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As mentioned previously, remote desktop functionality on the server is provided by Terminal Services. It is important to note, however, that Terminal Services do not have to be explicitly enabled on the server in order to support Remote Desktop Administration. In fact, all that needs to be done is to enable Remote Desktop Administration. This is configured by opening the Control Panel from the Start menu and selecting the System icon (if the Control Panel is in Control Panel Home mode this is located under System and Maintenance). In the Task section in the top left hand corner of the System page select Remote settings to display the following properties window: The Remote properties dialog provides a number of options. The default setting is to disallow remote connections to the computer system. The second option allows remote desktop connections from any version of the Remote Desktop client. The third, and most secure option, will only allow connections from Remote Desktop cl

Remote Desktop allows the graphical interface of a remote Windows system to be displayed over a network onto a local system. In addition, keyboard and mouse events on the local system are transmitted to the remote system enabling the local user to perform tasks on the remote system as if they were physically sitting at the remote system. Conversely, resources (such as printers and disk drives) on the local system can be made available to the remote system for the duration of the connection. This remote control can be established in a number of ways, including over wide area networks (WAN), local area networks (LAN) or over the internet. In the case of Windows Server 2008, this service is provided by Terminal Services running on the remote systems and the Remote Desktop Connection (RDC) client on the local system. Terminal Services run in two different modes, Administration and Virtual Session. Remote Desktop for Administration provides full administration functionality to t

Storage Adapter: Nope.. by default it’s not installed, you must manual add the adapter by clicking Configuration > Storage Adapter > Add Storage Adapter - Select: Add Software iSCSI Adapter A new software iSCSI adapter will be added to the Storage Adapters list. After it has been added, select the software iSCSI adapter in the list and click on Properties to complete the configuration Event: Change Software Internet SCSI Status = Completed Create new vSwitch (in my case two VMkernel ports): - Network label: iSCSI01 - Configure IP Address and Subnet Mask .. - Finish the configuration, repeat this step to configure the 2nd iSCSI02 port vSwitch2 result: VMkernel – Override switch failover order: Now we need to change the failover order for each VMkernel: iSCSI01: Active Adapter VMNIC4 – Unused Adapter: VMNIC5 iSCSI02: Active Adapter VMNIC5 – Unused Adapter: VMNIC4 Configure Software iSCSI Initiator: Go

When you mount a brand new iSCSI-based volume on your server, Windows treats it the same as if you had added a new hard drive to your computer. Take a look at this:  Open Computer Management (Start | Right-click My Computer | Manage).  Choose the Disk Management option. If the volume you are using is still blank  — that is, newly created on your iSCSI target and does not contain data —  Windows will pop up the Disk Initialization wizard, as shown  The Windows Disk Initialization wizard. Note  that Disk 1 is not yet initialized and has a size of 1,020 MB. This disk is a small target I created on my iSCSI host. An iSCSI-based volume follows the same rules as any other Windows volume.  You can create this volume as basic or dynamic (although dynamic is notrecommended for iSCSI) or even as GPT (GUID partition table) volumes, which support volumes in excess of 2TB. Just as is the case with any Windows volume, you need to initialize the new drive, create a partition, and format the

Now, you have successfully connected to a shared target on your iSCSI array. If you selected the Automatically Restore This Connection When The System Boots check box as explained in the previous step, you can now add the target to the iSCSI service’s binding list. By doing so, you make sure that Windows does not consider the iSCSI service fully started until connections are restored to all volumes on the binding list. This is important if you have data on an iSCSI target that other services depend on. For example, if you create a share on your server and that shared data resides on an iSCSI target, the Server service that handles the share depends on the iSCSI service’s complete availability to bring up the shares. Note: With older versions of the iSCSI initiators, creating this kind of dependency structure required you to reconfigure individual service dependencies — a process that could get complicated. With the iSCSI Initiator version 2, Microsoft has fixed this issue, but you

Even though you’re connected to the array itself, you still need to tell the initiator exactly which target or volume you want to mount on your local machine. To see the list of available targets on the array you selected, choose the Targets tab, shown in Figure F. Figure F The iSCSI initiator Target tab in this example has only a single volume available. To connect to an available target, choose the target and click the Log On button. A window pops up (Figure G) with the target name and two options from which you can choose. Figure G iSCSI target Log On options. The two options are important. If you want your server to connect to this volume automatically when your system boots, make sure you choose the Automatically Restore This Connection When The System Boots check box. Unless you have a good reason otherwise, you should always select this check box. If you do not, you can’t make the iSCSI target persistent after a reboot and will need to manually reconnect it. To ena

Now that you have the initiator software installed, you need to tell it where to look for mountable volumes. Start the initiator configuration by going to the Control Panel and choosing the iSCSI Initiator option. From the initiator, choose the Discovery tab, shown in Figure B. Figure B The iSCSI initiator’s Discovery tab. On the Discovery tab, click the Add button under the Target Portals box. This will open the Add Target Portal dialog box, shown in Figure C. Figure C The Add Target Portal dialog box. In the Add Target Portal dialog box, provide the name or IP address of your iSCSI array. The default communication port for iSCSI traffic is 3260. Unless you have changed your port, leave this as is. If you have configured CHAP security or are using IPSec for communication between your client and the array, click on the Advanced button and make necessary configuration changes. The Advanced Settings dialog box is shown in Figure D. Figure D Advanced options for connecting

If you’re running an operating system on which the iSCSI initiator software is not installed, execute the file you downloaded and follow the installation instructions . The installer will ask you to decide which components you would like to install. Choose your installation options. Initiator service — This is the service behind the actual work. Software initiator — The software initiator is the software service that handles iSCSI traffic. Microsoft MPIO Multipathing Support for iSCSI — MPIO is a way that you can increase the overall throughput and reliability of your iSCSI storage environment. See Step 6 for more information about how MPIO can be of benefit. If you have a target that supports Microsoft’s MPIO (check with your manufacturer), you should enable this option. Otherwise, if your target supports MPIO through the use of a proprietary device-specific module (DSM), obtain that DSM from your array manufacturer and follow the manufacturer’s installation recommendatio