Windows2012 Remote Desktop Services new features

In Windows Server 2012, Microsoft has addressed many of the issues of virtualization implementation and has made a number of improvements to Remote Desktop services and RemoteFX.

Remote Desktop Services (RDS) ushered in several new features, simplifying virtual desktop management and obtaining more high-availability options. Its remote display protocol technology, that is, RemoteFX, although there are some additional requirements for hardware configuration, but greatly improve the graphics rendering and WAN Remote Desktop Connection effect. In addition, user profiles and Remote Desktop protocols are further upgraded.

With so many new features to learn, this Windows Server 2012 will take you through it.

What are the new features of Windows Server RDS?

The RDS components used in Windows Server 2012 are basically the same as in the previous generation, but add some new features to virtual Desktop management. For example, you can now use a virtual machine to create a virtual desktop without the System Center Virtual Machine Manager, and the addition of a stateless pool ensures that the pool desktop is unaffected. In addition, the connection Agent component detects a session initiated by the Remote Desktop Session host and the Virtual Desktop infrastructure (referred to as VDI). Finally, Windows Server 2012 provides a new server management component for Virtual Desktop management.

How do I store user profiles?

The stateless pool mechanism in Windows Server RDS can automatically roll back to the initial state after the user has logged out of the virtual desktop, but this also has a certain impact on the user profile. You can store user profiles on disk, which is more manageable and less difficult to access from different virtual machine terminals. However, the disadvantage is that users must have membership in the local Administrators group, which can cause potential security problems. By contrast, it might be a good idea to share a profile by redirecting it.

What are the new features of RemoteFX in Windows 8?

In Windows 8, RemoteFX contains multi-touch capabilities that enable users to access RDS sessions on a touch device. Another new feature, called Adaptive Graphics (Adaptive Graphics), is used to change the visual effects of RDS. This graphical display is no longer based on the client, but on the host side to complete all rendering work. Windows 8 RemoteFX also improves the performance of virtual desktops in wide area networks by automatically detecting user connection speeds.

What are the changes to the Remote Desktop protocol?

In Windows Server 2008 R2, administrators can use REMOTEFX to provide remote desktops through VDI, but we also need a separate graphics processing unit (GPU) for decoding. For RDS workloads, the RemoteFX of Windows Server 2008 R2 eliminates the need for GPU support and instead takes a more convenient software encoding. Windows Server 2012 has now successfully implemented this software coding scheme on VDI.

Also exciting for desktop administrators is that RDS now supports user data messaging protocols outside of Transmission Control protocol. This makes RemoteFX more efficient because it can choose the right protocol based on the content of the data (such as movies, keyboard input, and so on).

What are the new requirements for using the newer RemoteFX?

Yes, we no longer need additional GPU support, but Windows Server RemoteFX can perform better with the help of the GPU. In addition, it also presents two new requirements for the server graphics card. The first is that the graphics card must support DIRECTX11 with Windows 8 64-bit SDDM 1.2 version. In addition, our servers also need to support level two address translation extensions and Data Execution protection. Well, don't forget to enable the virtualization option in the server firmware.

How do I achieve high availability of RDS in Windows Server 2012?

In the past, the connection agent only has active/passive clustering settings, although basic redundancy is guaranteed, but there is no extension scheme after the continuous increase of the load. In the case of Windows Server RDS, the connection agent provides an active/active agent that delivers both high availability and load balancing capabilities. The Remote Desktop Connection agent shares a set of content databases and DNS names, which helps distribute the load across servers while achieving high availability of agents.

If I don't like RDS, what's the alternative?

If you do not need to provide a full desktop to the user, you can try remoteapp―― This is a lightweight RDS alternative. The RemoteApp program in Windows Server 2012 provides a seamless running environment for applications installed in any location. It enables applications to operate in Windows Server data centers, as well as local-run effects. This feature also supports Windows Server 2008, but Windows Server 2012 has enhanced it and enabled it to function in the virtual desktop world.