Proper way of installing RDS role

Question

Hi.

One of my customers just bought 5 RDS User Cal licenses.

The reason why they both licenses as they wish to have more then 2 concurrent RDP session to a server.

They environment IS:
1 physical hosts with Hyper-V role installed - Licensed 2019 OS STD
and 2 virtual machines on that host - (1 DC and 1 PLAYGROUND - both with licensed 2019 OS STD)

They need to have:

• More then 2 concurrent RDP session on the physical host
• More then 2 concurrent RDP session on the PLAYGROUND virtual machine

Which roles should be installed?

• I came to the part where I have added role: Remote Desktop Licensing on a physical host.

Now I'm confused what are roles needs to be installed on that host to achieve more then 2 RDP connections to this host and also to it's virtual machine.
Please advise.
With best regards

Answer 1

Hi. Thank you for a quick reply.
The end goal is to enable more then 2 concurrent active RDP session on all virtual machines on the Hyper-V host.
After configuring RDS on a new virtual machine (with all RDS roles) more then 2 RDP active connections works only on that specific new VM, but we would like to enable more then 2 active/concurrent RDP session to other VM's as well.

Answer 2

Not sure what the end goal is but this one may help.
https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-server/remote/remote-desktop-services/rds-scale-rdsh-farm

--please don't forget to upvote and Accept as answer if the reply is helpful--

Answer 3

Hi.
I have decided to recommend the customer we install RDS on a new dedicated VM and buy additonal licenses.
RDS has been installed per instructions: https://www.slashadmin.co.uk/how-to-setup-a-single-server-rds-deployment-using-server-2016
Currently I have all the roles installed and configures on this new RDS virtual machine (connection broker, session host, gateway, licensing, web access).
Gateway has been configured with *.wildcard certificate, although in practise this server will not be externally available (clients will only have access to servers over VPN client connection)
CAL per user licenses haven't been imported yet into licensing manager because this is still a test environment.
Now RDP with more then 2 users works ok to this new VM, but how can I now add other VM's into this environment.
So the question is I wish to allow to other virtual machines more then 2 RDP connections.
Can you please help me out with steps needed for that? What roles needs to be installed on second VM (if any?), or I just need to add second VM into some settings on RDS VM?
thank you, with best regards

Answer 4

Some general info

• Each host needs to be licensed.
• A minimum of 8 core licenses is required for each physical processor and a minimum of 16 core licenses is required for each server.
• Core licenses are sold in packs of two.
• Standard Edition provides rights for up to 2 Operating System Environments or Windows Servers containers with Hyper-V isolation when all physical cores in the server are licensed. For each additional 1 or 2 VMs, all the physical cores in the server must be licensed again.
• DataCenter Edition provides rights for unlimited Operating System Environments or Windows Servers containers with Hyper-V isolation when all physical cores in the server are licensed.

If you install other roles / applications on host then this takes away one of the two Operating System Environments. So you can only utilize one virtual machine without licensing the host again. Not to mention adding complexity to the host configuration. Generally not recommended.

--please don't forget to upvote and Accept as answer if the reply is helpful--

Answer 5

DSPatrick I want to clarify licensing question for this server.

• physical server has 2 CPU's with 8 Cores with Hyper-v role installed
• 2 virtual machines (2019 STD) on that host
• customer has bought: 1 Windows server 16core STD SuperMicro ROK license + CAL licenses

So from information above, they should be covered from licensing perspective correct me if I'm wrong.

My question is, if the customer perfers having 3rd party applications (for example Veeam, PostGresSQL) on the physical host instead of VM's, what options do they have:

Can they install 3rd party applications on Hyper-v host if they buy another "Windows server 16core STD SuperMicro ROK license" or even if they buy 1 more license they only can install 3rd party applications on additional VM?

with best regards