Is Remote Desktop Services Connection Broker Required

Remote Desktop Connection Banker (RDCB) is a component of the Remote Desktop Services (RDS) role in Windows Server. RD Connectedness Banker allows you to load-balance the RDS farm servers (when connecting to an RDS farm, the user is redirected to the least loaded RDS host), provides user access to VDI and RemoteApps, manages RDS host configuration in the farm. Besides, RDCB allows users to reconnect to their sessions: when connecting to RDS, RDCB checks if there is whatsoever incomplete session on other servers of the farm and redirects them to their previous sessions.

In this article, we'll show how to configure a mistake-tolerant high availability RD Connection Broker instance maintaining its features in case one of the servers with the RDCB role fails. A database server running MS SQL Server 2019 will be used to shop Remote Desktop Connection Broker information. In order to avert a single indicate of failure, an RDCB SQL database should too be deployed in a fault-tolerant configuration. In this example, we will use two SQL Server nodes with the SQL Ever On Availability Group configured.

Contents:

• Preparing Infrastructure for Remote Desktop Connectedness Broker
• Install Remote Desktop Services Roles on Windows Server
• Deploying RD Connection Broker High Availability
• Configuring SQL Server Failover Configuration for RD Connection Broker HA

RD Connexion Banker Loftier Availability requirements and supported configurations:

• At least 2 servers with the RD Connection Broker office running Windows Server 2022/2019;
• If you desire to use high availability for an RDCB SQL database, you will need at least 2 hosts with SQL Server 2014 or newer (Standard or Enterprise edition). In this example, we take installed a standalone MS SQL Server 2019 Enterprise instance on each of the servers. If y'all are not going to accept an HA SQL database, one server with SQL Limited is enough;
• Install SQL Server Native Client on the servers with the RD Connection Broker role;
• Grant full control over your SQL database and SQL installation binder to RD Connection Banker servers;
• At to the lowest degree one server with the Remote Desktop Session Host role in the farm.

We will create a high available RDCB configuration of 2 servers. Both of them will have the RD Connexion office and SQL Server installed. Loftier availability and disaster recovery of the SQL Server database will exist provided by the SQL Server Always On Availability group.

In Windows Server 2012 and newer, RDS Connection Broker provides loftier availability in the Active/Active style. In this mode, all RDCB servers are agile and tin can process incoming connections. It allows providing high RDCB availability and scalability in big Remote Desktop environments.

Preparing Infrastructure for Remote Desktop Connection Banker

Assign static IP addresses to all servers with the RD Connection Broker role and bring together them to your Agile Directory domain.

• srv-rds1.woshub.com — 192.168.13.20
• srv-rds2.woshub.com — 192.168.13.21

Create a new security group in Agile Directory (MUN_RD_Connection_Brokers) and add all RDCB servers to it. You tin create the grouping with the ADUC snap-in (dsa.msc) or by using PowerShell:

New-ADGroup "MUN_RD_Connection_Brokers" -path 'OU=Groups,OU=Berlin,DC=woshub,DC=com' -GroupScope Global -PassThru –Verbose

Add together two RDS hosts to the group:

Add-AdGroupMember -Identity "MUN_RD_Connection_Brokers" -Members srv-rds1$,srv-rds2$

Create A records for the cluster name of your RDS farm (in our example, it is MUNRDCB) in DNS. DNS records must contain the IP addresses of all RDCB servers. It enables load balancing (Round Robin) betwixt RD Connectedness Broker servers. I have created the following entries:

• A — MUNRDCB.woshub.com 192.168.13.20 (IP address of the first RDCB server — srv-rds1.woshub.com)
• A — MUNRDCB.woshub.com 192.168.13.21 ( IP address of the 2nd RDCB server — srv-rds2.woshub.com)

You can create A records in DNS using PowerShell:

Add together-DnsServerResourceRecordA -Name MUNRDCB -IPv4Address 192.168.thirteen.xx -ZoneName woshub.com
Add-DnsServerResourceRecordA -Name MUNRDCB -IPv4Address 192.168.13.21 -ZoneName woshub.com

Install the SQL Server Native Client on all servers with the RDCB role. You lot tin can download the SQL Server Native Client for your SQL Server version from the Microsoft website or copy information technology from the SQL Server install epitome (D:\1033_ENU_LP\x64\Setup\x64\sqlncli.msi).

So run SQL Server Management Studio and connect to your first SQL server, on which a shared Connection Broker database will be created (later nosotros will motion it to the Ever On high availability group).

Open Security -> Logins to add a new login. Click Search, select your domain in Locations, gear up Object Types = Groups, and find the domain group MUN_RD_Connection_Brokers.

Assign dbcreator and sysadmin roles to the grouping.

Open SQL Server ports in Windows Defender Firewall (by default, TCP 1433 port is used to connect to SQL Server).

Install Remote Desktop Services Roles on Windows Server

Then you have to install RDS roles on your servers. Open the Server Director console, select Manage -> Add roles and Features -> Remote Desktop Services Installation.

The installation of the RDS function on a standalone host is described in this commodity.

Select Standard deployment -> Session-based desktop deployment.

Cull ane server yous want to install the RD Connectedness Broker part on. You lot don't need to install the RDCB function on the 2nd server at present.

Install the RD Web Access role on the same server. Install the RD Session Host role on both servers.

Wait for the installation of RDS roles to complete.

When you have finished installing the roles, add the RDCB hosts and 'NT AUTHORITY\NETWORK SERVICE' accounts to the local RDS Direction Servers group on both servers.

During the installation of the RD Connection Broker role on the first server in the farm, a local SQL database will be created in C:\Windows\rdcbDb\rdcms.mdf on the local drive of the RD Connection Broker server.

This database keeps the data about the farm and last user sessions. Since information technology is located on the local computer, other RDCB servers will non be able to use it. To provide RDCB HA, you accept to move it to a dedicated SQL server where other servers tin access information technology.

Deploying RD Connection Broker High Availability

Before yous add together a second host with the RD Connection Broker office to the farm, you must drift the local RDCB database to an external SQL Server.

In society to move the Connectedness Broker database from the local database to the dedicated SQL Server, open Server Manager -> Remote Desktop Services -> Overview. To run the Remote Desktop Connection Broker Failover Configuration Wizard, click the RD Connection Banker role image and select Configure Loftier Availability.

Then select Dedicated Database Server. Specify SQL Server connection settings the local RDCB database will be moved.

Fill in two fields:

• DNS proper noun for the RD Connexion Broker Cluster: an FQDN name of your RDCB farm we have created Round Robin DNS records for (in our example, it is MUNRDCB.woshub.com). This is the address that RDP clients volition use when connecting to RD Connection Broker servers;
• Database Connection String – specify the connection string to the SQL Server database. Hither is the string format: Driver=SQL Server Native Client 11.0;SERVER=<SQL Server Proper noun>;Trusted_Connection=Yeah;APP=Remote Desktop Services Connexion Broker;DATABASE=<DB Proper noun>

  In this instance, SQL Server Name is the name of the SQL server you lot want to create a database on, and DB Name is the name of your new database: Driver=SQL Server Native Client 11.0;SERVER=srv-rds2.woshub.com;Trusted_Connection=Yes;APP=Remote Desktop Services Connection Broker;DATABASE=RDCB_DB

Once an RD Connectedness Banker HA configuration is enabled, yous won't be able to revert back to the internal RDCB database without decommissioning the whole RDS farm configuration.

Click Configure in the next step.

And then connect to your SQL Server example using SQL Management Studio and make sure that the new database RDCB_DB has been created.

Grant both RD Connexion Broker servers write permissions to the database. Open Database -> RDCB_DB -> Security -> Users -> New user.

Create 2 new users: BUILTIN\RDS Management Servers and woshub\MUN_RD_Connection_Brokers. Grant both db_owner and public privileges.

To provide high availability in case the first server fails, add a 2d RD Connectedness Broker server to the current configuration.

Click the RD Connection Banker icon and select Add RD Connection Broker Server.

Enter the proper noun of the 2d server y'all want to install the Connection Broker office on and click Next. Then two servers with the RDCB role volition appear in the list of RDS farm hosts. You will also see the RD Connexion Broker (High Available Fashion) bulletin.

This completes the Loftier Availability configuration of the Remote Desktop Connection Banker.

Configuring SQL Server Failover Configuration for RD Connection Banker HA

And then set upward a failover configuration of your SQL database. Meanwhile, it is running on one server only. Place your RD Connection Banker database in the SQL cluster. It may be either a archetype Microsoft Failover Cluster or an SQL Server Always On high availability group.

Basic E'er On configuration in SQL Server 2019 is described in this article. We will evidence but the main steps here:

1. Install the Failover Clustering office and build an SQL-RDS cluster of two RDCB hosts with a witness and quorum on any file server (information technology is described in the article on Always On mentioned above);
2. Enable the option Enable Always On Availability Groups in the SQL Server Configuration Manager settings on both servers;
3. Run the New Availability Group Wizard;
4. Enter a name of the Availability Group (SQL-RDS);
5. Select a database y'all want to place to your high availability group (RDCB_DB);
6. Add the second SQL server to the high availability group and check the Automatic Failover pick;
7. On the Listener tab, enter the proper name and IP address that clients will use to connect to the database in your Always On group (SQL-RDSDB-liste);
8. Open up the Failover Cluster Manager snap-in (FailoverClusters.SnapInHelper.msc) and brand certain that the new resource has appeared in the list of roles.

Then change the connectedness string for the SQL server with the RDCB database in the Connection Broker settings. You can just change the RDCB connection string via PowerShell:

Gear up-RDDatabaseConnectionString [-DatabaseConnectionString] <String> [[-ConnectionBroker] <Cord>] [ <CommonParameters>]

In my example, the command to switch the RDCB subcontract to the SQL database High Availability group looks like this:

Set up-RDDatabaseConnectionString -ConnectionBroker srv-rds1.woshub.com -DatabaseConnectionString "DRIVER=SQL Server Native Customer 11.0;SERVER=SQL-RDSDB-liste;Trusted_Connection=Yes;APP=Remote Desktop Services Connection Broker;DATABASE=RDCB_DB"

If the command returns no mistake, so everything is OK. Now your RDS Connection Broker cluster is configured to use SQL Ever On availability group.

Open up your RDS farm settings and make sure that a new connection cord is used for HA (Tasks -> Edit Deployment Backdrop).

So, nosotros have created a loftier availability RDS Connection Broker service on Windows Server 2022/2019. You can test RDCB'due south high availability by shutting downward one of the hosts in the RDS farm.

Then you tin keep with the configuration of your RDS subcontract, deploy an RDS licensing server, add RDSH servers, set up RDS collections, publish RemoteApps, enable HTML5 spider web client for RDS, etc.

Is Remote Desktop Services Connection Broker Required,

Source: http://woshub.com/configure-rds-connection-broker-high-availability-windows-server/

Posted by: leachstratersest.blogspot.com

Share this post