Part 1

• Show you how to setup remote desktop services on a single server
• I will also show you how to setup a licensing server.
• We will setup a second server and configure and configure the Connection broker. The connection broker allows for Load Balancing.

Part 2

• I will cover how to install RemoteApp
• install a RemoteApp Application

Part 3

• I will cover Configuring Remote Desktop Gateway

Part 1

We will be installing the Remote Desktop Connection broker role. It provides:

• Load balancing sessions between multiple hosts
• Allows users to re-connect to an existing session
• Integrates with RD Virtualization Host servers for VDI.

First click on “Add Roles” in Server Administrator

Since this is the first server and we are planning to eventually have two RDS servers we will install the base role “Remote Desktop Session Host”. Because This will also be eventually the connection broker as well I will install it as well at the same time. The second server that get’s installed will not need the connection broker.

You will want to take notice of this. Any apps you may have already installed on the server might not work with Remote Desktop services. It’s a best practice to NEVER install apps on the server before installing Remote Desktop Services.

This is similar to what you see when you connect to Windows Vista/7/2008 box via remote desktop.

It will ask you what kind of Cals you have purchased. For this post I will be using a 120 day trial.

Enter users that you want to have access to this. By default Administrators are added by default.

There are some advance items that you get with 2008R2. Some of these items can cause a bigger strain on your host as well as your network bandwidth. Please read to see if you really need these items. I will leave them unchecked.

Installing the RDS role you will notice a few things will be enabled and a few things will be disabled depending on what you selected in the setup Wizard.

Hitting next will install RDS on the server. The install normally take around 5 minutes to go through. After it is done installing the RDS role your machine will need a reboot.

After a restart you will now see that you have a few extra MMC tools in the start menu-Administration Tools – Remote Desktop Services.

Open “Remote Desktop Session Hosts Configuration”. It’s a good idea to get familiar with the settings. Most people will go with defaults. These are going to be general settings that can be over ridden later by individual users.

One tab you might want to change in order to help with support is:

One thing you should not change is the security section. Microsoft RECOMMENDS that you DO NOT touch this tab. If you need to give users RDS access you should use the Group that is made at the time of installation. Here’s the recommendation directly from Microsoft.

Next we will activate and install the licensing server. In server manager under Remote Desktop Services click on Remote Desktop Licensing. Click “Add Role Services” link on the right hand side.

Again select “Remote Desktop Licensing” and click NEXT.

Configure the scope. I almost always choose forest.

Hit NEXT and then Install.

Now that you’ve installed RD Licensing Server you can Go to the START menu and open up RD Licensing Manager. Once open right click “RDS” and select Activate Server.

Hit NEXT on the first screen. On the next I almost always select “Automatic connection”. Make sure you have an internet connection before trying this.

You should see something similar:

Fill out your information.

You will see the server getting activated.

Hit next and next. Select your License program:

Enter your License code and hit Add…

The next few screens I can’t show you but it’s really just a next, next next.  Once check your RD Licensing monitor Manager. There should be a little green check on the RDS server now.

Now that you have setup one server for RDS you will need to setup a second server. Please follow the same steps for the second server.

** The second server will only have the RD Session Host services role installed **

RDS – Configuring Load Balancing and setting up Desktop Connection Broker

First of I should explain what the connection broker is. The RD connection broker is a role service included with RDS. It provides you with:

• Load Balances between session between multiple session hosts
• Allows users to reconnect to an existing session
• Integrates with RD Virtualization Host servers for VDI

The number one issue people have is that once they install the connection broker they forget that they need to add the computer to the Session Broker Computers group. The first server I installed RDS to is actually called RDS. The second server RDS server on my network called RDS2. Because The connection broker is installed on the first machine “RDS” I will go into the server manager on RDS. In server Manager go to “Configuration”-“Local Users and Groups”-“Session Broker computers” and add all the session host computers that you would like to add to your RD Connection farm.

Make sure that both RDS servers (RDS & RDS2) are added to the “Session Broker Computers” Group.

Add the servers and hit apply. Open Remote Desktop Session Host Configuration

Down the page in the Remote Desktop Session Host Configuration manager you will see a section that says:

In order to setup Load balancing this needs to say “YES”. Double click “Member of farm in RD Connection Broker”. A new window will open. The RD Connection Broker tab should be automatically selected. In the window that opens you will notice almost everything is greyed out. You will need to click on “Change Settings…” button in order to make changes in this window.

A new window will open. Because you are creating a RD Farm you want both servers setup the same way. You will select Farm Member, Enter the name of the RD connection broker (RDS) and the name you want to give the farm. Just make sure that all other RD Hosts use the exact same name. The name is case-sensitive I believe. Hit “OK”

The windows that was greyed out before should now look similar. I told the setup that I want to participate in load-balancing. If you used “100” on each server, both servers would have equal weight. 100 does not mean 100%. The number is relative to the other numbers set to the other hosts. Hit’s OK.

… More to come…

This “issue” is by design. You can only “install the virtual guest services” while the machine is off or through Hyper-V manager which makes you reboot the computer. The install normally takes around 2 minutes but can vary due to the size of the VM.

Hope this helps.

You aren’t alone. I figured out this morning it is related to the integration components and that they are not at the same level as the server.  Months ago I create a new VM. After creating it I sys-prepped my machine and used the sys-prepped drive as part of my templates in the VMM library. Since creating the template my server got updated and so did the integration components. Because of this, when I went to go use the template I got heart beat errors because the VM and Host are not at the same level.

Lesson learned? Well, make sure that you always have the same integration components installed. Want to learn from my Hyper-V mishaps? Check out the Virtual Machine Manager & Hyper-V section of my blog.

Well it turns out the phone can sync multiple calendars from Google.

So here’s the deal:

1. Make sure you’ve setup your Windows 7 phone with your Google email acccount. Make sure it has synced completely.
2. Go to http://m.google.com/sync
3. Log in with your gmail username and password
4. You should see at least one device. ie. Windows 7 phone
5. Enable all the calendars that you would like to have synced on your phone.
6. Save your preferences

NOTE -If people have shared calendars with you as well, you can actually select these calendars as well.

I hope this saved you some time.

You might be surprised that the Virtual Machine Manager Configuration Analyzer will spit this message out if you aren’t logged in as a domain admin when you run the tool!

Log off and log back on as a domain admin and you won’t have to worry about this issue anymore!

Hope this helps someone else.

Ford is proud to bring it’s innocative DriveOne program to Winnipeg – and this time it’s for our planet! On May 12, it’s your first chance ever to test drive some of Ford’s newest fuel efficient vehicles. For every test drive Parkside Ford Lincoln and Ford Canada will donate $20.00 to take pride Winnipeg in an effort to raise $6000.00!

One of the cars you can test drive is the 2012 Focus Electric. It is North America’s most fuel-efficient five passenger vehicle. Along with the 2013 Escape Ecoboost you can get your first look at the fusion Energi. You can learn more about hybrid, plugin-hybrid and Ecoboost battery technologies.

PLEASE NOTE – The photos from the event were provided to me by Dooley Communications.

First Letter

“As a photographer, you may have clients that would like to have their wedding photos taken in Assiniboine Park. We define a photo shoot as an event that you receive compensation from the client for taking the photos. The cost of a photo shoot is $150 plus …GST. This cost ensures that you have a reserved space available for your photo shoot, the horticultural material and grounds are in order and staff is available to assist in keeping visitors away from your shoot.
You can book your photo shoots by phoning Assiniboine Park’s Events Office at 204-927-6060. A Park Event Coordinator will assist you.
Assiniboine Park is one of Winnipeg’s public parks and is managed by a not-for-profit organization, the Assiniboine Park Conservancy. In order to achieve our mandate we generate revenue by charging fees for weddings, professional photography, tours, receptions and film shoots. These funds enable us to hire staff, provide programming, and maintain our plant and art collections.
By working together we can continue to provide Winnipeg with a unique spot for special occasions.

Yours truly,
Lorne Perrin
Lorne W. Perrin
Vice President, Marketing & Park Services”

Second letter

May 3, 2012
As a photographer, you may have clients that would like to have their wedding photos taken in Assiniboine Park. While you are welcome to take advantage of all the park has to offer, there are only three locations for which a fee must be paid to the Assiniboine Park Conservancy.

These locations are; The Leo Mol Gardens, the Conservatory building, and the Formal Gardens in the South East Corner of the park. Professional photography is not permitted in the English Gardens. The fees paid for these locations are used to fund the beautiful work done by our horticulture department in these areas. The cost of a photo shoot is $150 plus GST. This cost ensures that you have a reserved space available for your photo shoot, the horticultural material and grounds are in order and staff is available to assist in keeping visitors away from your shoot if necessary.

You can book your photo shoots by phoning Assiniboine Park’s Events Office at 204-927-6060. A Park Event Coordinator will assist you. Assiniboine Park is one of Winnipeg’s public parks and is managed by a not-for-profit organization, the Assiniboine Park Conservancy. In order to achieve our mandate we generate revenue by charging fees for weddings, professional photography, tours, receptions and film shoots. These funds enable us to hire staff, provide programming, and maintain our plant and art collections.

By working together we can continue to provide Winnipeg with a unique spot for special occasions.

Yours truly;
Lorne W. Perrin
Vice President, Marketing & Park Services

What are your views?

I personally think this is a slap to the face to Winnipeg. Who’s mandate was this?

I have partitioned the Machine’s drive into a smaller system drive and  much larger data drive that will house the VMM library data. I also make sure that the server has at least 2GB of ram. If you don’t the install will squawk at you but allow you to still install things. I also wanted to tell you I am installing this on a DC. Microsoft doesn’t like you installing this on a DC especially if you are wanting a self service portal. You’ve been warned.

You are going to need to download and install a few pieces of software (don’t run them just yet):

1. Microsoft Baseline Configuration Analyzer (this is needed by the SCVMM Configuration Analyzer)
2. System Center Virtual Machine Manager 2008, 2008 R2, and 2008 R2 SP1 Configuration Analyzer

Install IIS on the server

Open Server Manager and right click Roles. Click “Add Roles”.

Make sure IIS is checked off. Click Next.

Ensure that these additional IIS items are all checked off and hit Next and Install:

• Static Content
• Default Document
• Directory Browsing
• HTTP Errors
• ASP.NET
• .NET Extensibility
• ISAPI Extensions
• ISAPI Filters
• Request Filtering
• IIS 6 Metabase Compatibility
• IIS 6 WMI Compatibility

You should restart your machine since you just installed a feature. Once you have done this your machine should validate and everything should go very smoothly. To validate your machine run the VMM configuration Analyzer. This should now be in your start menu since you installed it in the previous steps.

If you followed my instructions you should see something like this:

Run setup on the VMM Disk

The install is easy. When it asks where to install the files I switched it from C: to E:

When it asks about SQL server I am just going to us SQL Express.

Specify a Share. Again I am moving things to E:

The rest of the install I just selected the defaults. Once it is finished updating I recommend that you run the machine through Windows Update and make sure everything is all patched and up to date.

You will most likely want to install the VMM Administrator Console. You can do this by running it off the setup program of VMM.

The install of the VMM Administrator Console is very simple. It’s your typical Next, Next, Next install. It will ask where you want to install it and what ports you want it to run on. I told it to install to the E: and I kept the ports the set to the default numbers.

Hope this helped you get VMM up and running a bit faster.

If you really want to remove the domain controller from the domain you will need to issue the command:

dcpromo /forceremoval

Hope this helps you get rid of the error: “The operation failed because: This Active Directory Controller is not the last AD DC in the domain. The server is unwilling to process the request.”

PS – Remember to uninstall the AD Binaries by using Server Manager.

First I will explain what I used to get things working. I am using 3 machines for this “How to” and I will refer to them in this way:

• DC – Has Hyper-V Manager installed. Running AD
• HYPERV – The actual Hyper-V Server. Part of the Domain configured on DC.
• centOS – Hyper-V Linux Guest

You will need to download a few things:

• centOS ISO
• Linux Integration Components – Linux.IC.v3.2.iso
• On HYPERV I create a folder C:\iso and put copy both of the ISO files here.

Step by step how I installed CentOS on Hyper-V with Networking.

On DC open Hyper-V Manager. Create a new virtual machine.

Name the Virtual Machine. hit Next.

Enter the amount of ram you want to give the centOS guest machine.

Make sure to tell the Virtual Machine what Hyper-V Network to use.

I just took all the defaults.

Tell Hyper-V Manager to use an ISO file. C:\iso\CentOS-6.2-x86_64-bin-DVD1.iso

Hit next and finish

Right Click the centOS Guest and click START. When the VM starts click “Install or Upgrade…”

I would recommend that you hit ok to test the media. I’ve already done this so I will hit “Skip”.

Hit Ok

Hit Ok

Hit Ok

“Re-initialize all”.

Select your UTC.

Enter your password.

Use the defaults

Write changes to disk

Twiddle your thumbs and grab a coffee. This will take a few minutes.

Yay! You should be done now. REBOOT!

When the centOS machine reboot login with root and password you entered during the setup.

On DC in Hyper-V Manager we need to load the Linux Integrated components ISO in the virtual Machine.

Once you have applied the new ISO go back to the centOS VM. You will need to start typing a bunch of commands. If we were to take the PDF seriously and type in the commands as is you will get the error message:

ls: cannot access kmod-hyper-v-rhel6-43.1.x86_64.rpm: no such file or directory
ls: cannot access hyper-v-rhel6-43.1.x86_64.rpm: no such file or directory
RPM’s are missing

Wow that is a mouthful! So instead of wasting your time let’s not follow the PDF and do it correctly from the beginning. I’m going to explain the screenshot first so you can understand what is happening.

We’re going to mount the CD inside centOS. We then need to copy the files from the CD and then run the Linux Integration components installer. There are 5 command you will have to enter. The last command starts with a “.” just encase you didn’t see that.

You should see a bunch of things being installed. When done it will ask you to reboot your machine.

Here’s the command to reboot. When the machine boots please login as root.

Congrats. You now have the Linux Integration components installed. You can verify that they are by looking at the Hyper-V manager. If the tools tell you the heartbeat is “OK” you know you’ve successfully completed all the steps up till now. You should also be able to click inside the virtual machine without doing a dance and you can hit power on the Hyper-V tools and the VM should power down nicely.

Yippy! Actually not really. Our VM on reboot will not have a NIC. We first will need to right click the centOS VM and write down the MAC address Hyper-V gave the centOS VM.

We will now need to make a bunch of changes to some centOS config files. Very fun!

Press i Key on keyboard and type the below lines. Please notice I used the MAC address from the screen shot a few lines up

To save the file hit: “ESC” then “SHIFT + :” and then type “wq” and hit ENTER.

We will need to edit another file.

Again you’ll want to hit “I” to insert some info.

To save the file hit: “ESC” then “SHIFT + :” and then type “wq” and hit ENTER.

You will now need to bring up the network card (ifup eth01 command) and then verify that it got an IP address (ifconfig command)

The first thing I would do to test the NIC and it’s stability is by updating the box with all the updates. To do this we will use the yum command.

After all the updates get applied. Force the machine to reboot. Double check all the updates got applied. Hopefully I saved you a few hours of mindless searches