Remote Desktop Server farms explained

In this second part of Remote Desktop Server farms article series, the author will see why and how the RD Connection Broker serves a central role.

This article continues where we left off in Part 1. In Part 1, we walked through the different types of load balancing solutions which can be used in order to distribute users over multiple servers in a Remote Desktop Services farm. We mentioned that there are four types of load balancing solutions. There is RR DNS, software (e.g. NLB), hardware and the RD Connection Broker. On multiple occasions in the article, we mentioned that the first three types could also be combined with the RD Connection Broker. In this second part, we will see why and how the RD Connection Broker serves a central role.

Purpose of the RD Connection Broker

The RD Connection Broker in Windows Server 2008 R2 serves different purposes and can be used for Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI) as well as Session Virtualization (RDS). As this article is all about RDS farms, we will of course be focusing on Session Virtualization.

The RD Connection Broker for RDS serves the following main purposes:

• Determining the best RD Session Host server to connect to - this is based on the amount of current sessions per RD Session Host Server as a form of load balancing.
• Reconnecting a user to an existing session, in case there is one - this is called reconnecting to disconnected sessions.
• Being a resource for RD Web Access to deliver information about what Remote Apps are available on RD Session Host Servers that are a member of the broker.

Initial connection

As we mentioned in the part 1 of this article series, the RD Connection Broker can do a form of load balancing, but there has to be a connection to one of the RD Session Host servers first. We call this the initial connection. In the next paragraph, we will see how this process works, but it is important to understand that when using the RD Connection Broker you still need a load balancing mechanism to provide that initial connection. The previous article explained the options for this initial connection.

Source and more: http://www.virtualizationadmin.com/articles-tutorials/vdi-articles/general/remote-desktop-server-farms-explained-part2.html

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