1

I am creating an RDS deployment in a corporate domain. Servers are running Win2019 Standard Server Core in a Session-based desktop deployment. Server A is acting as RD Broker, RD Web Access, RD Gateway, RD License server, and RD Session Host to serve Collection A. Server B has the RD Session Host role to serve Collection B. The purpose of the deployment is to provide remote access to pools of Windows servers via RDC.

All configuration is complete with the servers assigned to their appropriate roles in the deployment. SSL certs are installed and trusted for our corporate domain; never any error/warning about certs during the connection process. I have 60 Per User CALs installed on Server A. Users connecting via RDWeb/RDC are having a CAL assigned and they are decrementing the CAL total as expected. Connections are showing up as expected in Server Manager and show the proper RDSH server assigned for each Collection. The collections are RemoteApp Program deployments. I have an instance of mstsc published for each remote desktop we wish to access specified using the /v argument.

The problem is that the 2 concurrent connection limit is still being enforced for all the clients we are connecting to. I would expect if the CALs were being applied properly that the limit would not be a problem. There is no problem detected in the Licensing Manager or Diagnoser on Server A. The local RDS groups on Servers A and B are populated as I would expect them to be. There is no global or local group policy being applied to the servers affecting the Remote Desktop Services policies. "Limit number of connections", etc. are all Not Configured.

I'm not sure what to look at next. Perhaps there is a license workflow issue between Broker and Session Host, but I cannot see how. Any suggestions are appreciated. Thanks for your time.

Brandyn K
  • 11
  • 1
  • Per user licensing is not enforced. This is a typical scenario where a server is configured for remote administration and not as a application remote desktop host. – Greg Askew Jul 12 '22 at 00:45
  • I understand there is not hard enforcement, but the CALs are still being assigned so why is RDC still limiting clients to 2 concurrent users only? From which device's perspective am I not in compliance? – Brandyn K Jul 12 '22 at 12:11
  • We understand the question. The important takeaway here is it cannot be caused by User licenses, and there is no such thing as compliance enforcement with User licenses. – Greg Askew Jul 12 '22 at 12:22
  • comon internet, somebody must have another idea of where to look – Brandyn K Jul 19 '22 at 17:51

1 Answers1

0

I figured it out. The problem is that the RDC destinations have no awareness of the RDS environment or the licensing since they did not have any RDS role. The CAL verification is performed by an RD Session Host so if your destinations are not RDSH then they will fall back on the 2 admin connections regardless of whether or not the user has a CAL assigned by the RDS license server.

In practice, I added the destination servers to the Server Manager on the RD Broker and installed the RDSH and RD License roles. The destinations are added to the RDS Overview as Session Hosts however they are not assigned to any RDS collection. These "hosts" are not actually hosting or providing any apps. They simply have the role to check in with the license server and allow multiple terminal connections.

Thanks.

Brandyn K
  • 11
  • 1