Windows 2008 RDS Installation

Purpose of this Post is to explain how to Deploy RDS solution on windows 2008 Server

From previous post we already saw  What is RDS and main its components.

1)Log-in to server with Administrator ID and go to Server Manager

2)Select the Server Roles and click on Add role

3) Select Remote Desktop Service from the listed roles and click next

4) Select the required roles want to be installed and click next.

5) These Roles are depended on some Services; Those roles/Services also need to be installed. Select the required roles and click next.

6) Specify the Authentication type. Select one depends on the requirement

7) Select the User/Groups which required access. Here leaving its as Default 

8) Select the functionality that want to provide.Here Selected all 3 and click next

9) Leave the default settings on next window, Click Next

10)Before Proceeding it will show all the Roles/Services which all are selected. Click Next

11) Next windows will prompt for confirmation once again. Click on install to start the installation.

Also will provide the Web URL information as well

12) It will start the installation now. Wait until it finish

14) Once it finished, It will show the details of the roles installed. Server required a reboot to complete the Deportment properly.

wait for the server to reboot. While Log-in to the server it will show you the details once again and confirmation for what all the roles got installed properly.

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Windows 2008 Remote Desktop Service

                               Windows 2008 Remote Desktop Services Overview

 Purpose of this post is to explain what is Windows 2008 RDS and what are the main components of RDS

1) What is Remote Desktop Services?

   Remote Desktop Services, formerly Terminal Services, is a server role in Windows Server® 2008 R2 that provides technologies that enable users to access Windows-based programs that are installed on a Remote Desktop Session Host (RD Session Host) server, or to access the full Windows desktop. With Remote Desktop Services, users can access an RD Session Host server from within a corporate network or from the Internet.

  Remote Desktop Services lets you efficiently deploy and maintain software in an enterprise environment. You can easily deploy programs from a central location. Because you install the programs on the RD Session Host server and not on the client computer, programs are easier to upgrade and to maintain.

  When a user accesses a program on an RD Session Host server, the program runs on the server. Each user sees only their individual session. The session is managed transparently by the server operating system and is independent of any other client session. Additionally, you can configure Remote Desktop Services to use Hyper-V™ to either assign virtual machines to users or have Remote Desktop Services dynamically assign an available virtual machine to a user upon connection.

2) Why use Remote Desktop Services?

  If you deploy a program on an RD Session Host server instead of on each device, there are many benefits. These include the following:

  

Application deployment: You can quickly deploy Windows-based programs to computing devices across an enterprise. Remote Desktop Services is especially useful when you have programs that are frequently updated, infrequently used, or difficult to manage.

Application consolidation: Programs are installed and run from an RD Session Host server, eliminating the need for updating programs on client computers. This also reduces the amount of network bandwidth that is required to access programs.

Remote access: Users can access programs that are running on an RD Session Host server from devices such as home computers, kiosks, low-powered hardware, and operating systems other than Windows.

Branch office access: Remote Desktop Services provides better program performance for branch office workers who need access to centralized data stores. Data-intensive programs sometimes do not have client/server protocols that are optimized for low-speed connections. Programs of this kind frequently perform better over a Remote Desktop Services connection than over a typical wide area network.

3) Remote Desktop Role Services.

 Remote Desktop Services is a server role that consists of several role services. In Windows Server 2008 R2, Remote Desktop Services consists of the following role services:

RD Session Host: Remote Desktop Session Host (RD Session Host), formerly Terminal Server, enables a server to host Windows-based programs or the full Windows desktop. Users can connect to an RD Session Host server to run programs, to save files, and to use network resources on that server.

RD Web Access: Remote Desktop Web Access (RD Web Access), formerly TS Web Access, enables users to access RemoteApp and Desktop Connection through the Start menu on a computer that is running Windows 7 or through a Web browser. RemoteApp and Desktop Connection provides a customized view of RemoteApp programs and virtual desktops to users.

RD Licensing: Remote Desktop Licensing (RD Licensing), formerly TS Licensing, manages the Remote Desktop Services client access licenses (RDS CALs) that are required for each device or user to connect to an RD Session Host server. You use RD Licensing to install, issue, and track the availability of RDS CALs on a Remote Desktop license server.

RD Gateway: Remote Desktop Gateway (RD Gateway), formerly TS Gateway, enables authorized remote users to connect to resources on an internal corporate network, from any Internet-connected device.

RD Connection Broker: Remote Desktop Connection Broker (RD Connection Broker), formerly TS Session Broker, supports session load balancing and session reconnection in a load-balanced RD Session Host server farm. RD Connection Broker is also used to provide users access to RemoteApp programs and virtual desktops through RemoteApp and Desktop Connection.

RD Virtualization Host: Remote Desktop Virtualization Host (RD Virtualization Host) integrates with Hyper-V to host virtual machines and provide them to users as virtual desktops. You can assign a unique virtual desktop to each user in your organization, or provide them shared access to a pool of virtual desktops.

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Expanding Windows Virtual Server Boot volume without shutting down the server

Purpose of this Post is to explain how to  expand the boot partition of a Wintel VMware server without shutting down the server . This is performed with the help of a  tool from Dell named as Extpart.exe 

Step by Step Details as follows

 

1) Current Disk space of  C Drive is 8 GB, As per below steps I am  increasing it to 10 GB

2) Login to Virtual Center console and Go to edit setting for respected server, 

The current size assigned for C is 8 GB

3) Increase the provisioned size as per the requirement  ( Here its increased to 10 GB from 8 GB)

4) Click Here to download Expart.exe . This is a tool from Dell to perform this disk  expansion

5) Copy this exe to the Server where we want to perform the drive expansion

6) Login to the server with Admin Id and go to exe location via CMD mode Syntax will be    expart.exe boot drive name:   Increase size in MB In this Demonstration syntax will be

extpart.exe c: 2048   ( here boot drive is c and increased space is 2 GB)

After running the correct command it will display the current space

Go to Computer Management/My computer and verify the space is already increased

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Windows 2003/Windows 2000 forgotten Admin Password Changing/Breaking

Purpose of this Post is to explain how we can change/break forgotten Local administrator password for Windows Operating systems.This  method can be followed for Windows 2008/2003/2000/Vista and Windows 7 operating system. 

  By this method we are mounting the Windows hard drive using Linux System Rescue CD and editing the SAM file where all the Windows ID password saved.


Note: Please ensure Proper Backup is in place. If your C Drive is is in mirrored volume make sure one  disk is  removed and kept it as backup.Boot the server from single HDD and ensure its coming up properly


Before we start Click Here to download ISO Image of this CD. If the server have ILO we can directly mount this ISO or else need to write it in a CD.


1)  I am trying to login with local-admin id, Since i am entering wrong password its not allowing me to go through it

2) Power off the server. Mount the downloaded ISO Image  using ILO and boot the server from that.


3) Press enter to Boot from ISO/CD.

4) Select the default boot option and Press enter.

5) it will go through the Boot process and will take few seconds to finish.

6) After the boot process it will reach to root prompt

7) The first thing we’ll want to do is mount the hard drive, using this command. 
 (Note that you might not need to use the –o force argument, it’s only really for when the system didn’t shut down correctly)


 Command Syntax: ntfs-3g /dev/sda1 /mnt/windows –o force

8) Use "df -m" Command to verify its mounted properly. It will list the mounted drives.

9) Now we need to edit the SAM file. The default path of SAM file on windows is c:\windows\system32\config.. Change the root directory to this path.

10) After changing the root directory to the correct path use "ls" command to list down the files inside

11) After Locating this SAM file use command "chntpw –l SAM" to see the content of SAM file. There we can see all the Local ID information.Ensure the required ID is displayed over there


In the demonstration we need to Change/Break the password of local-admin

12) Use command  "chntpw –u local-admin SAM" to break the password of local-admin. Give enter

13)This will present you with below  wizard type screen

14) Select the required option. Always prefer the clear the password by selecting Option 1. After clearing password you can login with blank password and can give the required password.


For this demonstration proceeding with changing the password. Selecting Option 2


15) It will prompt for new password. Type the new password and give enter.
it will ask for save the configuration and give "Y"  . Ensure it shows status OK.

16) Give "reboot"  command to perform restart. Ensure the process completed properly and booting  to normal windows OS.. Dont perform any hard shutdown during this process since it may cause Lock the SAM file.Also unmount the Bootable CD from system


17) Server will boot normally and now you can login with the new password.


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