Balancing remote desktop and RD gateway loads

Question

Environment: RD server 2019 functioning as both Remote Desktop for about 60 users and RD Gateway for those same 60 users.

Most of the users who connect through the RD gateway also use full remote desktop on the same RD server that acts as the RD Gateway. A small number (myself, primarily) will also use the RD Gateway to connect to remote desktop on a couple of other servers on the same LAN.

In diagnosing or planning load distribution, is there any way to tell how much load is being put on the server via its role hosting Remote Desktop clients and how much of the load is being imposed due to its role as RD Gateway server?

I do not want to just assume that the RD Gateway functionality of the server is causing latency for RD clients and go off setting up a separate VM to act as RD Gateway. Nor do I want to assume that the remote desktop sessions are causing latency in the RD Gateway connections, either for clients connecting to the RD server itself or for myself using it as an RD Gateway only to get to other servers.

But I am completely at a loss as to how to determine which might be affecting the other or

Would switching the RD Gateway functionality to a different server have much effect? That is, if the RD Gateway is being used primarily for clients connecting to remote desktops on the same machine, does the RD Gateway consume much of a load--or the same as it does when acting only as a gateway for RD connections to other servers in the same LAN?

Answer 1

Hi,
In diagnosing or planning load distribution, is there any way to tell how much load is being put on the server via its role hosting Remote Desktop clients and how much of the load is being imposed due to its role as RD Gateway server?
It is hard to tell the exact workload for each role when there are more than two RDS roles installed in one server. Maybe you could take some monitoring tools to capture the data flow when remote connection started.

Normally, the data flows as below: so if you have set RD Gateway with RDSH, RD CB will probably redirect clients to the SH with Gateway role based on loading balancing.
Client reaches CB through GW--->CB returns SH info through GW (after checking the workload of all the session host servers)---->Client reaches SH through GW.

To figure out whether RDGW with RDSH will impact the performance, you could test by dividing the two roles in different servers.
In general, RDGW is always installed with Rdweb Access or standalone, which enable users connect securely from outside the corporate firewall to internal resources.

-----Please "Accept as answer" if the reply is helpful-----
Thanks,
Jenny

Answer 2

Keep in mind this is a single server handling all RD roles. So if we "test" by dividing the roles to different servers, we might as well just keep it split. The whole question here is not what result we will get if we split it; it is how to determine if splitting it is necessary. Once we split it, there is little reason to determine if it is necessary and probably no reason to go back. I was hoping to get an actual answer regarding specific tools that are already known to be able to monitor these things. Suggesting that I should go off and figure out myself what tools to use rather negates the entire purpose of my post here.

A split would involve passing the information off to our third-party IT support company that manages the servers. I was just trying to help determine if such a split would be useful. It sounds like there is no way to determine this without actual doing the split.

Thanks anyway.

Answer 3

Hi,
Why were you interested in the individual usage for different roles? Were you experiencing any performance related issue when remoting to RD Gateway server?

If yes, I would suggest you to post separate question with performance related tag and seek assistance there on what kind of monitor tools would help to capture actual workload for functions provided by two roles when remoting.

Thanks for your understanding.

-----Please "Accept as answer" if the reply is helpful-----
Best regards,
Jenny