Installing Remote Desktop Services on a Windows Azure Virtual Machine Running Windows Servier 2012 RC

This tutorial describes how to install Remote Desktop Services (RDS) on the Windows Azure Virtual Machine (WAVM), which is the first component of creating a Windows Azure Virtual Network (WAVN) that connects to an on-premises Windows network and using Windows Azure Active Directory (WAzAD) to provide single sign-on (SSO) for enterprise Active Directory domain users. My Standing Up a Windows Server 2012 RC Virtual Machine in the New Windows Azure Management Portal Preview tutorial of 6/7/2012 describes how to install the WAVM.

Creating a WAVN between a WAVM and an on-premises domain controller requires a hardware VPN appliance. When this tutorial was written, only the following Cisco and Juniper VPN routers and gateways were supported with installation scripts that were written and tested by the Windows Azure team:

Cisco Systems	Juniper Networks
ASR 1001	SRX 201
ASR 1004	SRX 1400
ASR 1006	J 6350
ISR 2921	ISG 1000
ISR 3925
ISR 3945 E

For more information on supported VPN devices, see the Windows Azure Team’s About VPN Devices for Virtual Network topic, which begins:

You can link your Windows Azure Virtual Network to an on-premises network via a site-to-site VPN connection, as illustrated in Example 1. Creating a secure VPN connection requires coordination between the person who will configure the VPN device and the person who will create the Management Portal configuration. This coordination is required because the Management Portal requires IP address information from the VPN device in order to start the VPN connection and create the shared key, which then must be exported in order to configure the VPN gateway device and complete the connection.

Sample configuration scripts are available for many, but not all, VPN devices. See Supported VPN devices for the device list. If your VPN device is represented in the list of supported devices, you can download the corresponding sample configuration script to help configure the device. If you don’t seen your VPN device represented in the list, your device still may work with Windows Azure Virtual Network. See Untested VPN devices for more information.

Example 1

The above page includes links to Windows Azure Virtual Network and Networks topics.

You can learn more about RDS from TechNet’s Remote Desktop Services topic, which includes subtopics for:

• Remote Desktop Session Host (RD Session Host)
• Remote Desktop Virtualization Host
• Remote Desktop Session Host Configuration
• Remote Desktop Services Manager
• Remote Desktop Services User Properties
• RemoteApp Manager
• Remote Desktop Licensing Manager
• Remote Desktop Gateway Manager
• Remote Desktops
• Remote Desktop Connection Manager

Each RDS client must have RDS Client Access License (CAL). RDS CALs cost about $380 for a pack of five.

 

---

The following steps describe how to install, but not configure, Remote Desktop Services for Windows Server 2012 RC:

1. Connect to the server with a Remote Desktop Connection, open Server Manager’s Dashboard, click the Add Roles and Services link, and select the destination server and click Next to open the Select Server Roles window:

2. Optionally mark the Application Server and then mark the Remote Desktop Services checkbox(es) to open the following Select Role Services dialog:

3. Mark the Remote Desktop Connection Broker checkbox. Checking the Remote Desktop Gateway opens the Add Roles and Features Wizard dialog:

4. Click the Add Features button to continue, and mark the Select Role Service’s window’s Remote Desktop Licensing checkbox to open the dialog for required features:

5. Click the Add Features button and click the Remote Desktop Session Host check box to open the associated Add Features dialog

6. The server is running in a virtual machine, so if you mark the Remote Desktop Virtualization Host check box and click Add features in this dialog:

You receive the following Validation Error message and the Remote Desktop Virtualization Host service won’t install:

7. Mark the Select Role Service’s window’s Remote Desktop Web Access checkbox to open the dialog for required features:

8. Click Add Features to return to the Select Role Services window:

9. Click Next to open the Application Server window:

10. Click Next to open the dialog for Web Server (IIS) installation:

11. Click Add Features to open the dialog for HTTP Activation installation:

12. Click Add Features to open the dialog for TCP Activation installation:

13. Click Add Features to return to the Select Role Services window:

14. Click Next to open the Network Policy and Access Services window:

15. Click Next to open the Select Role Services window:

16. Click Next to open the Confirm Installation Selections window:

17. Scroll to view the list of roles and services to be installed and click Install to begin the process:

18. After a few minutes, feature installation will complete. You receive a warning that you must configure Remote Desktop Licensing, but no indication of how to do so or where you can find more information about the subject.

19. When you select Remote Desktop Services in the navigation pane, you receive this notice:

Stay tuned for details of managing Remote Desktop Services.