers tab (it may take a few minutes to show up).  I usually create a sub-OU for Terminal Servers when applying group policies, but this is by no means necessary.

image

  • User Group: Users must be granted the right to “log on though Remote Desktop Services”.  To do so they need to be added to the local Remote Desktop Users” group on the RDS server, not the SBS.  It would not be convenient to manage this from the RDS server, adding one user at a time so it is best in ADUC on the SBS to add a new Security Group named something like “Terminal Server Users”.  Then on the RDS server, under Administrative Tools | Computer Management | Local Users and Groups | Groups, add this domain group to the local Remote Desktop Users group.  This way from the SBS you can centrally manage by simply adding users to your new Terminal servers user group.

image

  • RWW / RWA: You will also want to make the new RDS server available through Remote Web workplace / Remote Web Access.  If added to the proper OU above it will be by default with SBS 2008, however with SBS 2011 you need to add a registry key.  The following link explains: https://blog.lan-tech.ca/2011/12/12/add-a-terminal-server-to-the-sbs-2011-rwa-page/   Note, that this does not apply to Server Essentials.
  • Certificate: Accessing the RDS server through RWA or using the RDP client and RD Gateway requires an SSL certificate.  Where you are adding this to an SBS domain, access will use your existing certificate.  Should you need to add a certificate, please see: https://blog.lan-tech.ca/2012/05/17/sbs-2008-2011-adding-an-ssl-certificate/
  • Router Configuration:  Traditionally Terminal Services required forwarding port 3389 from the router to the Terminal server’s IP.  SBS makes use of the Remote Desktop Gateway service and allows you to connect directly to the RDS server more securely using SSL and port 443.  This does require that port 443 be forwarded to the SBS, but presumably this is already configured if you are using OWA, RWA, and/or Sharepoint.
  • RDP client: To access using the RDP client simply enter the RDS server’s name in the “Computer” box, and your SBS site’s FQDN in the RD Gateway server name box, under advanced | settings.
  • image

Licensing

  • RDS also requires a CAL (Client Access License) be assigned to each device or user in order to use Remote Desktop Services.  This is managed with the Remote Desktop Licensing service mentioned earlier.  There is a 120 day grace period before you are required to install the Licensing service, purchase, and add your CAL’s.  If you exceed the 120 day grace period, users will be blocked from accessing the RDS server.
  • The service can be installed on an another similar vintage server in the domain, but for simplicity the following steps installs on the same server.  If not already done, It is installed by running the Add Roles wizard in Server Manager, in the Add Roles window, expand Remote Desktop Services, select the Remote Desktop Licensing service, then complete the wizard.
  • Open the RD Licensing manager, located under Administrative Tools | Remote Desktop services.  Expand All servers, right click on your server, choose Activate Server, and complete the required company information fields.  The last step will let you add your CAL’s now, but I recommend waiting until completing your configuration.
  • image
  • Right click on the server and choose “Review Configuration”.  You may need to add the licensing server to the appropriate group in ADUC.  You can do so easily by clicking the Add to Group button.
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  • Licensing mode:  CAL’s can be purchased as Per Device or Per User.  The latter tends to be more common.  A single Per User CAL allows one user to connect from as many devices as they like; office PC, home PC, hotel lobby PC, laptop, etc.  A per Device CAL allows many users to connect from only one device.  The latter is generally only used in situations similar to a call center.  Though you can mix User and Device CAL’s it is best to pick one or the other. To set the licensing mode, open the local security policy by entering  gpedit.msc  in the Run box.  Locate the following policy, enable, and set the licensing mode.    Computer Configuration | Administrative Templates | Windows Components | Remote Desktop Services | Remote Desktop Session Host | Licensing | Set the Remote Desktop licensing mode.

image

  • If you run the RD Licensing Diagnoser under Administrative Tools | Remote Desktop services, and it states a licensing server has not been specified, you may also have to manually enter the server’s name in the local security policy . It is located in the same place as the policy in the last step and named “Use the specified Remote Desktop license servers”.
  • Server CAL’s: The discussion so far relates to RDS CAL’s but it should be noted that any user accessing any server on the network also requires Server CAL’s.  Accessing the SBS and any other server of the same version year or older is covered by SBS CAL’s.  Anyone accessing the new 2012 Server will also need Server 2012 CA’s in addition to SBS CAL’s.

Firewall

  • You may also have to edit the Windows firewall.  Exceptions should automatically be created but on occasion they are not.  You can verify and edit by using Control Panel |  Windows Firewall | Allow an app or feature through the windows Firewall, and compare to the following screen shot.  It seems to be the Remote Desktop Services Public setting that is not always enabled.

image

Your RDS server should now be fully functional.

Category:

SBS, SBS 2008, SBS 2011, TS/RDS, Uncategorized

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Add a Terminal Server to the SBS 2011 RWA page

With SBS 2008 if you wanted a Terminal Server to be listed with the computers to which a user could select on the RWW (Remote Web Workplace) page, you had to add a registry entry. With SBS 2011 adding the Terminal server (now called RDS or Remote Desktop Services Server) to the new RWA (Remote Web Access) page is pretty much the same only the key in which you create the entry doesn’t exist, so it is now a two step process.

Note: This will not work on Server 2012 Essentials, and because it and SBS 2011 Essentials communicate with the same “connector”, I suspect it will not work on it either.  The change is intended for SBS 2011 Standard, or edit the existing key on SBS 2008 Standard or Premium.

Update:  Should you be looking for information regarding adding a 2012 RDS Server (Remote Desktop Server / Terminal Server)  to an SBS 2008/2011 domain, please see the following more recent post: https://blog.lan-tech.ca/2013/04/11/add-2012-rds-server-to-sbs-20082011/

The normal warnings apply: making changes to the registry can negatively impact your server or even make it unusable. Before making changes to the registry, back it up and if not familiar with making registry changes it might be best not to proceed.

Open the registry editor, as a domain admin, and locate the following key:

        HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\SmallBusinessServer

  1. Add a new key named RemoteUserPortal
  2. Within that key create a new Multi-String Value entry named TsServerNames Then edit the new entry and insert as a value, the exact name of your Terminal (RDS) server. If you have multiple RDS servers add them each in a separate line of the value/data area.

Category:

SBS, SBS 2011, TS/RDS, Uncategorized

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TS/RDS performance issues.

Are you having Terminal Server (Remote Desktop Services) performance issues when logging on, redirecting printers, or the print spooler hanging?  Eric Guo has a recent post outlining these performance issues can be due to; “hundreds or thousands of Inactive TS Ports”…..”in certain scenarios on 2003 Terminal Servers and 2008/2008 R2 RDS Servers.”  The first server I checked had hundreds. He has provided a tool “InactiveTSPortList” on CodePlex that will allow you to list and/or delete the inactive ports (requires Live ID sign in):

http://social.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/partnerwinserver7rcthreads/thread/c860f54b-2d16-495f-9e5f-d28d72d63302

Direct link to Codeplex:

http://inactivetsport.codeplex.com/

Category:

Networking, Troubleshooting, TS/RDS

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