This article will walk you through the process of installing an RDS CAL server based on Windows Server 2019. You can use this server in your own lab or for training purposes. This is a minimal server configuration. To install this server, you will need to have access to a Microsoft account with administrator privileges, and have access to the internet.
1. Install the Windows Server 2019 operating system
Windows Server 2019 is the latest operating system from Microsoft. If you want to install Windows Server 2019 there are two ways of doing it. The first way is to buy a Windows Server 2019 standard license and install it on your own hardware, and the second is to use the Windows Server 2019 Cloud Instance.Creating A Virtual Machine To start the installation of the RDS CAL server, we will need to create a public or private virtual machine using the Windows 10 Hyper-V virtualization software. There are two ways of doing this depending on your current virtualization software provider and virtual environment. The most intuitive option is through Hyper-V configuration files, which can be used directly through Hyper-V. Alternatively, if you are using a virtual environment like AWS virtual servers, you will need to take a slightly different route to get started. If you are not familiar with virtual environments, I suggest checking out this guide. Installing the RDS CAL Server Next, we will install the RDS CAL server all the way from scratch using Hyper-V. The instructions to do this will include creating an RDS container file (called RDS_CAL_01.Rds) which we will upload to the RDS server. The steps to create an RDS container will vary depending on the host computer you are using. In most cases, you will need administrator access to connect to the server and edit the file. Once the explorer is open, make sure the file is checked. Finally, connect to the RDS box you are using and select edit. Inside you will see the file listed under previous versions as “RDS server virtual machine configuration file”. Of course, it is called “RDS server virtual machine configuration” because we are creating a virtual server. In this case the file will already exist. Resetting an RDS Template (optional) One of the features of Hyper-V virtualization is the ability to restore a previous template. When you complete this step a warning will be shown. The option to restore will need to be selected.
2. Configure the server name, network settings, and time zone
Before installing WordPress on your server, you’ll need to configure some basic settings. The first step is to log in to your cPanel account and navigate to the “Software” tab, where you’ll be able to select the “Software Installer” option.Click here to open the “Software” tab on the CPanel dashboard.
Next, navigate to the “Configure WordPress” section.
Under “Configure WordPress Configuration,” enter this content:
Server URL
Password: 1234 (#$%*@#$%)
Login: admin
Remember your username? Leave it at that. Leave the password blank and press “Add User.”
Fill out the rest of the fields according to your cPanel requirements. Use at least these authentication steps to avoid other security issues.
Hit “Save Changes.”
When you hit “Start WordPress,” have your administrator account’s login information ready, and be sure your hosting provider is set to the site you’re installing your new webserver on. It’s important that your hostname and domain match the domain information provided by your hosting platform.
Next, you will be taken to a screen with a bunch of information regarding WordPress. Select “Advanced Settings.”
Under “Advanced Settings,” you’ll find the “Address Account” section. Here we will edit our WordPress installation. Leave the default values at the default.
Hit Enter to accept the default settings and get back to the main screen.
At the “Start WordPress” screen, enter your administrator username and password and click “Restart.”
WordPress should now be installed. You can close the “Configure WordPress” screen if you’re finished. Otherwise, continue on to the next section.
Step 2: Setting up WordPress for testing
Now that we’ve got our site up and running and our server is securely integrated with WordPress, we can start setting up the content. We will be using WordPress to host our document library and the rest of the site, but you can host this content on your own server (on an RDS enabled PC).
3. Add the Remote Desktop Services role
If you use Remote Desktop Services, you’ll need to install the RDS role and the RD Gateway role service. You can do this through Server Manager or through PowerShell. To install the role and the role service using PowerShell, run the following command:PS C:\> Get-Module -Name MySQLServer | Select *
Next, open up a new folder on your hard disk and navigate to the C drive:
Create a folder called WindowsSource. This can be anywhere you like (even on another drive), just make sure that WindowsSource is on the same folder as your server. Next, open up a command prompt and navigate to the folder that you created in step 1. If it looks like C:\WindowsSource\RDSFactoryServers, simply navigate there. If it looks like C:\WindowsSource\RDSFactoryServers\MSSql, create another folder and navigate to it. This deploys the RDS cal server onto your OS share.
Now, here is everything you have to install from the Windows Server 2019 source code.
Three Important Files
First, the option to enable log file parsing through Microsoft Regex to extract search strings. Enable this by downloading all of the Regex files present on the folder, extracting the Regex data, and placing it in the optsec.txt file found in step 1 of this guide. While this is pretty simplistic, there is extensive implementation of complex regex, so you’ll want to make sure you understand the impact of placing this text on your server by using Regex directly in your server config files.
Next, the option to enable SQL Server logging through the Log Parser Service. Enable this by downloading all of the SQL Server Log Files, extracting the SQL data, and placing it in the optsec.txt file found in step 1 of this guide. To make this easier to follow, I have included a couple of screen shots of the SQL server configuration, the service configuration, and the optsec.txt file.
4. Configure permissions for Remote Desktop Services
From the server manager, click on “Remote desktop services” on the left pane. Click on “Remote session collection”. Click on “Permissions”. Click on “Add” to add a user or group.Click the plus sign next to “custom user”, and then type in “20211236” minus the “&pws=0” (pws=). Note the explanation of the “pws=” parameter. Type in “&pws=0” another time, and then click “Add” again.
When you browse the list of available servers, you will see options that you follow from the drop down.
Step 3: Configure the server
To configure your server, click on “RDS login” in the left pane, and then type in “domain.tld” minus the “www” (domain.tld) and “dc=” (pws=). Note that you must make sure that both the /etc/hosts file and host file are readable and writable for your domain.
Next, click on “Advanced Settings” on the left pane, and then “Enable
Next, click on “Choose your domain” (the top of the page) to choose where the RDS server will be. You will be asked to enter some information about your site. Specify a name for your server, such as “C-vtld-rdsc.domain.tld” (without the “”).
Finally, you must specify a password for your RDS server. This is not absolutely necessary, but is helpful. Enter the password twice. You will now be prompted for the password. Click “Confirm”, and then click “Save Profile.”
Once completed, reboot the server.
Before you continue, be sure that your DNS
is set to query all subdomains, rather than just the homepage. If you have a
subdomains table in your DNS, then update it so that it returns queries rather than domain name.
Step 4: Configure DNS
A few important notes before we move on. If your DNS configuration is incorrect, this will probably prevent your RDS server from functioning. DNS errors can be caused by variables being touched unexpectedly, such as the IP or DNS server.
5. Create a deployment scope for a collection of users or computers to allow them access to the RDS CAL server
Step 1: Connect to the Remote Desktop Session Host (RDSH) server by using the Session Connection tool in Server Manager.
Step 2: Click Manage > Add Roles and Features to start the Add Roles and Features Wizard.
Step 3: Click Next to go to the Select Installation Type page.If you need to install this software on a Server Core or Enterprise edition of Windows Server, you should select “Server.” Otherwise click “Other” and select “Hybrid.” You should be returned to the Select Operating System page.
Step 4: In the Select Operating System options, click on the Windows logo laptop to highlight it and then click on it again to open the Other Versions drop down menu.
Step 5: In the Other Versions drop down, choose the Windows Server Hybrid version from the list and click Next.
Step 6: In the summary for the view, select the Defaults check box so that Windows Server will select default settings.
Step 7: Click Start.
Step 8: In the Windows 10 core experience, you should see the Peers connection and the RDS server under the Networking Options.
Step 9: On the Peers Connection page, navigate to Advanced Settings > RDS Connection.
Step 10: The RDS Connection Properties page should be titled Host Name and Location.
Step 11: In the Host Name option, enter the domain name you would like to connect to.
Step 12: In the Location, start typing a folder address to find it. In the example below, I would type my C:\Test folder.
Step 13: Click OK.
Step 14: Enjoy the RDS Connection service running!
I used vSphere CMD shell in the above tutorial, to download and install all required items on the virtual machine. This gave me the ability to install the software on a Windows 10, Server 2008 R2, or Windows 8.1 machine. You can use the following link to download the installation zip file.