Now that the release of Windows Server 2008 R2 is coming closer and closer, Microsoft is releasing more details about what is new about Remote Desktop Services (ex-TS) in 2008 R2. The only big unknown is still what parts of Calista will make it into 2008 R2. I have a pretty good idea but unfortunately this cannot be discussed due to my MVP NDA with Microsoft. It's make sense in due time :-). By the way, at the rate Server 2008 R2 is coming along don't be surprised if they even make it to a release this year (the official planned release in early 2010 but who wants to miss having 2008 R2 in stores at Christmas right?).

As you know 2008 R2 suddenly adds VDI as an "option" so we will have to expand our TS feature discussion to VDI as well. As a matter of fact, do you realize that the fact that Microsoft delivers VDI as "another Terminal Server option" will hugely change the adoption of VDI? In a good way of course. The low level entry models that Microsoft provides give people a perfect way to try out VDI and use third party vendor software should they want to take it to the next level. Anyway, let's take a look at the new features in some specific detail.

New in Remote Desktop Server (TS)

Client experience configuration page

This is another way of saying that this adds support for Bi-Directional Audio, Multimedia Media Redirection and Full Aero Remoting. In the R2 capable RPD client you would speak of this:

• Audio and video playback redirection. Audio and video playback redirection allows users to redirect the audio and video output of a local computer to a remote desktop session.
• Audio recording redirection. Audio recording redirection allows users to redirect the output of an audio recording device, such as a microphone, from the local computer to a remote desktop session.
• Desktop composition. Desktop composition provides users with the user interface elements of Windows Aero within their remote desktop session.

Remote Desktop IP Virtualization

Remember Virtual IP in Quest vWorkspace or Citrix XenApp or <insert other third party TS vendor>? This is mostly the same, allbeit with a little less management capabilities. Remote Desktop IP Virtualization allows IP addresses to be assigned to remote desktop connections on a per session or per program basis.You configure it on the RDP listener:

Windows Installer RDS Compatibility

Remember change user /install back in the day? TS 2003 and 2008 already put TS into install mode when it was a a (proper) MS. So that was a improvement already. User related MSI actions (like personalizing an application, providing your personal information for example) however were still limited to one concurrent run per Terminal Server. In 2008 this limitation is gone. With Remote Desktop Services in Windows Server 2008 R2, per user application installations are queued by the remote desktop server and then handled by the Windows Installer.

Fair Share CPU Scheduling

For years people in the TS industry have looked towards 3rd party vendors or good ol' Threadmaster for a way to manage the CPU on a Terminal Server more effectively. 2008 ("R1") already introduced some CPU management capabilities but these were still kind of limited. R2 improves the CPU management capabilities even more. In R2, Fair Share CPU Scheduling dynamically distributes processor time across sessions based on the number of active sessions and load on those sessions by using the kernel-level scheduling mechanism included with Windows Server 2008 R2. On a remote desktop server, one user will not affect the performance of another user's session, even if the remote desktop server is under a high load.

The default setting is to have it on. It is a registry that controls it. Basically, you can set it to on or off. So again this is a good start from Microsoft but if you need more look to Quest vWorkspace or Citrix XenApp or <insert other third party TS vendor> which have more advanced CPU management capabilities.

Roaming user profile cache management

I think this is one of more interesting new features. Not because it so extremely cool but because it is rather unexpected. In addition there's no third party vendor that does this kind of stuff? What does it do exactly? Well this feature allows you to set a maximum size for the total of all cached user profiles on 1 RDS server. Once the limit is reached, the oldest profile will be removed. I have to say that I have not tried this feature yet but I wonder how this feature will work in real life environments. Again it is kind of the same. It is a nice entry level solution that alleviates some of the profile worries associated with a RDS/TS deployment. I still feel however that a managed profile is the proper solution for larger and complexer environments. Again, you can use Quest vWorkspace or Citrix XenApp or <insert some other third party TS vendor>.

These are the pure Remote Desktop Services new features. In a next article we will take a look at some of the other new features that are related to Remote Desktop Services supporting infrastructure and the "VDI features".