Customizing Remote Desktop Web Access by Using Windows SharePoint Services Step-by-Step Guide

Applies To: Windows Server 2008 R2

About this guide

This step-by-step guide walks you through the process of setting up a working RemoteApp source accessible by using Remote Desktop Web Access (RD Web Access) in a test environment. During this process, you will create a test deployment that includes the following:

• An RD Web Access server

This guide assumes that you previously completed the Installing Remote Desktop Session Host Step-by-Step Guide (https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=147292), and that you have already deployed the following (if you have previously configured the computers in the Installing Remote Desktop Session Host Step-by-Step Guide, you should repeat the steps in that guide with new installations):

• An RD Session Host server

• A Remote Desktop Connection client computer

• An Active Directory domain controller

This guide includes the following topics:

• Step 1: Setting Up the Contoso Domain

• Step 2: Installing and Configuring RemoteApp

• Step 3: Configuring Remote Desktop IP Virtualization

The goal of customizing RD Web Access is to provide users with a customized Web portal specific to your organization. Additionally, you can use Windows® SharePoint® Services to integrate RD Web Access into an existing Windows SharePoint site.

What this guide does not provide

This guide does not provide the following:

• Installing Windows SharePoint Services as a Web front-end server for a Windows SharePoint Services farm. For more information about farm configuration, see the article "Deploy a simple farm on the Windows Server 2008 operating system (Windows SharePoint Services)" in the Microsoft Knowledge Base (https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=106516).

• An overview of Remote Desktop Services.

• Guidance for setting up Active Directory Domain Services or an RD Session Host server. For more information, see the Installing Remote Desktop Session Host Step-by-Step Guide (https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=147292). For a downloadable version of this document, see the Installing Remote Desktop Session Host Step-by-Step Guide (https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=147293) in the Microsoft Download Center.

• Guidance for customizing RD Web Access by using Windows SharePoint Services in a production environment.

• Complete technical reference for Remote Desktop Services.

Technology review

RD Web Access is a role service in the Windows Server 2008 R2 operating system that enables users to access RemoteApp programs, session-based remote desktops, or virtual desktops from Web sites. By default, the RD Web Access Web site enables you to point to RD Session Host servers or RD Session Host server farms to populate the list of RemoteApp programs that appear on the site. If you have multiple RD Session Host servers or multiple RD Session Host server farms, you can create a single Web access point for RemoteApp programs, session-based remote desktops, and virtual desktops.

Scenario: Customizing Remote Desktop Web Access by Using Windows SharePoint Services in a test environment

We recommend that you first use the steps provided in this guide in a test lab environment. Step-by-step guides are not necessarily meant to be used to deploy Windows Server® features without additional deployment documentation and should be used with discretion as a stand-alone document.

Upon completion of this step-by-step guide, you will have customized an RD Web Access Web portal that is using Windows SharePoint Services. You can then test and verify this functionality by opening the Web portal as a standard user.

The test environment described in this guide includes four computers connected to a private network using the following operating systems, applications, and services.

The computers form a private network and are connected through a common hub or Layer 2 switch. This step-by-step exercise uses private addresses throughout the test lab configuration. The private network ID 10.0.0.0/24 is used for the network. The domain controller is named CONTOSO-DC for the domain named contoso.com. The following figure shows the configuration of the test environment.