Tefters

Nah that's the smart man's move. Back it up and then yeeha! I upgraded both our DC's 2 years ago from 2008r2 to 2012r2 with 0 issues. Did a few other server after that with very few issues other than minor config inputs again. Then went and did MS Lync 2013, fcuked up royally :whoo:so just restored via a Veeam one-click restore and 30 minutes later VOULA! working server and phone system again. In-place upgrade does work well, Migration is obviously best if you have the time and resources to do it. I personally as a rule of thumb though would not in-place upgrade more than twice. Having migrated to DC's to 2016 already within a day including the RDS Licensing + AD Certificates roles and built new RDS Session host server on 2016 i'm ready to in-place upgrade a few servers tonight, simply click upgrade and walk out the office, check them tomorrow morning via remote desktop and if they fail just roll them back, of-course i would of triggered a backup before hand.

I'd just set the service to manual and stop it, wouldn't disable it as this is then a pain to enable and the start.

Have you restarted the server? Sorry forgot to say you have to restart the server after the GPO has applied due to it being the new immersive control panel.

Nah its Microsoft and consistency is not their strong point + they want to try and force the updates down your throat no matter what. You can also for belt and bracers simply set the Windows Update service (WUAUSERV) to manual or disabled by hand or via GPO. I personally am using that GP along with SCCM client however if I wasn't using SCCM then I would set the service to manual as well as the block GP and then trigger the service manually later via PSExec or a script. Seeing as your just talking servers though a simple GPO to set the service to manual assigned to their OU will do the trick and then trigger the service manually by hand when needed. I do that for my servers even though I have SCCM as maintenance windows and servers is b*ll*x when you have an environment in use 24/7, I patch every half term for 1 day. Clients... Just let them auto-update via SCCM or WSUS.

That GPO you set does work, it works fine on my Windows 10 and 2016 servers in play at the moment. It doesn't show anything on the front updated page but when you click on advanced it shows this:- Updates will not automatically download and/or install unless you manually press the Windows update button on the machine.

Hmmmm... I got 2012R2 hosts along with 2012R2 GW, Web and CB with Gen2 2016 VM's as the session hosts without issues. All running Live today for the first time. Couple of thing to note initially:- - The start menu search seems to only work for a few people, EG. Typing Word only brings up Wordpad in the results instead of MS Word as well. Need to investigate this more but happens to some users not all, possibly a specific session host? - The initial logon time on Server 2016 is A LOT more intensive on the CPU/Mem/Disk and therefore takes longer, these session hosts are on running on a host with an SSD so the IOPS are not too bad but definitely seeing a high performance hit on the CPU compared to 2012R2 - Having added Windows Photo Viewer back in via reg hacks images open fine in it but thumbnails of pictures do not appear in the windows explorer so now you just get icons labeled BMP for example - Again need to investigate when I get a moment

What issues are you having with Gen2 ? My Hosts for session based are still 2012 R2 running Gen2 VM's that are Server 2016. The CB and WEB are still 2012 R2 too, only the licensing server is 2016 at the moment.

I upgraded 2008 r2 to 2012 r2 and found some nibbling issues I could never resolve but these were with VMware, a DC VM and VMXNet3 adapter where it would never restore from Veeam with the NIC installed meaning I could never log into it however another DC I upgraded was fine. The issue was down to a VMXNet3 patch from Microsoft but was only available for 2008 r2 not 2012 r2 so I was stuck in a loophole. Did a new DC in the end and all was fine. I upgraded a good 6 other VM's without issue however services like RRAS do not retain settings so will need setting up again from scratch. In short - In place upgrade is OK however migration is always best. Just be prepared for the odd nibbling issue or reconfiguration

Host:- 120gb RAM 240gb SSD I allocate 16.3GB ram per VM (session host) and 8GB to the host I can only host 4 VM's max per host due to disk space in my case, ram and cpu have never been issue, i can obviously assign more ram if needed or even set the VM's to dynamic! I run deduplicated on the hosts too as they are only holding VHD files and that compresses really well. I set a limit of 25 users to a session host VM and don't have any issues other then sometimes CPU if someone goes crazy with chrome. Due to having a dual hex core server I assign 3 CPU's per VM (3x4=12, 2x6 core cpu's = 12). Looking at the DL380 Gen 9 now you can go as far as 22 core Xeon's so 2 of those puppies your talking 44 cores in 1 server! Chuck in a nice 256gb or even 512gb ram and SSD and for resilience go 2 of those on a Storage Spaces Direct setup and O M G is all i can say!

I run Raid 10 SSD in my DL380's Gen 7 hyper-v hosts running the session host VM's with about 128GB ram at the moment and it runs fantastic other than the slight chop on video for which the only solution is a GRID card. I would seriously look at setting up a session host setup first on your PoC before going full VDI. VDI was only ever good if you really needed to give the full PC access, session based has come a long way now and the differences are really minimal.

Exactly what has been said by Oaktech, go Virtual! You'll wonder how you ever lived without it. I think back to my full physical server rack days and shudder, yes you still have to deal with physical servers and hypervisors etc... but working in a virtual world is so much easier now overall...

Interesting that you want VDI's for staff, I find that majority of staff only use Office, Internet, SIMS and the odd 1 or 2 small application which easily runs in a session host and for consistency I give them a User Profile Disk to save their customization. Don't forget to test the Smartboard passthru if your using them as teacher machines. Students are pretty much the same other than when it comes to ICT or Graphics where Photoshop or something like that is used. We use S4B here too and although we do have HP and Polycom phones that staff use there are a small handful that use the client for IM and the off BT headset and the audio worked really well with some optimizations. I can tell you now though that if your planning on doing Video conferencing over either VDI or Session based you will need a GPU otherwise it can be choppy at times. Youtube playback is pretty good through session based however can get a bit rocky at times and therefore I would highly recommend a GPU which would make it smooth as a babies bum but if its like this on Session based it would be the same on VDI. I have the following rules i follow here:- - Teacher PC's are always proper PC's (minimum i3, 4gb ram, 120gb SSD) - Suites for ICT and Graphic Suites follow the same rule as teachers - Staff offices, staffroom, PC's in classrooms for general use, suites for subjects like business, geography, languages etc... are all Thin Client

The only cost is the huge servers/farm due to resources and dedicated GPU's if doing any intensive graphical work. Have you scoped your users needs in terms of applications and number of heads? You could go for a half/half hybrid. EDIT - I haven't played around with VDI since 2008 R2 and Citrix Desktop however I can't see it having changed that much other than Microsoft's version being a lot better now therefore being comparable with Citrix to a certain degree.

The cost of resources per user/desktop. VDI is simply presenting a remote PC to the end user for use which you have to meet a basic set of system specs for the actual VM then the user on a 1 to 1 scale. Session Host is simply remote desktop (the exact same you use for remoting into servers as as admin) so you are presenting a desktop to the end user the same as above however its on a 1 to many scale. I usually have 25 user cap limit on each of my session host in my environment and I have 3 to 4 sessions hosts (as VM's) per server.

Session, VDI setup is far too costly. I use the RDS setup for home use (staff and students) as well as 100 thin clients internally all run off a session host server 2016 desktops.

Ok well for a rough guide I did as follows:- - Grab the Server 2016 ISO and install it to a VM - Do not enter owner/user details once rebooted and at the OOBE, use Ctrl + Shift + F3 to enter straight into Audit mode - First thing to do at this point is Windows update til you have all the updates, reboot, try again etc... til none left - Install any bulky apps that take a long time to install over an SCCM deployment, in my case Office 2016 and Adobe CC 2015 Suite (bulked my WIM up at the end to 22gb) - There are no immersive apps in 2016 (thank god!) but unfortunately leaves a little dillema when opening photos due to MS paint, so i ended up adding PhotoViewer back into the build - https://www.google.co.uk/webhp?sourceid=chrome-instant&ion=1&espv=2&ie=UTF-8#q=add%20photo%20viewer%20to%20windows%2010 - Sticky notes is also missing as that went immersive - How to Install Sticky Notes to Windows Server 2012 - TechFlute - You will want to install Dot Net 3.5 from the features menu too as you need to specify the SXS folder source when doing so from the install media just to get it out the way as there will be at least 1 app that needs it - I also set the Windows Audio service to Auto-Start and Enable it to ensure audio is passed through - Customize the Start Menu button on the side through the immersive control panel option (you will need to activate the image by MAK in order to do this) - Delete the contents of C:\Windows\Logs before sysprepping (this stop a first domain logon issue later) - Customize stuff like IE bookmarks and homepage (although this doesnt matter too much as you probably do it via GP anyways) - Customize the Explorer windows whether it be to set the view to list or add checkboxes next to files, I also remove the Network option in the explorer windows on the left hand side via How to remove Network icon from Windows 10 File Explorer - You will want to create an answer file to run with sysprep which will copy the default profile you have been customizing (I can send you a copy of mine as its very generic) - Before running sysprep you will want to create a batch file and put it in %appdata%\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs\Startup, this is to stop the recetn locations on new profiles showing the SYSPREP location, the contents of the batch file should read:- echo Y | del %appdata%\microsoft\windows\recent\automaticdestinations\* del %0 - Run sysprep command line (not the GUI) specifying to reboot into OOBE and use the answer file - Once rebooted and back on the OOBE screen use Ctrl + Shift + F3 again to boot into audit mode - Now that the default profile is fully set and everything is good to go I setup the batch file once more for good measure and then also delete the contents of c:\Windows\Logs - Finally I mount an ISO image of the SCCM capture image and then run that capturing the WIM to a network share ready for deployment - Once captured run through a normal SCCM task sequence adding all your APP's as usual, KMS client key, unattend XML and any other stuff you do in your task sequence

Are you using SCCM for deployment?

Documented no but can quite easily type it out in about 10 minutes Depends on what you want to know, how i setup the RDS infrastructure or just how I did the RDS image?

On the anniversary edition you can right click the task bar and customize from there or it can be found in the new immersive control panel. Anyways in short it lets you customize the start menu for what buttons to show and not show, i simply removed settings and added the usual docs, pics etc...

So took a little longer than i wanted... 3 days to get the image perfect and then a day to deploy the VM's, stand up a new DC, migrate to new 2016 RDS license server and configure new sessions but finally have a RDS setup to match the normal PC's!

Works really well for you normal users that surf the net, office, sims and other basic apps. Anything like Photoshop etc... then you'll want a dedicated normal PC or look to dedicate a beefy server with a GPU in it

Nice nice, was just curious as to why you were happy the new SCCM release is available. I'm going to be lazy and in place upgrade my SCCM box from 2012 R2 to 2016, if it F's up then that's what one-click Veeam restore is for! Gotta love virtualisation and not having to worry about making so many plans, preparations and endless technet reading over and over and over again.

Hmmm fair play, seems a little underhanded but all's fair in love and licensing.

Hmmm... That really doesn't sound right to me from what I read years back. Have you confirmed this direct with VLSC?

Have you not updated SCCM to 1606 through their new patching method or you doing a fresh install?