vWorkspace 7.5 Feature Spotlight: RD Session Hosts (TS) Provisioning

vWorkspace version 7.5 has a new feature that allows administrators to quickly create and deploy Remote Desktop Session Hosts (RDSH)/Terminal servers. This technology was developed based upon vWorkspace virtual desktop cloning technology.This feature can be used to manage software updates to terminal server farms, or elastically grow a farm to respond to additional demand or new use case.

Before going through the steps to create the new RDSH/terminal server from your template, please ensure the following are complete on the RDSH template:

• RDP is enabled
• vWorkspace version 7.5 of PNTools is installed (or latest version)
• Flash Player is installed (if required)
• DHCP is enabled and there is only one network adapter
• Ports TCP 5203 inbound and TCP 5201 & 8080 outbound are open
• vWorkspace Instant Provisioning service is installed
• Template must be joined to the domain in which you want the RDSH server to belong to

The Terminal Servers node in the vWorkspace Management Console has been renamed to Session Hosts and two child nodes, Management and Provisioning, have been created beneath it.

The Management node allows the addition of already existing Session Hosts. The Provisioning node allows for the creation of computer groups with which Session Hosts can be cloned and managed.

The steps for the creation of Session Hosts is very similar to the steps taken to create virtual desktops.  Quest vWorkspace makes this easy with a step by step wizard.  To initiate this wizard, right click on the computer group and select Add computers…

After seeing an informational screen and entering the number of new RDSH servers needed, you’ll be able to choose a template.  If you do not see your template in the list, and have clicked the “Update” or “Import” buttons, ensure that you have entered the correct virtualization platform information correctly.  This can be double checked by navigating to the home page and clicking on the “Quest vWorkspace Quick Start Wizard” or refer to the Admin Guide.

Next, you’ll be able to choose where you want the copies to be deployed.  You can choose to have vWorkspace spread the new RDSH/Terminal server clones evenly across all hosts, or to manually select specific hosts.

The next step is to name the new hosts.  This can be done with a Base Name and wildcards, or from a text file containing names.

Next, you choose operating system customizations and configure hardware.

After the successful creation and initialization process is complete, the RDSH/Terminal clone it is automatically added to the Management node under a new folder named RDSH Provisioning.

If you choose to move the new server into a folder within the vWorkspace console, right click on the new server and select Move to folder…

Source: http://communities.quest.com/community/vworkspace/blog/2012/02/14/provisioning-session-hosts-with-vworkspace-75

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