Tag Archives: Connection Broker

Remote Desktop Services: Balancing Sessions Hosts and Connection Brokers

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KB ID 0001424

Problem

I got an email from a colleague who was setting up an RDS farm, (2012 R2). He was having some problems and asked me; “If the Connection Broker brokers the connections to the Session Hosts, how do I RDP to the Session Broker?”

This threw me completely, I usually jump on the console in VMware or use a third party remote management tool, I don’t tend to to RDP onto servers. I had fallen into the same trap he had. I assumed: You connect to a SESSION BROKER and it BROKERS YOUR SESSION to the least busy session host, (or reconnects your broken sessions).

THIS IS WRONG!

 

How Session Brokers Work

You don’t connect to a session broker, (unless you are an admin who is about to do some work on the Session Broker). You connect to a DNS RECORD, and that record points to a SESSION HOST, (I know that makes no sense, but bear with me). And you create a DNS record with the SAME NAME for every Session Host like so,

 

This works because, (by default) Windows DNS uses ’round robin’ so if it has multiple values for one DNS name is responds with the first one to the first request, the second one to the second etc.

But Pete? Round Robin is Bobbins for Load Balancing? Yes it is, that’s what the Session Broker is for! In reality this is what happens;

This is two scenarios that should clear things up, User1 queries DNS for TSFarm.my-domain.com and gets an IP of 192.168.1.1, They go to that SESSION HOST, the the session host CHECKS WITH THE CONNECTION BROKER, firstly to see if User1 already has a session on another session host, if so they are reconnected to that session, above that’s on SESSION HOST 2.

Then User2 attempts to connect toTSFarm.my-domain.com and gets an IP of 192.168.1.2 (Because of DNS ’round-robin’). They go to that SESSION HOST, then the session host CHECKS WITH THE CONNECTION BROKER, firstly to see if User2 already has a session on another session host, in this case they don’t. But, this host already has User1 connected to it, so it redirects User2 onto SESSION HOST 1.

Of course a user can connect to a SESSION HOST and after checking with the the CONNECTION BROKER they get connected to the host they originally queried if, (for example) the other session hosts are busier, (and the user has no existing sessions.)

But With Server 2012 You Can Do Connection Broker Load Balancing? Yes, you can, but that’s load balancing for the connection brokers, NOT the user sessions!

 

Related Articles, References, Credits, or External Links

Thanks to James White for making me do some work!

Migrating RD Web and RD Gateway Roles

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KB ID 0001406

Problem

I’ve got a job coming up to deploy some Duo two factor authentication into a clients RDS farm. To make things a bit easier for them I needed to migrate their RD Connection Broker. They had their Connection Broker, Gateway, and Web roles on one server, (which is not unusual, or incorrect). It turned out, that moving the Connection Broker, was going to be a major task, and it would be a lot easier to move the other two roles.

Solution

Note: Before deploying make sure you have the certificate ready to import (in .PFX format with a known password). If you are confused export the one from the old server. If you’re still confused use the search button above, I’ve written that procedure up before.

Moving the Gateway and Web roles is actually pretty simple to do, the process is, add the server to the RDS farm, ddd the Role, migrate the IIS settings. You can then repoint your firewall rules to the new server and remove the roles form the old one.

Build your new server, update it and join it to the domain.

Add the new server into the RDS deployment, (on one of the RDS farm members).

You can (from one to the other servers in the RDS farm) now deploy the new role, I’m going to deploy RD Web Access first.

Search for, select, then add the new server > Next.

Add

The new role will be deployed, (time for a coffee?).

Select  ‘Configure Certificate’.

Your newly added role will say ‘Error’ > Select it > ‘Select existing certificate’.

Browse to the certificate > Supply the password > Tick ‘Allow the certificate to be added to the Trusted Root……’ option > OK.

When the display changes to ‘Success’ > Apply > OK.

Now you can add the other RDS Server(s) into the Server Manager console on the ‘new’ RDS server.

Now to ‘migrate’ any custom IIS settings, download the web Deploy Tool, either directly fromMicrosoft,

Or you can deploy from the Web Platform Installer.

Then to migrate all the IIS settings issue the following commands;

[box]CD “C:\Program Files (x86)\IIS\Microsoft Web Deploy V3”

msdeploy.exe -verb:sync -source:webServer,computername={Source-Server-IP} -dest:webServer,computername={Destination-Server-IP}[/box]

Repeat the process for the RD Gateway Role

Related Articles, References, Credits, or External Links

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