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Logging out from a Remote Desktop Session

When the Remote Desktop Client is exited by pressing the 'X' on the control panel the remote session continues to run on the server even though no client is connected. Next time the user connects the desktop session will appear exactly as it was left before. To end the session select Start in the remote desktop session, click on the right arrow button in the bottom right hand corner of the menu and select Log Off. This will close down the remote desktop session and close the remote desktop client.

Remote Session Tracking

With Remote Desktop access implemented it is often useful to find out at times who is logged into a system. This can be achieved using the quser command-line tool. To obtain details of logged in users on a local system simply run quser at a command prompt or in a Run dialog: C:\Users\Administrator> quser /server:winserver-2 C:\Users\Administrator> quser

Remote Desktop Client Configuration Options

The Options>> button displayed on the initial screen of the Remote Desktop Client provides six tabs, each containing a range of configuration options: General - Allows login credentials to be configured and session information to be saved. Display - Configures the resolution and color settings to be used when displaying the remote desktop on the local system. Local Resources - Specifies which local resources (sound, disk drives, printers etc) are to be made accessible to the remote system during the Remote Desktop session. This page also provides options to control the situations under which special key combinations such as Ctrl-Alt-Del are interpreted by the local or remote systems. Programs - Allows specified programs to be automatically invoked each time a remote sessions is established. Experience - Controls which desktop features are enabled or disabled for the Remote Desktop session. For example, over a slow dial-up connection it is unwise to have the desktop back

Starting the Remote Desktop Client

A vast array of configuration options for Terminal Services is available through the Group Policy settings. To access these values start the Group Policy Object Editor (open the Start menu and enter gpedit.msc into the Search box).  In the Group Object Policy Editor navigate to Computer Configuration\Administrative Templates\Windows Components\Terminal Services or User Configuration\Administrative Templates\Windows Components\Terminal Services to access the range of policy settings available. Policy options include, amongst other options, items such as control over resource redirection (printers, audio etc), setting session time limits and security settings. A complete overview of all the settings is beyond the scope of this book but almost without exception the various settings are largely self-explanatory. Starting the Remote Desktop Client With the appropriate configuration tasks completed on the remote system the next step is to launch the Remote Desktop Client on the local

Remote Desktop Group Policy

A vast array of configuration options for Terminal Services is available through the Group Policy settings. To access these values start the Group Policy Object Editor (open the Start menu and entergpedit.msc into the Search box). In the Group Object Policy Editor navigate to Computer Configuration\Administrative Templates\Windows Components\Terminal Services or User Configuration\Administrative Templates\Windows Components\Terminal Services to access the range of policy settings available. Policy options include, amongst other options, items such as control over resource redirection (printers, audio etc), setting session time limits and security settings. A complete overview of all the settings is beyond the scope of this book but almost without exception the various settings are largely self-explanatory.

Controlling Remote Desktop Access

The default configuration for Remote Desktop is to allow all members of the Administration group to connect remotely. Active Directory also contains a Remote Desktop Users group to which users may be added to provide Remote Desktop access privileges. To provide users with remote desktop access, open the Control Panel -> System and Maintenance -> System -> Remote settings and click on the Select Users button to invoke the Remote Desktop Users dialog illustrated in the following figure: Note that users with administrative privileges do not need to be added to this list; by default they already have Remote Desktop access. To add additional users click on the Add... button to display the Select Users dialog. Enter the name of the user in the text box entitled Enter object names to select and click on Check names to list names that match the name entered. Select the appropriate name from the list. The following example shows user Bill on server winserver-2: Click on OK

Enabling Remote Desktop Administration on the Remote Server

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

What is Remote Desktop?

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

VMware: Creating iSCSI network in vSphere ESXi 5.0

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

Manage the new volume(s)

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

Bind the targets

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