Best practice for RDP and Thin clients server

[B. Dennis]

We have a Windows 2003 server with TS licenses currenly
servicing 15 HP Thin Clients. It is currently our one and
only Domain Controller. We do have several Group
Policy Objects and Domain policies in affect and things
have worked nicely to this point. For one reason or
another, we have setup a new Windows 2003 Server
and wish to point the Thin Clients to it. It will have more disk
space for the users than our current server which was
getting congested. At this point it is just past the Windows 2003
installation and is not a Domain Controller.

My question is what is the best practice for this second
server? I assume it needs to be a Domain Controller. Do
we join it to the existing Domain or make it it's own?
Must we de-install the TS licenses from the current and install
on the new? Or do we not make it a Domain Controller. If we
do, I have backed up all the GPO's and would restore them to the
new and things should be pretty easy. But if we should not make
the new server a DC then I would not be sure how to preserve all
the current GPO's. I hope I have made my question somewhat
clear.

 

[Vera Noest [MVP]]

Re: Best practice for RDP and Thin clients server

Don'y make the new server a DC, just join it to the domain as a
member server. A Terminal Server should *not* be running on a DC,
for both performance and security reasons. Having normal users
logged on interactively on your DC an treating it as their personal
workstation is not a good setup, and you should uninstall Terminal
Services from your DC as soon as you have the new server up and
running.

When you join the new server to the domain as a member server, you
should create a new OU for it in your Active Directory structure,
let's call it TerminalServer, and move the machine account of the
new server into this OU.

Then you can link new or existing GPOs to this OU.

You can keep the TS Licensing Services and licenses on the DC. The
new TS will automatically detect the existing Licensing Server,
since it runs on the DC.
_________________________________________________________
Vera Noest
MCSE, CCEA, Microsoft MVP - Terminal Server
TS troubleshooting: http://ts.veranoest.net
___ please respond in newsgroup, NOT by private email ___

=?Utf-8?B?Qi4gRGVubmlz?= <B. Dennis@discussions.microsoft.com>
wrote on 03 apr 2008 in microsoft.public.windows.terminal_services:

> We have a Windows 2003 server with TS licenses currenly
> servicing 15 HP Thin Clients. It is currently our one and
> only Domain Controller. We do have several Group
> Policy Objects and Domain policies in affect and things
> have worked nicely to this point. For one reason or
> another, we have setup a new Windows 2003 Server
> and wish to point the Thin Clients to it. It will have more disk
> space for the users than our current server which was
> getting congested. At this point it is just past the Windows 2003
> installation and is not a Domain Controller.
>
> My question is what is the best practice for this second
> server? I assume it needs to be a Domain Controller. Do
> we join it to the existing Domain or make it it's own?
> Must we de-install the TS licenses from the current and install
> on the new? Or do we not make it a Domain Controller. If we
> do, I have backed up all the GPO's and would restore them to the
> new and things should be pretty easy. But if we should not make
> the new server a DC then I would not be sure how to preserve all
> the current GPO's. I hope I have made my question somewhat
> clear.

 

[B. Dennis]

RE: Best practice for RDP and Thin clients server

Per your response to my original question, I made
the new Server a member server and we are
running using all of the configurations you
recommended. I have two follow up questions:

1) I have to take down the Domain Controller for
a hardware change (should be 30 minutes or less).
If the Thin Client users all sign in and authenticat on the
DC, can they stay logged in and still run even if I take down
'the DC, or will they looses their connections. The TS
licensing services and licenses are still being run off the
DC as well.

2) As far as your recomendation to uninstall terminal
services from the DC, that has not been done yet. Will
doing that cause an issue with any software that was
installed after TS was installed.

"B. Dennis" wrote:

> We have a Windows 2003 server with TS licenses currenly
> servicing 15 HP Thin Clients. It is currently our one and
> only Domain Controller. We do have several Group
> Policy Objects and Domain policies in affect and things
> have worked nicely to this point. For one reason or
> another, we have setup a new Windows 2003 Server
> and wish to point the Thin Clients to it. It will have more disk
> space for the users than our current server which was
> getting congested. At this point it is just past the Windows 2003
> installation and is not a Domain Controller.
>
> My question is what is the best practice for this second
> server? I assume it needs to be a Domain Controller. Do
> we join it to the existing Domain or make it it's own?
> Must we de-install the TS licenses from the current and install
> on the new? Or do we not make it a Domain Controller. If we
> do, I have backed up all the GPO's and would restore them to the
> new and things should be pretty easy. But if we should not make
> the new server a DC then I would not be sure how to preserve all
> the current GPO's. I hope I have made my question somewhat
> clear.

 

[Munindra Das [MSFT]]

Re: Best practice for RDP and Thin clients server

I think I can answer your questions, though I am not aware of the original
set of recommendations.

1) Even if you take the DC down, the connections should stay.
2) No.
--

Thanks!

This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights.

"B. Dennis" <BDennis@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:A491AFDD-EFB7-44FD-8E51-ABB7E8F89671@microsoft.com...
> Per your response to my original question, I made
> the new Server a member server and we are
> running using all of the configurations you
> recommended. I have two follow up questions:
>
> 1) I have to take down the Domain Controller for
> a hardware change (should be 30 minutes or less).
> If the Thin Client users all sign in and authenticat on the
> DC, can they stay logged in and still run even if I take down
> 'the DC, or will they looses their connections. The TS
> licensing services and licenses are still being run off the
> DC as well.
>
> 2) As far as your recomendation to uninstall terminal
> services from the DC, that has not been done yet. Will
> doing that cause an issue with any software that was
> installed after TS was installed.
>
> "B. Dennis" wrote:
>
>> We have a Windows 2003 server with TS licenses currenly
>> servicing 15 HP Thin Clients. It is currently our one and
>> only Domain Controller. We do have several Group
>> Policy Objects and Domain policies in affect and things
>> have worked nicely to this point. For one reason or
>> another, we have setup a new Windows 2003 Server
>> and wish to point the Thin Clients to it. It will have more disk
>> space for the users than our current server which was
>> getting congested. At this point it is just past the Windows 2003
>> installation and is not a Domain Controller.
>>
>> My question is what is the best practice for this second
>> server? I assume it needs to be a Domain Controller. Do
>> we join it to the existing Domain or make it it's own?
>> Must we de-install the TS licenses from the current and install
>> on the new? Or do we not make it a Domain Controller. If we
>> do, I have backed up all the GPO's and would restore them to the
>> new and things should be pretty easy. But if we should not make
>> the new server a DC then I would not be sure how to preserve all
>> the current GPO's. I hope I have made my question somewhat
>> clear.