SBS and RDS – Big Picture How To Set Up RDS On An SBS Network

Original posted to the SBS2K Yahoo Group. This list has been tweaked and updated a bit. :)

A quick overview of how to set up Remote Desktop Services and RD RemoteApps on an SBS network:

1. Win2K8 R2 SP1 OS install
2. Server drivers
3. Updates
1. Windows Server Updates (we group 6-10 at a time).
2. Windows Server Security Updates (again 6-10 at a time).
3. Others.
4. Manufacturer’s Server Management.
• Configure management settings.
5. Enable the RDS Role (RDS + Licensing).
• Leave mode for later.
6. Install Office 2010 with SP1 integrated.
7. RemoteApp deploy needed apps including Office, QB 2011, etc.
8. Create RDP Files in RemoteApp Manager
• We create an internal RDP file set to deploy to local user’s desktops.
• We also create an external RDP file set that includes RD Gateway setting.
• We customize each file name once created.
9. Create folder under SBS RWW/RWA called RDPs.
• C:\Program Files\Windows Small Business Server\Bin\WebApp\RemoteAccess\RDPs
10. Copy RDG enabled RDP files into this folder.
• Must be done from Windows Explorer on SBS.
11. Make MIME changes for .RDP (Charlie's SBS 08 book has this)
12. Edit RWW/RWA Links in SBS Console
• Example RWW/RWA URL: https://remote.domain.com/remote/rdps/winword.rdp
• Description: RemoteApp – Word

When users connect to RDS or RemoteApp they will get a certificate warning. Coach them to tick the "Don't bug me again" box near the bottom left of the window.

Done.

Philip Elder
MPECS Inc.
Microsoft Small Business Specialists
Co-Author: SBS 2008 Blueprint Book

*Our original iMac was stolen (previous blog post). We now have a new MacBook Pro courtesy of Vlad Mazek, owner of OWN.

Windows Live Writer

TS RemoteApps – Disable Printer Redirection For Branch Offices

In most cases branch offices will have a site to site hardware based VPN. In some cases where the branch office is large enough there may be a local DC or RODC installed there.

In either case we are probably joining the remote PCs to the SBS 2008 domain so that we can manage them, their updates, their mapped drive letters, and more.

So, when the remote users are connecting to their needed application via TS RemoteApps they will not need to have printer redirection enabled. If they do, then they may end up with multiple copies of the local printer being served by the TS session thus causing confusion.

So, to eliminate any possibility of confusion for the user we edit the TS RemoteApp’s RDP file that we created to disable printer redirection.

1. Create the RDP file in TS RemoteApps manager.
2. Edit the RDP file by doing the following:
1. Right click on the file and left click on Open With.
• 
2. Uncheck Always use the selected …
3. Click the Browse button.
4. Navigate to %windir%.
5. Vista/Win7: Type Notepad in the Search Windows field
• 
6. Double click on Notepad.exe found in C:\Windows
• 
7. Make sure Notepad is highlighted and click OK.
• 
• Again, make sure that Always use the selected program … is not checked.
8. Change the following setting from “1” to “0”:
• OLD Setting: redirectprinters:i:1
• NEW Setting: redirectprinters:i:0
• 
9. Save the file by clicking File –> Save.
10. Close Notepad.
11. Distribute the RDP file.

Once the above process has been done once, the Open with menu will show Notepad as an option:

We now have a RemoteApps session that will no longer show the Printer Name (Redirected) as their default printer along with (Redirected) copies all of the other standard Group Policy deployed printers that would be on their SBS 2008 domain.

Philip Elder
MPECS Inc.
Microsoft Small Business Specialists
Co-Author: SBS 2008 Blueprint Book

*Our original iMac was stolen (previous blog post). We now have a new MacBook Pro courtesy of Vlad Mazek, owner of OWN.

Windows Live Writer

Remote Desktop Services Web Access on Windows Server 2008 R2

In an e-mail list conversation a while back, my fellow MVP Dana Epp of Scorpion Software made mention of a new ability in Windows Server 2008 R2 that would give the SBS Remote Web Workplace a run for its money.

That new feature is called Remote Desktop Web Access.

This is what the logon page looks like:

Once logged in, we will see a list of applications that have been published via RDS RemoteApps:

The above applications are installed on our Windows Server 2008 R2 Remote Desktop Services server and are served to the Internet via our SBS v7 TS Gateway.

A neat aspect to this setup is that the page can be customized much like the Remote Web Workplace can . . . though with a little coding involved. So, besides the above applications, we can have links that connect users to their own office computers, or other internally based resources . . . not unlike the way we can customize the Remote Web Workplace on SBS 2008 and now SBS v7.

RD Web Access Publishing

First, we would need to create a new DNS A record for remotewebapps.mpecsinc.ca (example URI), and then purchase an SSL certificate using the IIS CSR on the RDS Web Access site.

Then, with our new Cisco SA 520 Security Appliance gateway we would bind (alias) an additional ISP IP to the WAN interface and create an HTTPS publishing rule to redirect HTTPS traffic on that IP to our RD Web Access server.

It would be pretty close to that simple.

Remote Web Workplace Links

Here are the hyperlinks to the RDP files we have configured for application access via the Remote Web Workplace:

RDP File Links

We used the RemoteApp Manager on the Remote Desktop Services server to first publish the applications.

Once the applications were published, we could then right click on each one and generate an RDP file. From there, we would copy the RDP file into a subfolder under the /Remote application folder on the SBS v7 server (can be done on SBS 2008 too).

Users can then click on the Outlook link, authenticate, and use the Outlook application on their remote system. All the while, Outlook is actually running on the Remote Desktop Services server.

Or, users can right click on the link and save the RDP file to their Desktop for later quick application access.

Note that we need to add the RDP extension to the MIME Types setting in IIS for the link to fire up the application as expected. Charlie Russel covers this in his book on SBS 2008:

• Windows® Small Business Server 2008 Administrator's Companion (Amazon.com)

AuthAnvil (AuthAnvil demo video), Scorpion Software’s two-factor authentication product, is an excellent way to provide additional security for both the Remote Web Workplace and RD Web Access.

Philip Elder
MPECS Inc.
Microsoft Small Business Specialists
Co-Author: SBS 2008 Blueprint Book

*Our original iMac was stolen (previous blog post). We now have a new MacBook Pro courtesy of Vlad Mazek, owner of OWN.

Windows Live Writer

Microsoft Word Error – There is insufficient memory or disk space. Word cannot display the requested font.

We just set up a Terminal Services (Remote Desktop Services TSRemote Apps) server with Microsoft Office 2010.

Whenever Word is fired up, it keeps throwing this error when first opened:

Microsoft Word

There is insufficient memory or disk space. Word cannot display the requested font.

There were a number of different search results for the error with this one having the key:

• Microsoft Forums: Insufficient memory or disk space, cannot display the requested font; Outlook fonts garbled

Checking the QuickStyles folder under the Office folder we see:

There is definitely no sign of the Normal.dotx file that should be there.

So, following the second set of instructions, we created Old.dotx in the above folder, rebooted the Remote Desktop server, and fired up Microsoft Word.

The error did not reappear, though there still was not a Normal.dotx in the folder.

In Word there is an option to Prompt to save to Normal. We enabled that setting and tweaked the defaults for a paragraph, saved the document, and were prompted to save the update to Normal.dotx.

After Word closed, we reopened it to verify that there was no error and indeed no error came up. The Normal.dotx file turns up in the user’s profile so all is good.

Philip Elder
MPECS Inc.
Microsoft Small Business Specialists
Co-Author: SBS 2008 Blueprint Book

*Our original iMac was stolen (previous blog post). We now have a new MacBook Pro courtesy of Vlad Mazek, owner of OWN.

Windows Live Writer

Further to Licensing Office in a Terminal Services Environment

Eric Ligman kindly wrote a follow-up e-mail asking about the scenario posted in our earlier post today on Licensing Microsoft Office in Terminal Services.

And the clarification made by Eric:

• Office is licensed per _device_ accessing the application no matter where the application is installed.

In the original post we had _desktop_

So, in the previously mentioned situation where we have 22 users total with 11 of them locally and 11 of them remote, we need to keep count of the number of _devices_ being used to access Office on the Terminal Server.

For example:

1. 22 users using Office.
1. 11 Office users on 11 local PCs (11 devices).
2. 11 users on 11 remote PCs into Terminal Services Office (11 devices).
3. Licenses required: 22.
• This is our original situation.
2. 22 users using Office in a shift work environment.
1. 22 Office users on 11 local PCs (11 devices) via 2 shifts
2. Licenses required: 11.
3. 22 users using Office on multiple PCs and laptops.
1. 11 Office users on 11 local PCs (11 devices).
2. 9 users on 9 remote PCs into Terminal Services (9 devices).
3. 2 users on 2 remote laptops into Terminal Services (2 devices).
4. Same 2 users on 2 remote PCs into Terminal Services (2 devices).
5. Licenses required: 24.
4. 22 users using Office on multiple PCs and laptops.
1. 11 Office users on 11 local PCs (11 devices).
2. 7 users on 7 remote PCs into Terminal Services (7 devices).
3. 4 users on 4 remote PCs into Terminal Services (4 devices).
4. Same 4 users on 4 remote laptops into Terminal Services (4 devices).
5. Licenses required: 26.

Thanks Eric for making sure that we were absolutely clear on how Office licensing works.

With that clarification we can be 100% confident that we will offer the correct answer to our clients when they ask about delivering Office to remote users via Terminal Services!

Eric’s original post:

• Answer to a question on how Microsoft Office is licensed in a Terminal Services environment and why OEM Office doesn’t cover it, in plain English

Philip Elder
MPECS Inc.
Microsoft Small Business Specialists
Co-Author: SBS 2008 Blueprint Book

*Our original iMac was stolen (previous blog post). We now have a new MacBook Pro courtesy of Vlad Mazek, owner of OWN.

Windows Live Writer

Licensing Microsoft Office in Terminal Services

This post has an update here: Further to Licensing Office in a Terminal Services Environment.

This one is a bit of a brain buster to figure out, though Eric Ligman has done a great job of clarifying the way to properly license Microsoft Office in a Terminal Services environment:

• Answer to a question on how Microsoft Office is licensed in a Terminal Services environment and why OEM Office doesn’t cover it, in plain English

Essentially:

1. Office is licensed per _desktop_ _device_ accessing the application no matter where the application is installed.
2. Open Licensing provides the rights to run Office in a Terminal Services environment.

So, we have a client that we are setting up that has a combined total 22 users in their Active Directory with 11 physical machines on the network and 11 users connecting remotely via TS Gateway on SBS to their internal Windows Server 2008 R2 Standard Terminal Server.

Office and their Line of Business application will be delivered via TS RemoteApps as well as Remote Desktop Services for certain users that require a desktop to work from.

All 11 systems will have Office and all 11 TS users will be accessing Office on the Terminal Server so we will be providing them with a sum total of 22 Open Value based licenses.

A couple of key Office Open Value part numbers:

• Office 2007/2010 Open Value 3 Year Agreement with 3 Payments
  • 021-07257: Office 2007/2010 Standard
  • 269-09046: Office 2007/2010 Professional Plus

The Microsoft License Advisor site:

• Microsoft License Advisor

There are three physical servers on this particular network with SBS 2008 Premium and Windows Server 2008 R2 being licensed with an Open Value Agreement.

UPDATE: Eric kindly e-mailed us with some clarifications based on our client situation mentioned in this post. His thoughts are developed with some examples in our post Further to Licensing Office in a Terminal Services Environment.

Philip Elder
MPECS Inc.
Microsoft Small Business Specialists
Co-Author: SBS 2008 Blueprint Book

*Our original iMac was stolen (previous blog post). We now have a new MacBook Pro courtesy of Vlad Mazek, owner of OWN.

Windows Live Writer

SBS 2008 - RWW and OWA Idle-Time Caveat or Hiccup?

The new Remote Web Workplace in SBS 2008 is pretty phenomenal. In our opinion, tying the new RWW features into the ability to publish Terminal Services RemoteApps is pretty much a "Killer App".

There is however, a hiccup, or caveat we have noticed between RWW and OWA.

The new Remote Web Workplace Portal

When a user uses RWW to authenticate and then clicks through to Outlook Web Access (OWA) via the Check E-mail button, they may get bumped out of OWA after 30 minutes of inactivity in the still existing RWW tab or browser window. Given the amount of time we spend working on our e-mail communications, 30 minutes is not unheard of when it comes to a user's being focused on the e-mail tasks at hand.

Essentially, while in the middle of working in OWA 30 minutes after connecting via RWW, the user will click on a button and be presented with the Exchange OWA log on page.

Now, if once the user has opened the OWA tab or new browser window and they turn around and close the RWW, the time-out hiccup does not happen. If the RWW page was indeed closed, it seems to be that the Private Computer idle settings apply.

Outlook Web Access Time-Out Options

This behaviour has been pretty consistent so far, so we have been mentioning to client users that if they plan on only using RWW to access their e-mail, that they should use the direct URL instead.

Any SBS domain joined workstation or laptop will have a Check E-Mail link in their favourites. For any non-domain joined workstation or laptop, we ask users to log onto RWW and click through to OWA and bookmark that page.

The SBS 2008 OWA direct URL is: https://remote.SBS2008.ca/owa.

Philip Elder
MPECS Inc.
Microsoft Small Business Specialists

*All Mac on SBS posts are posted on our in-house iMac via the Safari Web browser.

SBS 08 - RWW + TS RemoteApp = Killer App for SBS and EBS

For us, one of the most anticipated features that we can implement for our clients is the publishing of Terminal Services Applications via the Remote Web Workplace in SBS and EBS.

To date, we have yet to find a definitive instruction set on getting that happening.

For now, it is important to begin reading some of the materials available to us on the Terminal Services TS RemoteApp technology (links to Word documents on Microsoft's site):

• Win2K8 TS Gateway Server Step-by-Step Guide
• Win2K8 TS Licensing Step-by-Step Guide
• Win2K8 TS RemoteApp Step-by-Step Guide
• Win2K8 Step-by-Step to Customizing TS Web Access by Using WSS (SharePoint)
• Charlie Russel: Windows Server 2008 RemoteApps is COOL
• Ask the Performance Team: WS2008: Terminal Services RemoteApps

From the Cougar Beta Newsgroup by Jonathan Hassell:

1. Export the apps as RDP files
2. Save the RDP files to the path where RWW is hosted on the SBS server
3. Add the RDP MIME type to IIS on the SBS server
4. Add links to the RDP files using the wizard in the SBS console

While we have followed the above steps, we must be missing something because we get errors when initiating the application.

Anyone who can flesh out the above, please do so as it would be greatly appreciated by all of us! ;)

For now, we will keep plugging along to figure it out.

Philip Elder
MPECS Inc.
Microsoft Small Business Specialists

*All Mac on SBS posts are posted on our in-house iMac via the Safari Web browser.