It how to set up your own terminal server using remote desktop services on server 2008 r2

This step-by-step article describes how to connect a Windows Server 2003-based terminal services client to a terminal server by using Remote Desktop Connection.

Applies to: В Windows Server 2003
Original KB number: В 814585

More information

Open Remote Desktop Connection

To open Remote Desktop Connection, select Start > All Programs > Accessories > Communications, and then select Remote Desktop Connection.

Create a Terminal Services connection

To create a Terminal Services connection, follow these steps:

Open Remote Desktop Connection.

In the Computer box, type the computer name or the IP address of a terminal server or a computer that has Remote Desktop enabled.

To connect to the console session of the remote computer, type computername or IP address/console.

Select Connect.

In the logon dialog box, type your user name, password, and domain (if necessary), and then select OK.

Save connection settings

You can save a connection as a Remote Desktop protocol (.rdp) file. An .rdp file contains all the information for a connection to a terminal server, including the Options settings that were configured when the file was saved. You can customize any number of .rdp files, including files for connecting to the same server with different settings. For example, you can save a file that connects to MyServer in full screen mode and another file that connects to the same computer in 800Г—600 screen size.

To save your connection settings, follow these steps:

1. Open Remote Desktop Connection, and then select Options.
2. Specify the connection settings that you want for this connection.
3. On the General tab, select Save As.
4. In the File name box, type a file name for the saved connection file, and then select Save.

To edit an .rdp file to change the connections settings it contains, select Start > My Documents, right-click the file, and then select Edit.

Open a saved connection

To open a saved connection, follow these steps:

Open Remote Desktop Connection, and then select Open.

Double-click the .rdp file for the connection that you want to open.

Copy files between the local computer and the remote computer

Open Remote Desktop Connection.

Type the computer name or the IP address of a terminal server or a computer that has Remote Desktop enabled.

Select the Local Resources tab, select the Disk Drives check box, and then select Connect.

Select Start on the task bar of the remote computer, and then select My Computer. Or double-click the My Computer icon on the desktop of the remote computer.

The drives on the remote server appear with the drives on your local computer. Your local drives appear as driveletter on tsclient, where tsclient is the name assigned to your (local) computer.

Locate the file that you want to copy, right-click the file, and then select Copy.

Locate the folder where you want to paste the file, and then select Paste.

Log off and end the session

To log off and end a session, follow these steps:

In the Remote Desktop Connection window, select Start, and then select Shut Down.

In the Shut Down Windows dialog box, select log off , and then select OK.

Remote Desktop Protocol (RDP) is a proprietary protocol developed by Microsoft, which provides a user with the ability to connect to another computer. RDP client software exists for most versions of Microsoft Windows as well as Linux, Unix, OS X, iOS, Android, and several other operating systems. RDP server software is incorporated into most Windows operating systems; an RDP server for Unix and OS X also exists.

Currently Microsoft refers to their RDP server software as Remote Desktop Services (RDS), formerly “Terminal Services” (Terminal Server) in Windows Server 2008 and earlier Windows server software. RDS is a thin client implementation, where Windows software and the entire desktop of the computer running RDS, becomes accessible to the remote client computer supporting RDP. With RDS, only software user interfaces are transferred to the client system. All input from the client system is transmitted to the server, where software execution takes place.

Even today the server component of RDS is Terminal Server which is entrusted with restricting remote clients according to the level of access that has been established for them. The Terminal Server also enforces the configured software restriction policies, so as to restrict the availability of specified software to only a certain remote users. One of the real benefits of RDS is the creation of a new windows user session for every RDP connection, this permits multiple RDS sessions be running simultaneously on a single RDP machine. QuickBooks Enterprise was designed to take advantage of this capability.

Remote Desktop Connection (RDC), also called Remote Desktop (formerly Microsoft Terminal Services Client) is the client application for RDS. It allows a user to remotely log into a networked computer running RDS. RDC presents the desktop interface of the remote system, as if it were being accessed locally.

RemoteApp is a special mode of RDS, which became available in Windows Server 2008 R2 and later, where remote session configuration is integrated into the client operating system. The RemoteApp User-interface is facilitated in a window on the local desktop and appears like any other window for local applications thus making remote applications behave like local applications. Under RemoteApp the task of establishing the remote session, as well as redirecting local resources to the remote application, becomes transparent to the end user. Most users think they are simply launching an application, like any other on their desktop, even if that application is actually running on a server half-way around the world.

Installing QuickBooks for Remote desktop Services

While QuickBooks can run in a Terminal Server environment, only QuickBooks Enterprise Solutions was designed (and is supported) for this environment; as such, the information provided below is specific (for purposes of this article) to QuickBooks Enterprise Solution (QuickBooks Enterprise) versions.

To ensure that an application is installed correctly to work in a multiple user environment, you must put the terminal server into a special installation mode before you install the application on the terminal server. This special installation mode ensures that the correct registry entries and .ini files that are needed to support running the application in a multiple user environment are created during the installation process.

Download your version of QuickBooks Enterprise and save it to your desktop. Once saved, double-click on the icon to begin installation, as soon as the Welcome to QuickBooks window appears, Cancel out of the installer.

You must now put the terminal server into the special installation mode (discussed above) by selecting the Install Application on Terminal Server tool under Programs in the Control Panel of the RDS computer. This tool will run a wizard to help install the application.

Follow the Install Terminal Server Program installation wizard steps to install the QuickBooks from your program download. When the wizard displays the Run Installation program window, type %temp% in the browse box and click Enter. Navigate to the QuickBooks Enterprise folder and double-click on the Setup.exe file, then click Enter. When the wizard displays the next screen simply click Next, and QuickBooks Enterprise will begin installing for Terminal Services.

Now we come to a choice, and this will depend on the exact configuration of your overall network. If you are running more than one physical server and/or more than one virtual server, you may not be running RDS (terminal server) on the same computer (physical or virtual) as you’re file server hosting your QuickBooks Company file(s).

RDS Server Running QuickBooks Application Only – in these configurations the RDS acts just like a Client Workstation for each and every RDS session being hosted. You should install QuickBooks using the 1 st installation option (I’ll be using QuickBooks on this Computer.) Each RDS session will make use of the QuickBooks application, but the Company file and QuickBooks Database Server will be located on the dedicated file server. At no time should the RDS Server have ‘hosting’ turned on. In my opinion this is the preferred configuration for RDS environments.

RDS Server Acts as QuickBooks Server – in this configuration the RDS must support the QuickBooks Application, the QuickBooks Database Server and also host the QuickBooks Company file(s). QuickBooks should be installed using installation option 2 (I’ll be using QuickBooks on this computer AND I’ll also be storing our Company file here so it can be shared over our network.). In my opinion this is NOT the preferred configuration for RDS environments.

Using RDS

Each user will have their own desktop, start menu, and QuickBooks Application, just like on an actual Client Workstation, but it is really running on the RDS Server. From their computer (either local or remote) Users begin and RDS Session by simply clicking on an RDS Desktop (as shown here) or RemoteApp icon. After logging in using their standard credentials, the User’s desktop will appear. From that point, everything works pretty much just as though they were running on their local computer.

In part 3 of this series we will examine other ‘more exotic’ networking options.

Note: This article is not intended to be a comprehensive guide on configuring or setting-up an RDS network or RDS server. Contact a qualified Information Technologist or Microsoft Network Engineer if you need assistance in the implementation of an RDS/Terminal Server computing environment.

_{Source: Thanks to Intuit for illustrations used in this article.}

Question

I have set up my Server (2008 R2 Foundation) for remote desktop and RemoteApp as per the instructions provided by Microsoft. I am using a single server for all functions. When a user logs in to the Server through remote desktop, the remote desktop screen comes up and then the user immediately gets an ‘Access is Denied’ message. If the user connects through RDWeb, the RemoteApps are displayed, but when the user clicks on an application, they are prompted again for their login credentials and then they get the remote desktop screen with an ‘Access is Denied’ screen as well. This happens even for Administrators.

I am getting very frustrated with this as I have read many blogs and tried everything to no avail. PLEASE help me.

All replies

Please try adding your users into the Remote Desktop Users local group on that server and see if it helps.

If still not working, please check the Event Viewer on that server and post all related logs here.

сила в справедливости

Right click My Computer and go to Manage, in the opened windows go to Configuration > Local Users and Groups. In the list of groups find Remote Desktop Users and double click it, then click Add button and add the required group (for instance Domain Users).
(FYI: If this server is a Domain Controller there will not be local groups and you cannot perform this step)
Check if it helped.

If still not working, open GPO linked to your Terminal Server and go to Computer Configuration > Policies > Windows Settings > Security Settings > Local Policies > find “Allow logon through Terminal Services” define this policy and add required groups. After that apply the policy and close all windows. Now either restart the Terminal Server or open CMD and issue gpupdate /force

сила в справедливости

This Server is a domain controller, but I did add my groups through gpo to the Remote Desktop Servers. And, same problem.

I don’t see anything in the event viewer that jumps out. Is there a particular area I should look at?

I did add my groups through gpo to the Remote Desktop Servers.

You do not have to add your group to “Remote Desktop Users”, as on Domain Controller “Remote Desktop Users” do not have “Logon through Terminal services” right. You have to add required group to the “Allow logon through Terminal Services” Policy Setting, or add “Remote Desktop Users” group to “Allow logon through Terminal Services” and then add users to “Remote Desktop Users” group.

сила в справедливости

As near as I can tell, I had that already set up and still the same . ‘Access is Denied’. Is there a log I can provide that would help pin point this?

Has anyone been able to resolve this? I would glady allow someone to remote into this server to figure out what is going on as I have not yet put it into production, but am very anxious to do so.

I really need this resolved!

I last saw this one on WS08 and I think someone got it resolved by changing System Locale Settings.

Can you please make sure that Restrict Users to Single Session is disabled via RD Session Host Configuration Settings?

I just ran into this issue and was able to resolve it by setting the Remote Desktop Services service logon to Network Service. It was set to LocalSystem.

When reviewing the system logs, I found the following two errors:

I also was thinking about resetting the machine account password with the netdom command but, didnt end up needing to.

Here are my notes from the issue – just in case you are seeing a combination of problems.

We are getting an “Access is Denied” message when trying to RDP into a Windows Foundation Server 2008 R2 system. To eliminate external access issues, we are trying to just RDP into localhost at this point. We do get the same message when trying from a remote system.

Items that we have confirmed at this point:

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Fix “RPC Server is Unavailable” Error in Windows Server 2008 R2 Remote Disk Management

Error when Attempting to Remove Windows Server 2008 Server Core from Domain

Enabling Remote Management in Windows Server 2008 R2

Windows Server 2008 R2, unlike Windows Server 2008 RTM, has a nice feature that allows you to remotely manage it, from another server or from a Windows 7 workstation, by using Server Manager.

Note: Windows Server 2008 RTM also has remote management capabilities. You can easily manage these servers by using almost any MMC Snap-In. However, the fact that you can use Server Manager to do it is new in R2.

This is useful when using both regular-type installations, and Server Core installations. Read more about Server Core on the site.

By using Server Manager to remotely manage Windows Server 2008 R2 servers, you can manage the following scenarios:

Server to server – Server Manager on a full installation of Windows Server 2008 R2 can be used to manage roles and features that are installed on another server that is running Windows Server 2008 R2.

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Server to Server Core – Server Manager on a full installation of Windows Server 2008 R2 can be used to manage roles and features that are installed on a Server Core installation of Windows Server 2008 R2.

Client to server – Server Manager is installed as part of Remote Server Administration Tools on a computer that is running Windows 7. This can be used to manage roles and features on a computer that is running either the full or Server Core installations of Windows Server 2008 R2. To install Server Manager on a Windows 7 machine you will need to install the Remote Server Administration Tools (or RSAT). Read more about it on my Installing Remote Server Administration Tools (RSAT) for Windows 7 article.

The tasks that you can perform remotely by using Server Manager include:

• View Windows automatic updating status
• Run Best Practices Analyzer scans on roles.
• View or change Windows Firewall information
• View and manage roles
• Manage installed services roles
• View Internet Explorer Advanced Security Configuration settings (IE ESC)
• Configure Windows Error Reporting
• View or change Windows Customer Experience Improvement Program (CEIP) status

However, because this is Microsoft’s way to tell us that this feature is not yet 100% complete, here are the tasks that you cannot perform remotely by using Server Manager:

• Add or remove roles, role services, and features
• Configure Remote Desktop settings
• Configure System Properties
• Check for new roles
• Change Windows automatic updating settings
• Change network settings
• Change the computer name or domain membership
• Change Internet Explorer Advanced Security Configuration settings
• Run the Security Configuration Wizard, if the source computer is a server that is running Windows Server 2008 R2

Oh well. we’ll wait for Windows Server 20XX…

Anyway, how do you enable remote management?

Assuming the remote server is all set up and prepared to enter production, first, open Server Manager on the remote server.

Click on the “Configure Server Manager for Remote Management” link.

Select the “Enable remote management of this server from other computers”.

The server’s firewall will automatically be configured to allow the relevant traffic in.

How do you connect to the remote server?

On the computer you wish to use as the management machine (running either Windows Server 2008 R2 or Windows & with RSAT), open Server Manager.

Right-click on the Server Manager item and select “Connect to Another Computer”.

In the Connect to Another Computer window, type the name or browse to the server you wish to connect to.

Note: I strongly suggest you also read my Fix “RPC Server is Unavailable” Error in Windows Server 2008 R2 Remote Disk Management article, as it contains some important information about the firewall rules that need to be enabled on the local computer.

BTW, if you want to keep the remote connection and not have to re-configure the remote server name each time, you could open a new MMC window, add the Server Manager snap-in, connect to the remote server, and then save the snap-in.

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Installing Remote Desktop Services in Windows Server 2012 R2

Configure Remote Desktop Services Collections in Windows Server 2012 R2

Deploy Remote Desktop Services using PowerShell

In today’s Ask the Admin, I’ll show you how to deploy Remote Desktop Services in Windows Server 2012 R2 using PowerShell.

In a previous Ask the Admin, Installing Remote Desktop Services in Windows Server 2012 R2, I demonstrated how to deploy Remote Desktop Services (RDS) using the standard deployment model. For more information on the RDS components and deployment models, take a look at Remote Desktop Services Deployment Options in Windows Server 2012 R2 on the Petri IT Knowledgebase.

Remote Desktop Services in Windows Server 2012 R2 (Image Credit: Russell Smith)

Deploy RDS using PowerShell

Servers that you want to use in your deployment need to be added to the Server Pool in Server Manager before you start the process below. For more info, see Managing Windows Server 2012 with Server Manager on Petri. You’ll need an Active Directory domain and an account that has permission to install the server roles on your chosen server(s). The RD Connection Broker role can’t be installed on a domain controller, and installation should not be carried out on the server where the RD Connection Broker role will be installed.

• Log into the Windows Server 2012 R2 server where you want to run the PowerShell cmdlets. The account should have administrative access to the server(s) where the RDS roles will be installed.
• Open a PowerShell prompt from the taskbar or Start screen.
• In the PowerShell window, type Import-Module RemoteDesktop and press ENTER.
• To install the three compulsory RDS components in a standard deployment, use the New-SessionDeployment cmdlet as shown below, replacing the values for the -ConnectionBroker, -WebAccessServer, and -SessionHost parameters with the name(s) of the servers on which you want to install these roles.

If you want to manage the new deployment using Server Manager, you’ll need to add the server where the RD Connection Broker role is installed to the Server Pool and then click Remote Desktop Services in the list of options on the left of Server Manager. For more information on working with Server Manager, see Managing Windows Server 2012 with Server Manager on Petri.

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Installing Remote Desktop Services using PowerShell in Windows Server 2012 R2 (Image Credit: Russell Smith)

If you want to add an additional RD Session Host or RD Licensing, you can use the Add-RDServer cmdlet as shown below:

You should specify an existing RD Connection Broker server, although it is also possible to add an additional Connection Broker to your deployment (maximum 2), and the -Role parameter value should be set to RDS-RD-SERVER to install a RD Session Host, or RDS-LICENSING to install the RD Licensing role.

Adding a RD Session Host using PowerShell in Windows Server 2012 R2 (Image Credit: Russell Smith)

If you opt to install RD Licensing, you’ll need to use the management console on the licensing server to activate the server and install your licenses from Microsoft. Once you have done that, you can use PowerShell to associate the new license server with your existing Connection Broker using the Set-RDLicenseConfiguration cmdlet. The -Mode parameter can be set to PerDevice or PerUser. Select ‘Y’ for yes to confirm the operation.

In the next article in this series, I’ll show you how to configure RDS collections so you can get started publishing RemoteApps.

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I’m trying to deploy OneDrive to a terminal server, and it seems like OneDrive is one of those application that only installs for the current user, not the entire server. I can link users to the OneDrive installer and they can install it, but I figure there has to be a better way.

What’s the best way for me to go about getting OneDrive installed for everyone on a Server 2012 R2 Terminal Server?

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I saw that, but it didn’t do what I expected. The link opened what looked to be a web portal into OneDrive

Honestly, I’ve never done it, but I don’t see OneDrive being very successful for a Terminal server Deployment.

So each user can use up to 1 TB if data . oh my.

You basically want the sync client to be installed for each user?

Honestly, I’ve never done it, but I don’t see OneDrive being very successful for a Terminal server Deployment.

So each user can use up to 1 TB if data . oh my.

You basically want the sync client to be installed for each user?

When I was searching around before posting, I saw the same. watch out because 1tb can cause issues.

Correct, I want the sync client to be available for each user.

OneDrive sync is not supported on Server 2012 R2 RDS, so you’d have to upgrade to 2016.

Probably not worth it if your users mainly work with Office documents. SharePoint document libraries can be easily reached from within Excel, Word and PowerPoint once the user activates with their Office 365 account.

Any interest in upgrading to 2016, knowing that is what OS is likely required here?

Honestly, I’ve never done it, but I don’t see OneDrive being very successful for a Terminal server Deployment.

So each user can use up to 1 TB if data . oh my.

You basically want the sync client to be installed for each user?

It would not be a really big deal with Files on Demand and some GPOs. This turns OneDrive from a file syncing solution to a file streaming and caching solution. I implemented this company wide and could not be happier, my bandwidth usage peaks went way down across all locations and my users are up and running much faster when they have to switch machines.

Unfortunately it’s desktop only for now and requires Windows 10 1709 or later.

Taylor Gibb is a professional software developer with nearly a decade of experience. He served as Microsoft Regional Director in South Africa for two years and has received multiple Microsoft MVP (Most Valued Professional) awards. He currently works in R&D at Derivco International. Read more.

When installing an application on a Terminal Server, because multiple people will be using the application at once, there is actually a special method that you should use to install the applications. Here’s two methods to do it the right way.

Note: this is part of our ongoing series teaching IT administration basics, and might not apply to everybody.

Command Line Method

The first method we can use involves the command line. You will need to change your user mode to installation mode by using the following command:

At this point you could go ahead and safely install the application, but once the application is installed don’t forget to change back to execution mode, you can do so by running the following command:

The GUI Method

If you think you are going to forget to switch back to execution mode, or maybe you just don’t like the command line you can always do the same thing using the GUI. To get started open control panel

Switch to the small icon view, and look for Install Application on Remote Desktop Server, double-click on it

Now you can simply go through the next, next, finish style wizard which will help you get the application installed.

Why Must I Do This?

When you use “change user /install” before installing an application, you actually create .ini files for the application in the system directory. These files are used as master copies for user-specific .ini files. After installing the application, when you type “change user /execute” you are reverting to standard .ini file mapping. The first time you run the application, it searches the home directory for its .ini files. If the .ini files are not found in the home directory, but are found in the system directory, Terminal Services copies the .ini files to the home directory, ensuring that each user has a unique copy of the application .ini files. Each user should have a unique copy of the .ini files for an application. This prevents instances where different users might have incompatible application configurations.

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