clareq Posted January 13, 2015 Posted January 13, 2015 I've been asked to "build a RDP server so art students can connect in" We used to use Frog, which allowed remote desktop to machines in Art, which were kept on until 11pm each night to allow Art students to access them. I now need to replicate this, but have no idea where to start. My ideal situation would be to allow them to connect to a virtual machine, so we don't need to keep machines on. Could someone advise me what we need to do this - server spec, licences, software - a walkthrough how to would be nice too! I'm a bit out of my depth on this one.
john Posted January 13, 2015 Posted January 13, 2015 As a starter, without even touching licensing, you will want a Remote Access Gateway on the internet to connect to, this needs port 443 and it handles the internal bit. As for what to connect to thats a different can of worms, you could connect to a PC and off you go or a virtual machine or VDI solution. This all depends on what your doing and how you want to do it. Licensing you will need some CALS and windows licenses and check the terms of software agreement EG Adobe may specifically prohibit software being used in a Multi-user / session setup like Terminal Services however some software also doesn't work well over this. 1
Duke Posted January 13, 2015 Posted January 13, 2015 I'd agree with John and definitely look at Remote Desktop Gateway. Depending on how many concurrent users you need to support and what software they're running, I'd back it with a couple (or more) of RDS servers. These can be virtual, although for best performance when supporting lots of concurrent users you'll generally want them to be physical. At a minimum you'll need three servers (arguably two but I wouldn't recommend it), which can all be virtual if you don't need massive levels of performance or a huge amount of concurrent users: 1. RDGW - This your RD Gateway server which needs port 443 open to the internet. I'd also make it your RD Connection Broker server and use it as a general RDS management server for mapped start menus/desktops and RDS profiles. 2. RDS-01 - Your first RDS server, with all the software you need installed on it. 3. RDS-02 - Your second RDS server to provide some resiliency, redundancy and failover, configured identically to RDS-01. RDS-01 and -02 form an RDS farm that talks to the Connection Broker and is accessed via a DNS Round Robin name. For licenses you'll need server OS licenses, you may need extra licenses for some software, and the main bit will be RDS CALs (sold per device or per user). That'd give you a nice, small, reliable remote access solution which can be accessed remotely via PC, Mac, Linux, Android and iOS, and can also with a bit more work allow you to publish specific applications (rather than a full desktop) remotely too. If you needed to scale it out to support more intensive software and more users (up to about 100 per server) then I'd recommend making the RDS servers physical and with lots of CPU cores and RAM. Alternatively I'd look at VDI, but it sounds like overkill for what you're describing. Cheers, Chris 2
Steven_Cleaver Posted January 13, 2015 Posted January 13, 2015 I had a look at this a few years back after using Frogs at previous school but some systems were a bit pricy or didn't look to secure or reliable so we use a solution built around RDP gateway sits on a single virtual server but with some extra software developed to sit on top and add various extra Features, and Client on PC's, this allows the following; Dual Factor Authentication from Windows PC's if required, using and Encrypted App I enforce this for PC's with Access to MIS systems. PC's auto shutdown or startup when they are required, so only ever a few on that are not being used. Some Extra security front end that I obviously don't want to state on a forum as I was always worried about opening the school up to remote access and our LEA are very wary of allowing external access so always run penetration testing on anything front facing which to be honest I think is a good thing and we get for free . User Stats so I can easily see how much is being used and we show to SLT and Governors periodically. Logging as shows up access issues what browsers, devices, who, when etc are being used. Works with Windows, IOS and Android. This has worked really well and from starting with staff now have students and staff on and looking at the stats get about 24,000 logins a year with most 4 of our SLT in the top 25. We don't allow work to be copied between home and school so stays in school (Data Protection) and this is in our school policy and enforced politely by the Head and if they do use USB or email is at their own risk (they have been warned. 1
clareq Posted January 16, 2015 Author Posted January 16, 2015 @ Steven_Cleaver Could you let me know how you configured the PC autostartup? it sounds just what we need.
Steven_Cleaver Posted January 16, 2015 Posted January 16, 2015 @clareq it uses its own client on the station and as long as Wake on Lan is enabled on the PC the Server sends a Wake on Lan request to the PC which Auto starts the PC.
speckled Posted January 16, 2015 Posted January 16, 2015 We just implemented this as part of a larger project, its for staff only though but the setup is the same just needs scaling up for more users, the staff love it as it gives them the exact environment they are used to working in in school. The only thing i would add is think about putting your gateway server in a DMZ if you are able to do so, this way you don't route traffic straight inside your network.
chilbs Posted January 16, 2015 Posted January 16, 2015 You should check your licensing for this. As far as I am aware Microsoft do not license this for students but do for Staff.
clareq Posted January 16, 2015 Author Posted January 16, 2015 I've just fired off an e-mail to our licence supplier to check on our licencing situation. I think that, given the resources required, and the way this might scale, we will be better connecting to existing desktops, rather that to virtual machines. So, now I know what I want, how do I do it? Can anyone point me to an idiot's how to? Or even give me an idea of the correct terms to google - I keep getting links to logmein.com!
3s-gtech Posted January 16, 2015 Posted January 16, 2015 Have a look at RemoteSpark as another solution. Entirely browser based, doesn't use the RDP protocol so works on any OS. You need to have a server set up to host it; you then allow Remote Desktop Connections on client PCs and add those PCs to the connection list to allow them to connect. You can even build a (secure) web page listing the PCs so users can just click a button to access them. Licensing wise, more of a question mark there.
clareq Posted January 16, 2015 Author Posted January 16, 2015 I've been clicking around the server, as you do, and I can now access the website internally and connect to a computer. I need to be sure of licencing before I can go any further forward now.
cpjitservices Posted January 19, 2015 Posted January 19, 2015 Why not build VM's and port forward port 3389 for remote desktop ? Obviously changing the port numbers.
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