Remote Desktop Services

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About This Guide

The Infrastructure Planning and Design series guide for Windows Server 2008 R2 Remote Desktop Services lays out the key infrastructure design elements that are integral to a successful implementation of Remote Desktop Services. The reader is guided through the nine-step process of designing components, layout, and connectivity in a logical, sequential order. Identification of the RD Session Host farms is presented in a simple, easy-to-follow process, helping the reader to design and plan centralized virtual data centers.

For users of Windows Server 2008 R2, the Remote Desktop Services guide is a complete replacement for the Terminal Services guide. The Remote Desktop Services guide reflects the new capabilities introduced with Windows Server 2008 R2 as well as the rebranding of Terminal Services. The Infrastructure Planning and Design Guide for Windows Server 2008 Terminal Services remains available for download.

IP&D - RDS

Figure 1. Decision flow chart

The Infrastructure Planning and Design Guide for Windows Server 2008 R2 Remote Desktop Services includes the following nine-step process:

Step 1: Determine the Scope of the Remote Desktop Services Project. This step involves determining which parts of the organization to include in the design.

Step 2: Determine How Workloads Will Be Delivered. This step’s goal is to look at the end-user populations that fall within that scope and to determine which workloads each person uses and how he or she uses them.

Step 3: Determine the Number of RD Session Host Server Farms. The goal of this step is to arrive at an optimal number of RD Session Host server farms for the Remote Desktop Services design.

Step 4: Map Workloads and Users to Farms. The goal of this step is to assign the applications, virtual desktops, and users to the appropriate RD Session Host server farms.

Step 5: Design the Farms. This step involves determining the hardware configuration of the server in each farm and, therefore, the number of servers required to deliver the applications from the farm.

Step 6: Determine Where to Store User Data. The objective of this step is to determine where to store the user data and profiles so that they are always available to all the servers in the farm.

Step 7: Size and Place the Remote Desktop Services Role Services for the Farms. The goal of this step is to optimally place each of these role services and then to determine the number of servers required and how they will be designed.

Step 8: Secure the Communications. This step involves determining the security implementation between the clients and the RD Session Host server.

Step 9: Design VDI and the RD Virtualization Host Role. This step involves designing the VDI and RD Virtualization Host servers.

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