Event ID 543 — TS Gateway Server Configuration

Applies To: Windows Server 2008

For remote clients to successfully connect to internal network resources (computers) through a Terminal Services Gateway (TS Gateway) server, the TS Gateway server must be configured correctly. The TS Gateway server must be configured to use an appropriate Secure Sockets Layer (SSL)-compatible X.509 certificate, and authorization policy settings must be configured correctly. Terminal Services connection authorization policies (TS CAPs) specify who can connect to the TS Gateway server. Terminal Services resource authorization policies (TS RAPs) specify the internal network resources that clients can connect to through a TS Gateway server.

Event Details

Product: Windows Operating System
ID: 543
Source: Microsoft-Windows-TerminalServices-Gateway
Version: 6.0
Symbolic Name: AAG_EVENT_RAP_CREATE_FAILED
Message: The resource authorization policy (RAP) "%1" could not be created. The following error occurred: "%2". To resolve this issue, ensure that you have configured RAP settings correctly and set the correct value and permissions for the RAP.xml file and the RAPStore registry key.

Resolve

Ensure that the TS RAP is configured correctly

To resolve this issue, do the following:

  • Ensure that the Terminal Services resource authorization policy (TS RAP) is configured correctly by checking the settings in the TS RAP.
  • If the problem still occurs, ensure that the required permissions are granted to rap.xml.
  • If the problem still occurs, ensure that the correct value is set and the required permissions are granted for the RAPStore registry key.

Note: In addition to meeting the requirements of the TS RAP, users on clients must have the right to log on locally to the computer to which they are trying to connect.

Important:  If users are connecting to members of a terminal server farm, you must configure a TS RAP that explicitly specifies the name of the terminal server farm. If the name of the terminal server farm is not explicitly specified, users will not be able to connect to members of the farm. For optimal security and ease of administration, to specify the terminal servers that are members of the farm, create a second TS RAP. For more information, see "Create a new TS RAP that specifies the name of a terminal server farm" later in this topic.

Check TS RAP settings on the TS Gateway server

To perform this procedure, you must have membership in the local Administrators group, or you must have been delegated the appropriate authority.

Note: When you associate a TS Gateway-managed computer group with a TS RAP, you can support both fully qualified domain names (FQDNs) and NetBIOS names by adding both names to the TS Gateway-managed computer group separately. When you associate an Active Directory security group with a TS RAP, both FQDNs and NetBIOS names are supported automatically if the internal network computer that the client is connecting to belongs to the same domain as the TS Gateway server. If the internal network computer belongs to a different domain than the TS Gateway server, users must specify the FQDN of the internal network computer.

To check TS RAP settings on the TS Gateway server:

  1. Open TS Gateway Manager. To open TS Gateway Manager, click Start, point to Administrative Tools, point to Terminal Services, and then click TS Gateway Manager.
  2. In the TS Gateway Manager console tree, select the node that represents the local TS Gateway server, which is named for the computer on which the TS Gateway server is running.
  3. In the console tree, expand Policies, and then click Resource Authorization Policies.
  4. In the results pane, in the list of TS RAPs, right-click the TS RAP that you want to check, and then click Properties.
  5. On the User Groups tab, note the name of the user group, so that you can ensure that the specified user group exists in Active Directory or Local Users and Computers. Then, check whether the user account for the client is a member of this group. For instructions for Active Directory security groups, see "Confirm that the Active Directory security group specified in the TS CAP exists, and check account membership for the client in this group." For instructions for local security groups, see "Confirm that the local security group specified in the TS CAP exists, and check account membership for the client in this group" later in this topic.
  6. On the Computer Group tab, if Allow users to connect to any network resource is selected, proceed to step 7. If Allow users to connect to any network resource is not selected, do one of the following:
    • If Select an existing Active Directory security group is selected, note the name of the security group, so that you can ensure that the specified group exists in Active Directory Domain Services or Local Users and Computers. Then, check whether the computer account for the computer that the client is trying to connect to is a member of this group.
    • If Select existing TS Gateway-managed computer group or create a new one is selected, ensure that the name of the TS Gateway-managed computer group is correct, and that the computers in this group exist and can be contacted on the network.
  7. Click OK to close the Properties dialog box for the TS RAP.
  8. If an incorrect security group is specified or if the TS Gateway-managed computer group is not correctly configured, modify the settings of the existing TS RAP or create a new TS RAP. For information about how to create a TS RAP, see "Create a TS RAP" in the TS Gateway Manager Help in the Windows Server 2008 Technical Library (https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=102170).

After you check TS RAP settings, ensure that the local or Active Directory security group specified in the TS RAP exists, and that the user account for the client is a member of the appropriate security group. Also, ensure that the computer group specified in the TS RAP exists.

To perform these procedures, you do not need to have membership in the local Administrators group. Therefore, as a security best practice, consider performing these tasks as a user without administrative credentials.

Confirm that the Active Directory security group specified in the TS RAP exists, and check account membership for the client in this group

To confirm that the Active Directory security group specified in the TS RAP exists:

  1. On a computer running Active Directory Users and Computers, click Start, click Run, type dsa.msc, and then click OK.
  2. In the console tree, expand Active Directory Users and Computers/DomainNode/, where the DomainNode is the domain to which the security group belongs.
  3. Right-click the domain, and then click Find. In the Find Users, Contacts, and Groups dialog box, type the name of the security group that is specified in the TS RAP, and then click Find Now.
  4. If the group exists, it will appear in the search results.
  5. Close the Find Users, Contacts, and Groups dialog box.

To check account membership for the client in this security group:

  1. On a computer running Active Directory Users and Computers, click Start, click Run, type dsa.msc, and then click OK.
  2. In the console tree, expand Active Directory Users and Computers/DomainNode/Users, where the DomainNode is the domain to which the user belongs.
  3. In the details pane, right-click the user name, and then click Properties.
  4. On the Member Of tab, confirm that one of the groups listed matches one of the groups that is specified in the TS RAP, and then click OK.
  5. Expand Active Directory Users and Computers/DomainNode/Computers, where the DomainNode is the domain to which the computer that the client is trying to connect to belongs.
  6. In the details pane, right-click the computer name, and then click Properties.
  7. On the Member Of tab, confirm that one of the groups listed matches one of the groups that is specified in the TS RAP.

Confirm that the local security group specified in the TS RAP exists, and check account membership for the client and the target computer in this group

To confirm that the local security group specified in the TS RAP exists, and to check account membership for the client and the target computer in this group:

  1. On the TS Gateway server, open Computer Management. To open Computer Management, click Start, point to Administrative Tools, and then click Computer Management.
  2. In the console tree, expand Local Users and Groups, and then click Groups.
  3. In the results pane, locate the local security group that has been created to grant members access to internal network resources (computers) through the TS Gateway server. The group name or description should indicate whether the group has been created for this purpose.
  4. Right-click the group name, and then click Properties.
  5. On the General tab, confirm that the user account is a member of this group, and that this group is one of the groups that is specified in the TS RAP.
  6. Click OK to close the Properties dialog box for this security group.
  7. In the results pane, locate the local security group that contains the computers that clients can access through the TS Gateway server.
  8. Right-click the group name, and then click Properties.
  9. On the General tab, confirm that the computer account of the target computer (the computer that the client is trying to connect to) is a member of this group.

Create a new TS RAP that specifies the name of a terminal server farm

Complete the steps in the following procedure if this error occurs when clients are connecting to members of a terminal server farm.

Important:  If users are connecting to members of a terminal server farm, you must configure a TS RAP that explicitly specifies the name of the terminal server farm. If the name of the terminal server farm is not explicitly specified, users will not be able to connect to members of the farm. For optimal security and ease of administration, to specify the terminal servers that are members of the farm, create a second TS RAP.

When you create a second TS RAP to specify the terminal servers that are members of the farm, complete the steps in the following procedure, but for step 9, do the following instead: On the Computer Group, select the Select an Active Directory security group option, and then specify the security group that contains the terminal servers in the farm. Doing this optimizes security by ensuring that the members of the farm are trusted members of an Active Directory security group.

To perform this procedure, you must have membership in the local Administrators group, or you must have been delegated the appropriate authority.

To create a new TS RAP that specifies the name of a terminal server farm:

  1. Open TS Gateway Manager.
  2. In the console tree, click to select the node that represents your TS Gateway server, which is named for the computer on which the TS Gateway server is running.
  3. In the console tree, expand Policies, and then click Resource Authorization Policies.
  4. In the console tree, right-click the Resource Authorization Policies folder, click Create New Policy, and then click Custom.
  5. On the General tab, in the Policy name box, enter a name that is no longer than 64 characters.
  6. In the Description box, enter a description for the new TS RAP.
  7. On the User Groups tab, click Add to select the user groups to which you want this TS RAP to apply.
  8. In the Select Groups dialog box, specify the user group location and name, and then click OK. To specify more than one user group, do either of the following:
    • Type the name of each user group, separating the name of each group with a semi-colon.
    • Add additional groups from different domains by repeating step 7 for each group.
  9. On the Computer Group tab, do the following:
    1. Click Select an existing TS Gateway-managed computer group or create a new one, and then click Browse.
    2. In the Select a TS Gateway-managed computer group dialog box, click Create New Group.
    3. On the General tab, type a name and description for the new group.
    4. On the Network Resources tab, type the name of the terminal server farm that you want to add, click Add, and then click OK to close the New TS Gateway-Managed Computer Group dialog box.
    5. In the Select a TS Gateway-managed computer group dialog box, click the name of the new computer group, and then click OK to close the dialog box.
    6. On the Allowed Ports tab, do one of the following to specify the port that Terminal Services clients can use when connecting to computers through TS Gateway:
      • To specify different ports through which clients can connect, click Allow connections through these ports and then type the port number. If you are specifying more than one port, type the number for each port separated by a semi-colon.
      • To allow clients to connect through any port, click Allow connections through any port.
    7. Click OK to close the Properties dialog box for the TS RAP.
    8. The new TS RAP that you created appears in the TS Gateway Manager results pane. When you click the name of the TS RAP, the policy details appear in the lower pane.

If this does not resolve the issue, ensure that the correct permissions are granted to the rap.xml file.

Ensure that the required permissions are granted to rap.xml

To perform this procedure, you must have membership in the local Administrators group, or you must have been delegated the appropriate authority.

To ensure that the required permissions are granted to rap.xml:

  1. On the TS Gateway server, navigate to %Windir%\System32\tsgateway\rap.xml, where %Windir% is the drive on which the operating system is installed.
  2. Right-click rap.xml.
  3. In the rap.xml Properties dialog box, click the Security tab.
  4. Click Edit, and then do the following:
    1. In the Permissions for rap dialog box, under Group or user names, click SYSTEM. Under Permissions for SYSTEM, if Full control is not allowed, select the Allow check box adjacent to Full control.
    2. Under Group or user names, click Administrators. Under Permissions for Administrators, if Full control is not allowed, select the Allow check box adjacent to Full control.
    3. Under Group or user names, click Users. Under Permissions for Users, if Read and Execute and Read are not allowed, select the Allow check box adjacent to these two permissions.
    4. Under Group or user names, click Network Service. Under Permissions for Network Service, if Read is not allowed, select the Allow check box adjacent to Read, and then click OK.

Rename rap.xml and start TS Gateway Manager

If granting the required permissions to rap.xml does not resolve the problem, try renaming rap.xml to rapbak.xml, and then starting TS Gateway Manager. Starting the console will create a new rap.xml file.

To rename rap.xml:

  1. On the TS Gateway server, navigate to %Windir%\System32\tsgateway\rap.xml, where %Winddir% is the drive on which the operating system is installed.
  2. Right-click rap.xml, type rapbak.xml, and then press ENTER.

Note: After you rename rap.xml and restart TS Gateway Manager, no TS RAPs will appear when you open the console (to confirm that no TS RAPs appear, open TS Gateway Manager, click to expand the node that represents your TS Gateway server, expand Policies, and then click Resource Authorization Policies).

To start TS Gateway Manager:

  • On the TS Gateway server, click Start, point to Administrative Tools, point to Terminal Services, and then click TS Gateway Manager.

If this does not resolve the issue, ensure that the correct value is set for the RAPStore registry key, and that the required permissions are granted to this registry key.

Ensure that the correct value is set and the required permissions are granted for the RAPStore registry key

To perform this procedure, you must have membership in the local Administrators group, or you must have been delegated the appropriate authority.

Caution: Incorrectly editing the registry might severely damage your system. Before making changes to the registry, you should back up any valued data.

To set the correct value and grant the required permissions for the RAPStore registry key:

  1. On the TS Gateway server, click Start, click Run, type regedit, and then press ENTER.
  2. Navigate to the HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\TerminalServerGateway\Config\Core\ subkey, right-click the subkey, and then click Permissions.
  3. In the Permissions for Core dialog box, under Group or user names, click SYSTEM. Under Permissions for SYSTEM, if Full control is not allowed, select the Allow check box adjacent to Full control.
  4. In the same dialog box, under Group or user names, click Administrators. Under Permissions for Administrators, if Full control is not allowed, select the Allow check box adjacent to Full control, and then click OK.
  5. Click the Core registry subkey.
  6. In the details pane, right-click RAPStore, and then click Modify.
  7. In the Edit String dialog box, in Value data, verify that the value is set to msxml://%SystemRoot%\System32\rap.xml. If the value is different, modify it as required, and then click OK.

Verify

To verify that the TS Gateway server is configured correctly, examine Event Viewer logs and search for the following event messages. These event messages indicate that the Terminal Services Gateway service is running, and that clients are successfully connecting to internal network resources through the TS Gateway server.

To perform this procedure, you do not need to have membership in the local Administrators group. Therefore, as a security best practice, consider performing this task as a user without administrative credentials.

To verify that the TS Gateway server is configured correctly:

  1. On the TS Gateway server, click Start, point to Administrative Tools, and then click Event Viewer.
  2. In the Event Viewer console tree, navigate to Application and Services Logs\Microsoft\Windows\TerminalServices-Gateway, and then search for the following events:
    • Event ID 101, Source TerminalServices-Gateway: This event indicates that the Terminal Services Gateway service is running.
    • Event ID 200, Source TerminalServices-Gateway: This event indicates that the client connected to the TS Gateway server.
    • Event ID 302, Source TerminalServices-Gateway: This event indicates that the client connected to an internal network resource through the TS Gateway server.

TS Gateway Server Configuration

Terminal Services