Which type of RDS should I deploy?

[Frazzle]

Quite a noob question but this is the first foray into RDS. We want to allow staff to remote in to access school resources. SLT want them to have access to a desktop so they can use Office, SIMS and any other programs we have installed on a standard computer in school. I have been looking into RDS but am not sure if I need VDI or Session based?

How do other people provide remote access? It looks like I need VDI but want to make sure.

 

I have a beefy server I can create an RDS server farm on.

[Frazzle]

ok i think I found a good explanation

 

https://blogs.technet.microsoft.com/canitpro/2013/04/25/step-by-step-deploying-virtual-desktops-with-windows-server-2012/

[mrbios]

Personally i found Ericom AccessNow to be perfect, it's based on guacamole (i think?) so can be setup for free as ericom is fairly pricey (i only have a 10 concurrent user license) though setting up guacamole seemed quite time consuming and i gave up . The ease of connecting via any web browser rather than needing users to have any apps or specific desktop needs has made everyone here very happy.

[Frazzle]

So what does Ericom give you access to? We want access to a full desktop environment.

[mrbios]

So what does Ericom give you access to? We want access to a full desktop environment.

 

You can include certain criteria in the web address to direct to a specific application, or allow it to go direct to the desktop environment if you don't specify one. Ours is setup to direct people to pulsar.exe (sims) so the entire session acts just like a remoteapp scenario.

[Norphy]

You can include certain criteria in the web address to direct to a specific application, or allow it to go direct to the desktop environment if you don't specify one. Ours is setup to direct people to pulsar.exe (sims) so the entire session acts just like a remoteapp scenario.

 

 

You don’t really need Ericom for that, RDS will provide that functionality natively as well.

 

The fact of the matter is, both VDI and Session based RDS will provide you with a desktop and let you run applications remotely. I think there are advantages to either approach, a session based system gives you fewer OS instances to manage and is easier to deploy but VDI gives you better separation between sessions and therefore better security. I think the best thing to do is try both out and see what works better for you.

[Frazzle]

We are only going to have around 10-15 users at any one time, if that. VDI with better separation and security sounds like what we need.

[mrbios]

You don’t really need Ericom for that, RDS will provide that functionality natively as well.

 

Oh of course, I didn't mean to make it sound unique in that aspect. The redeeming function was being able to do everything in the web browser, without the need for an RDP client or app, which appeals to users for the ease of use.

[Arthur]

The ease of connecting via any web browser rather than needing users to have any apps or specific desktop needs has made everyone here very happy.

 

www.edugeek.net/forums/windows-server-2016/188464-new-features-coming-remote-desktop-services.html

[mrbios]

 

www.edugeek.net/forums/windows-server-2016/188464-new-features-coming-remote-desktop-services.html

 

Yay!

 

That's some weird timing, only published 2 days ago. I wonder how long we'll have to wait for the feature to be available?

Edited September 22, 2017 by mrbios

[Arthur]

I wonder how long we'll have to wait for the feature to be available?

Not sure, but it would be great if the new features are available in Windows Server 1709 when that's released next week?

 

If not we'll probably have to wait until March 2018.

[alfatec]

Hi Frazzle, we have setup exactly the scenario that you are looking at. Using Windows server 2016 you can setup Remote Desktop Services as Session hosts. This will give your users a virtual remote desktop with all the software that you install onto the servers.

We have ours setup so that we have a Gateway and connection broker server then 2 sessions hosts. We use mandatory profiles for logging in and the same group policy as logging into our internal Windows 10 computers. When logging in to the RDS desktop it looks

pretty well the same as if you are using a workstation in school. We have all our staff and students using it. Give the session hosts a good bit of ram. Quick video to assist you