Remote Desktop Management Windows 8 / 2012

In Windows Server 2008 R2, admins have had to use at least four different MMCs to manage a Remote Desktop Environment.  These include the following:

• Remote Desktop Services Manager (tsadmin)
• Remote Desktop Services Configuration (tsconfig)
• Remote Desktop Connection Manager (sbmgr)
• RemoteApp Manager (remoteprograms)

In Windows Server 2012, a single interface, Remote Desktop Management Server (RDMS), replaces all above snap-ins and provides centralized management of the Remote Desktop infrastructure.  RDMS is a plug-in to the new Server Manager in Windows Server 2012.

Additionally, Windows Server 2012 includes a new installation type, “Remote Desktop Services installation”.  This new installation type makes deploying and managing your RDS infrastructure much simpler.  Connection Broker is a critical role in an RDS infrastructure that is installed when using the new type.  The RDMS service is also installed on the Connection Broker when the new method is used.  The RDMS service is the engine behind the new UI and cannot be installed using the classic “Role-based or feature-based installation” type.

Important: You should use the new RDS installation method, even in the case of a single Remote Desktop Session Host.  This is because RDS deployments can now only be managed through RDMS or via Windows PowerShell.  Standalone RDS implementations are possible, but they must be managed exclusively using Powershell.

We will not walk you through the installation process here, but it is pretty straightforward:

1. Add the servers to which you want to deploy the RDS roles to All Servers group or a new server group.
2. Select that group in the navigation pane and run the Add Roles and Features Wizard.
3. Choose the installation type “Remote Desktop Services installation”.
4. Select “Standard Deployment” (Quick Deployment is used to quickly deploy all of the needed roles to a single server and then create a very simple collection.  To have more control, we recommend using Standard Deployment).
5. Choose “Virtual Machine based deployment” or ” Session-based desktop deployment”.
6. The wizard will ask you which server you want each role installed to and will perform the installations and restart the servers as needed.

After installing the RD Connection Broker role and the RDMS service using the new “Remote Desktop Services installation” type of installation, the RDMS UI can be accessed from Server Manager by choosing “Remote Desktop Services” in the navigation pane.

When you select Remote Desktop Services, there are three options in the middle pane:

1. Overview
2. Servers
3. Collections

Let’s look at all three of them one by one.

OVERVIEW:

Once the RDS Roles are installed on the Session Host servers and RD web access servers, we see the graphical description of our environment, the roles installed on each of the servers and the FQDN names of each server on the Overview page:

From this page additional servers can be added to the deployment and additional roles can be installed using the Deployment overview/Deployment Servers right-click options.  The Gateway and RD Licensing options are reflecting in Green as these roles are not yet installed but can be installed by clicking the Green Plus sign.

In order to add certificates, configure licenses and RD gateway settings we can “Edit Deployment Properties”.  Instead of touching every host that’s part of an RDS deployment, the RDMS server accepts a certificate and pushes it to each of the hosts for you.

SERVERS:

The “Servers” page enables us to manage all of the servers belonging to the RDS Environment:

A variety of remote management tasks can be performed including adding roles and features.

COLLECTIONS:

Collection is a logical grouping of Remote Desktop Servers that provides either session-based or virtual machine-based (VDI) deployments.

Note Each Session host that’s a member of an RDS collection is limited to only participating in one collection.

In this example we’ve named the RDS Collection “RemoteApp”.  On the Collections Page we can see the number of connections, the connection states, which users have remote sessions and the servers on which the sessions are established:

If no Remote Apps are created for the collection, then on the RDWeb page users will see the icon with the name of our collection to take a full RDS session to the session host servers:

There is no separate Remote APP Manager snap-in to publish or modify remote app settings.  In Server 2012 we use the “Publish RemoteApp Programs” on the Collection Page to publish the remote apps.

To modify Remote App programs, there is an “Edit Properties” option under Tasks.  We can also right-click to reach this same Edit Propertiesoption.  On the User Assignment screen admins can now create a folder in which the Remote Apps will be saved.  Prior to Server 2012, in large environments user would see all the remote apps listed on the main RDweb Page.  However, with the folder creation option, admins have the option to segregate the remote apps based on different criteria.

Here we have created two folders to differentiate between the Admin Apps (Server Manager) and User Remote Apps (Calculator).

Note After publishing Remote Apps, users no longer see the full desktop icon for RemoteApp (the name of the collection).  In Server 2008, users could see the remote apps as well the “remote desktop Icon” on the RDweb page if we checked the option “Show a remote Desktop connection to the RD session host server in RD web access” in the Remote App Manager.

In order to create a full desktop session to a server that is part of a collection that has RemoteApps published from the RDweb page, there are two options.

1. Use the tab “connect to remote PC”
2. Publish “Remote Desktop Connection” as a remote app

Configuring load balancing weight, security, encryption levels, Client settings and session limits can all be done from the Edit Collection Properties page.

RDMS is one-stop centralized management for RDS environments and is sure to help ease the administrative overhead by simplifying both the rollout and configuration of Remote Desktop Services for everyone.

Install and configure a FileZilla FTP server

FileZilla is a free and open source FTP server that may come in handy for setting up an online file repository or to build a web server.

The installation is quite simple, just follow these steps and you’ll be ready to use your FTP server.

Download FileZilla Server from this page, it’s a Windows-only package.

Installation

Launch the executable and install the software. Skip the two crapware at the beginning, then select everything except the source code:

Choose the installation path:

The default settings are good for us:

Now FileZilla Server is installed and it’s time to configure our FTP groups and users.

Configuration

At the first dialog, the Administration interface asks us to specify what server we want to manage. Insert 127.0.0.1 (there’s no password):

The console will appear:

Create your first Group

FileZilla allows to create groups of users that share access to the same folders. Groups can be useful whenever a FTP folder must be accessed by multiple users.

To create a Group open the Edit menu and select Groups. Then click on Add:

Specify the name of the Group:

It’s time to select the shared folder/s and specify the access permissions:

Click on Ok and the Group will be created.

Create your first User

Now you can create a User. The procedure is quite similar to the creation of a Group. Follow these steps and click on Ok, the first User will be created:

You’re ready to perform the first connection to your new FTP server, powered by FileZilla.

Install a VPN on Windows Server 2012 R2

VPN (Virtual Private Network) is a technology that allows extending a local network on a public network like the Internet. Using a VPN, a computer connected to the Internet can send and receive data from the computers inside the network as if it was directly connected.

A very powerful tool for today’s companies.

A VPN is easy to set up on Windows Server 2012 R2, just follow these steps and you’ll be ready (server side, we’ll talk about client configuration in the future).

1. Install the Remote Access role

Open the Server Manager and click on Manage. Select Add Roles and Features:

Click on Next until you reach the Roles tab:

Now select Remote Access and click on Next:

You don’t need to select anything from the Features tab, click on Next:

Just click on Next:

Select Direct Access and VPN (RAS):

A dialog showing the missing dependencies will appear. Click on Add Features:

Install the Remote Access role. It will take some minutes:

2. Install and configure your VPN

Go back to the Server Manager dashboard and click on Remote Access. Select your server and right-click on it, then click on Remote Access Management:

Run the Getting Started Wizard:

Press Deploy VPN only and it will be installed:

Select your server and right-click on it, choose Configure and Enable Routing and Remote Access:

A new Wizard will start:

Select Custom configuration and click on Next:

Select only VPN access:

Complete the procedure and start the service:

Note that router and firewall must be properly configured to support VPN functionalities. We’ll talk about that in another post.

3. Enable the users for the Remote Access

You can enable users for the Remote Access from the Active Directory properties: