PowerEdge: Standard Remote Desktop Services Deployment - Step by Step

General Prerequisites

• Existing functional active directory domain.
• Servers hosting RDS roles should be joined to the domain.

For more information about the various RDS roles, go to:
https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-server/remote/remote-desktop-services/rds-roles

Step 1 - Deploy the RDS Environment - Prepare the Servers:

1. In Server Manager, on the target computer for the RDS Connection Broker role for the deployment, on the left pane, right click the All Servers node and then click Add Servers.

 
Figure 1: Add deployment servers to the Server Manager Dashboard.

2. Click Find Now and then shift the servers of the deployment to the right side and click Ok.

 
Figure 2: Add deployment servers to the Server Manager Dashboard.

3. Still in Server Manager, click Manage and Add Roles and Features.
4. On the Before you begin screen, click Next.
5. Select the Remote Desktop Services installation ratio button and then Next.

 
Figure 3: Select the installation type.

6. On the Select Deployment Type screen, click the Standard Deployment ratio button and then Next.

 
Figure 4: Select the deployment type.

7. On the Select deployment scenario screen, select Session-based deployment and then Next.

 
Figure 5: Select the deployment scenario.

8. Click Next on the Review role services screen.
9. In the Specify RD Connection Broker server page, pick the server that is to become the connection broker for the deployment and move it to the right side and click Next.

 
Figure 6: Specify the RD Connection Broker for the deployment.

10. On the Specify RD Web access server page, select the applicable server, and again move it to the right side and click Next.

 
Figure 7: Specify the RD Web Access server for the deployment.

11. On the Specify RD Session Host servers screen, move to the right side the servers that are the intended session hosts in the deployment. Click Next one more time.

 
Figure 8: Specify the RD Session Hosts servers for the deployment.

12. Click to check the Restart the destination server automatically if required box and then click Deploy.

 
Figure 9: Deploy the selected options.

13. At the completion screen, click Close.

Deploy the RDS Environment - Review the Deployment:

14. Still in Server Manager (of the computer that was configured as the connection broker), click Remote Desktop Services on the left navigation pane.
15. Review the deployment properties displayed under Deployment Overview and Deployment Servers.
16. Notice that no server has been configured as an RDS license server. This RDS role is installed separately.

 
Figure 10: Review the deployment.

Deploy the RDS Environment - Install and Configure the RDS License Server:

17. Under Deployment Overview, click the green plus sign for the RD Licensing role.
18. On the Select a Server screen, click the applicable server. This demo uses the domain controller as the RD Licensing Server. Move the selected server to the right side and click Next.

 
Figure 11: Select the RD License Server for the deployment.

19. Click Add on the Confirm selections screen.
20. Wait for the installation to complete and click Close.
21. Back in Server Manager, under Deployment Servers, the server hosting the RD Licensing Role should be listed.
22. To configure the license server, connect to the server that has been configured as the RD License server (the domain controller in this demo).
23. In Server Manager, click Tools, then Remote Desktop Services and then Remote Desktop Licensing Manager.

 
Figure 12: Opening Remote Desktop Licensing Manager.

24. Right Click the Server hostname and then click Review Configuration.

 
Figure 13: Review the deployment.

25. Notice the warning indicating that the RDS License Server must belong to the Terminal Server License Servers group in Active Directory. Click Add to Group to fix this warning, then click Continue and then Ok and Ok again.

 
Figure 14: Configure the RD License Server's group membership in Active Directory.

26. Open the Services.msc management console, locate the Remote Desktop Licensing service, and restart it.
27. Return to RD Licensing Manager, right click the server name, click Refresh, then right click it again and click Review Configuration. There should be no warnings.

 
Figure 15: Review the deployment.

28. Right-click the server again and click Activate Server.

 
Figure 16: Activate the RD License Server.

29. Click Next at the Welcome screen, select the appropriate connection method (Automatic for this demo) and click Next.

 
Figure 17: Specify the Connection Method.

30. Enter the Company Information and click Next.
31. Wait for the server to activate, clear Start Install Licenses Wizard now and click Finish.

Figure 18: Skip the RD CALs installation wizard.
 

32. Return to the server that has been configured as the RDS Connection Broker for the deployment, in Server Manager, under Deployment Overview, click Tasks and then Edit Deployment Properties.

 
Figure 19: Edit the deployment properties.

33. Click the RD Licensing node and choose the licensing mode (for this demo, "Per User") and click Ok.

 
Figure 20: Configure the RD licensing mode for the deployment.

Deploy the RDS Environment - Create a Collection on the RDS Deployment:

A collection holds the Remote Desktop Services resources that are to be made available to users.

34. Still in the RDS Connection Broker server, in Server Manager, click the Collections node to the left, and under Tasks, click Create Session Collection.

 
Figure 21: Create the RDS Collection.

35. At the Before you begin screen click Next.
36. Enter a name for the collection and click Next.
37. At the Specify RD Session Host screen, click to move the applicable RDS Session Hosts servers to the right side and click Next.

 
Figure 22: Specify the RDS Session Hosts for the Collection.

38. At the Specify User groups screen, add the users or groups that need permissions to connect to this new collection. In this demo, the default group of Domain Users is already selected. Click Next.

 
Figure 23: Specify the Active Directory users that need access to the Collection.

39. For this demo, click to clear Enable User profile disks and click Next and then Create.
40. When the collection is created, click Close.

 
Figure 23: Complete the Collection creation process.

The deployment is ready to begin receiving connections.

Additional Information - Deploy the RDS Environment. Complete the deployment using PowerShell:

The RDS setup completed above can also be deployed using the PowerShell with the following lines.
 

This first line creates the deployment specifying the Connection Broker, the Web Access Server and with one RD session host:

New-RDSessionDeployment -ConnectionBroker RDSLab-CB.RDSLab.local -WebAccessServer RDSLab-WA.RDSLab.local -SessionHost RDSLab-SH1.RDSLab.local

The next line adds the second RD session host to the deployment:

Add-RDServer -Server RDSLab-SH2.RDSLab.local -Role RDS-RD-SERVER -ConnectionBroker RDSLab-CB.RDSLab.local

The third line installs the RDS Licensing role on the domain controller:

Add-RDServer -Server RDSLab-DC.RDSLab.local -Role RDS-LICENSING -ConnectionBroker RDSLab-CB.RDSLab.local

The fourth line configures the licensing server and licensing mode for the deployment. This line asks for confirmation:

Set-RDLicenseConfiguration -LicenseServer RDSLab-DC.RDSLab.local -Mode PerUser -ConnectionBroker RDSLab-CB.RDSLab.local

And the fifth line creates the RDS Collection:

New-RDSessionCollection -CollectionName "Collection1" -SessionHost @("RDSLab-SH1.RDSLab.local","RDSLab-SH2.RDSLab.local") -ConnectionBroker "RDSLab-CB.RDSLab.local"

 
Figure 24: Usage of the New-RDSessionDeployment PowerShell cmdlet

After adding all the servers to the dashboard in Server Manager and clicking refresh, the result is the same obtained using the UI: a newly installed Standard RDS deployment.