How to Install Remote Web Workplace on Windows Server 2008

I plan on trying this out later and make more notes if need be.

Following the successful installation of System Center Essentials 2007 SP1 on Windows Server 2008 Standard x86, we typically install Remote Web Workplace on the server as part of our System Center Remote Operations Manager deployment.

Just as with installing SCE on Windows Server 2008, there are a few tricks to installing RWW.

Conventions

In this post I use the terms <server> to indicate the NETBIOS name of the server on which we are installing RWW and <domain> to indicate the FQDN of the domain that the server belongs to.

Install Remote Web Workplace

1. Log on to your server as an administrator 
2. Run remoteww.msi from the Remote Operations Manager CD
3. Click Next at the welcome screen
4. Click Next after accepting the license agreement
5. Click Install
6. Click Finish after installation succeeds

Create an Application Pool to Support Remote Web Workplace

1. Start > Run > Inetmgr
2. Expand <server> and select Application Pools
3. Click Add Application Pool… in the right pane
4. Click OK after specifying the following settings:
   1. Name: Remote AppPool
   2. .NET Framework Version: .NET Framework v2.0.50727
   3. Managed pipeline mode: Classic
   4. Start application pool immediately: Checked
5. Click Advanced Settings… in the right pane
6. Change Idle Time-out (minutes) to 480 and click OK

It took me about a month to figure out why my Remote Web Workplace sessions were being dropped after 20 minutes.  Setting the idle timeout for the application pool is critical when using Remote Web Workplace with IIS7 on Windows Server 2008.  This value determines the maximum duration of a remote session.  If left at the default of 20 minutes, your connection will be dropped after 20 minutes and you will receive an error VBScript: an internal error has occurred.

Secure Remote Web Workplace 

1. Expand Sites > Default Web Site in the left pane
2. Select Remote and click Basic Settings… in the right pane
3. Click the Select… button
4. Select Remote AppPool in the Application pool dropdown and click OK
5. Click OK
6. Double click Authentication in the middle pane
7. Select Anonymous Authentication and click Enable in the right pane
8. Highlight Default Web Site in the left pane and click Bindings… in the right pane
9. Click Add…
10. Select https… in the Type dropdown
11. Select <server>.<domain> in the SSL certification dropdown
12. Click OK
13. Click Close

Test Remote Web Workplace

1. Open https://<server>/remote in a web browser
2. Accept any certificate warnings that may be issued by your browser
3. Log on to Remote Web Workplace using your network logon
4. Verify that you can connect to a server or desktop on your network