RDP sessions server

Ish · 12 Mar 2020 at 06:31

Hi All

We have Server 2016.

How do we create something so that multiple users can RDP to a virtual or physical windows 10 desktop?

We need the facility so that if they are working from home they can connect to a Windows 10 machine that will have all the software on it that they need.

It would probably need to be about 5 users that would need this.

Deleted member 77746 · 12 Mar 2020 at 09:14

Possibly an RDP gateway.

https://turbofuture.com/computers/How-To-Setup-a-Remote-Desktop-Gateway-Windows-Server-2016

Quartz · 12 Mar 2020 at 09:21

Ish said:
How do we create something so that multiple users can RDP to a virtual or physical windows 10 desktop?

The RDP gateway will connect to physical desktops; you're looking at a Microsoft Terminal Server if you want multiple concurrent users on virtual desktops.

Deleted member 77746 · 12 Mar 2020 at 09:22

Quartz said:
The RDP gateway will connect to physical desktops; you're looking at a Microsoft Terminal Server if you want multiple concurrent users on virtual desktops.

Something you learn every day. That’s licensed isn’t it? per session?

Quartz · 12 Mar 2020 at 09:22

mrbell1984 said:
Something you learn every day. That’s licensed isn’t it? per session?

Pass. I've been out of it a long time.

Deleted member 77746 · 12 Mar 2020 at 09:35

Quartz said:
Pass. I've been out of it a long time.

Yes according to that video it’s either per user or per device.

PiKe · 12 Mar 2020 at 09:45

You could just patch the termsrv.dll...

Deleted member 77746 · 12 Mar 2020 at 10:25

PiKe said:
You could just patch the termsrv.dll...

and I guess that would be illegal in a business? Fine if it's a home user playing about but suggesting that for a business. Asking for trouble. Might as well have unlicensed other stuff and patch all their office installs and desktops as well then?

glenimp617 · 12 Mar 2020 at 10:56

Multiple staff remoting into a windows 10 desktop? You need two things

HyperV cluster
RDS server farm (gateway, broker, licence)

You then point the RDS farm to the HyperV cluster to create a VDI Pool. You then create a windows 10 VM on hyper-V and use that within the VDI pool. It then uses your VM as the master template and bases your users desktops on that.

The VDI pool gets published to the RDS gateway. Users visit a webpage, login, download the session icon and connect in.

There are lots to think about though. Gateway should be in a DMZ, HyperV nodes need mega amounts of CPU and RAM, users need licensing for VDI, your windows 10 VM needs configuring as per best practice for VDI (updates, AV, software deployments)...

Unless when you say Windows 10 desktop, you mean a server 2016 desktop? In that case you don't need the HyperV cluster, you just add a session host server to RDS instead.

either way, you need certificates, good security, ideally MFA and a good understanding of the ports to lock down.

blueboy2001 · 12 Mar 2020 at 14:04

You can create a single server solution with the RDS Gateway, Connection Broker and Session Host roles all on one Windows Server. 2012 onward is all wizard driven so it's fairly simple to get up and running.

You will need RDS CAL's but you can test without - it just gives an occasional nag popup.

From this, you can remote to a Windows 10 machine if you need to pick up specific applications that won't run on a Server OS.

Ish · 13 Mar 2020 at 10:01

Thanks for all the ideas. Will take look at them in more detail and I did mean staff RDP in to Win 10.

teaboy5 · 17 Mar 2020 at 01:31

Do you have Azure at all? You can do all this without the servers and the users just need an E3 license.

Skiprat · 17 Mar 2020 at 05:51

teaboy5 said:
Do you have Azure at all? You can do all this without the servers and the users just need an E3 license.

Does azure have some built in vid?? I’m Curious

katana6434 · 17 Mar 2020 at 10:49

Skiprat said:
Does azure have some built in vid?? I’m Curious

Windows Virtual Desktop (WVD).

Deleted member 77746 · 18 Mar 2020 at 17:47

https://azure.microsoft.com/en-gb/services/virtual-desktop/

Just seen this! will take a read! nice.

teaboy5 · 21 Mar 2020 at 20:44

Sorry forgot I replied to this. Yes it does and if you have a VPN back to your network you're flying. I have been testing this over the past month and it has just came in handy!

Few wee silly things to work out like region settings etc, but nothing a GPO can't fix. Cost may get some, but don't forget you can power things on and of as you need. If you have OFFICE 365 AND E3 you are already licenced for the windows 10 vm's.

You can also publish apps as well, but that is done by pushing them via the vm, or if you stand up a server you can do it from that as well.

From my testing it's been rock solid so far and running on SSD's etc it's flying.

Hellsmk2 · 11 Apr 2020 at 14:17

WVD on its own is pretty poor. You can deploy it quickly with powershell, but it's an absolute nightmare to manage, though there are solutions you can layer on top to make it manageable.

My personal preference for public cloud Vdi right now is Vmware Horizon Cloud... Can be deployed to Azure, IBM Cloud, AWS, or on prem. Takes all of the pain out of the deployment and means you can use the horizon client for access.

teaboy5 · 8 May 2020 at 01:31

Hellsmk2 said:
WVD on its own is pretty poor. You can deploy it quickly with powershell, but it's an absolute nightmare to manage, though there are solutions you can layer on top to make it manageable.

My personal preference for public cloud Vdi right now is Vmware Horizon Cloud... Can be deployed to Azure, IBM Cloud, AWS, or on prem. Takes all of the pain out of the deployment and means you can use the horizon client for access.

MS have just released a new version of this for preview. You can do all from the portal now without the need of going into powershell. So far it only seems to be in regions but they are rolling it out and when it hits the UK I will move to it and migrate the current pools over.

Caged · 12 May 2020 at 11:13

The license required is Microsoft 365, not just Office 365 btw. That's the license that includes the online services, EM+S and Windows Enterprise. The one that's in the £30 range rather than £15 (can't remember the exact prices, I don't deal with that part).

glenimp617 · 13 May 2020 at 13:00

teaboy5 said:
Do you have Azure at all? You can do all this without the servers and the users just need an E3 license.

That doesn't sound right to me? If it is, I'll be taking a closer look myself.

Surely you need to add Azure compute and storage costings in addition to the E3 licence? so whilst you may not need any additional backend infrastructure servers in place (although that also confuses me) you will need to cost in the VMs

It's always struck me as an expensive way to do remote working.