Best practice Load balancing multiple session host RDS using third party F5 Big-IP

Question

Hello Microsoft,

We have already implement RDS server with multiple session host. We have four windows server already enable session host service with connect to rds license manager.

The four server load balance port 3389 using F5 Big-IP LTM using virtual IP and spesific domain. Unfortunetly the performance was not stable.

Could you please give us best practice how to setup rds server with multiple session host and session broker with load balance using third party, F5 Big-IP LTM

Thank in advance

Regards,

-aris

Answer 1

Hello Aris,

Thank you for posting question on Microsoft Windows Forum.

Well! The suggestion for best practice here is to avoid load balancing RDS Session Hosts directly on port 3389 with F5 LTM. Instead, you might consider deploying a proper RDS Connection Broker role, configure your Session Hosts into an RDS farm, and let the Broker handle session distribution. F5 LTM should then load balance the RD Web Access or RD Gateway servers, not the Session Hosts themselves. This ensures stable performance, proper session reconnection, and avoids breaking Microsoft’s native RDS load balancing logic.

The following article is for further reference.

• https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-server/remote/remote-desktop-services/rds-connection-broker-cluster

Hope the above information is helpful addressing your concern! If it is. Free feel to hit "Accepted".

Answer 2

To set up load balancing for your Remote Desktop Services (RDS) environment using F5 Big-IP LTM, consider the following best practices:

1. Configure the RDS Connection Broker: Ensure that your RDS Connection Broker is properly configured for high availability. This includes setting up load balancing on the RD Connection Brokers. You can use a load balancer to distribute the traffic effectively among the session hosts.
2. Use DNS Round-Robin or Load Balancer: If you're not using an Azure Load Balancer, you can configure DNS round-robin as an alternative. This involves creating DNS records for each session host, allowing clients to connect to any of the available hosts.
3. Health Probes: Set up health probes in F5 Big-IP LTM to monitor the availability of your session hosts. This ensures that traffic is only sent to healthy hosts, improving overall performance and reliability.
4. Session Persistence: Implement session persistence (also known as sticky sessions) in your load balancer configuration. This ensures that once a user connects to a session host, they will continue to be directed to the same host for the duration of their session, which can help maintain performance and user experience.
5. Optimize RDP Settings: Review and optimize your RDP settings on the session hosts. This includes adjusting bandwidth settings and enabling features that can enhance performance, such as RemoteFX.
6. Monitor Performance: Continuously monitor the performance of your RDS environment and the load balancer. Use tools to analyze traffic patterns and identify any bottlenecks or issues that may arise.
7. Documentation and Support: Refer to F5 documentation for specific configuration settings that may be required for optimal integration with RDS. Ensure that you are following the guidelines provided by both Microsoft and F5 for best practices.

By following these best practices, you should be able to improve the stability and performance of your RDS setup with multiple session hosts using F5 Big-IP LTM.

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References:

• Configure load balancing on the RD Connection Brokers
• Scale out your Remote Desktop Services deployment by adding an RD Session Host farm