Connecting R10L to Microsoft VDI (Personal Virtual Desktop)

Just wanted to update my progress so far...I read Wyse's Technote: Instruction for Setting up Microsoft RemoteApp for testing with a WTOS Cloud Client.

When they publish RemoteApps (which I'm not doing, I'm only doing Personal Virtual Desktop), they show up on the Wyse terminal desktop after logging in to the Remote Desktop Services window. I now see that the Wyse desktop basically mirrors what one would see in the RD Web Access page. Therefore, I think I'm correct that connecting to the Personal Virtual Desktop would be done with the RDP icon that shows up on the Wyse terminal screen, just like how it shows up on the RD Web Access page.

Now that I believe I understand the way the connection broker works with the Wyse terminal, I'm feeling slightly better about the situation. Just need to figure out why double clicking that icon results in the redirection errors as described in my first post.

I'm waiting to hear from the Wyse engineer/support regarding Windows Server 2012 compatibility before I rebuild to 2008 R2 and re-configure VDI. I don't want to eliminate the 2012 environment if the engineer has specific items they request that I test.

I have to write another update, as I've basically solved the major issue here.

As I've discovered, Server 2012 VDI using the "Pooled" method of connecting regardless of whether you're actually using Pooled Virtual Desktops or Personal Virtual Desktops. If using Personal Virtual Desktops (assigned VMs to users), the Pool just responds with the assigned PC. This is different than 2008 R2, in which pooled vs. personal were separate methods.

Pooled Virtual Desktop uses a line in an RDP file (whether created manually or launching the pre-filled RDP connection in RD Web Access) to indicate that it should look in a pool. This line is: loadbalanceinfo:s:tsv://VMResource.1. .

I researched how this works, and you can set a default Pool in the Windows Registry on the Session Host server (which is the Connection Broker in 2012 when using Personal Virtual Desktop...there is no separate Remote Desktop Session Host role anymore in that configuration). To do this, you need to create a key in HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\TerminalServ er\ClusterSettings. Create the key as a string value (REG_SZ) named DefaultTsvUrl and for the value, put: tsv://vmresource.1. . In my case, I put: tsv://VMResource.1.Virtual_Desktops.

The result of this is that the Virtual_Desktops (or whatever pool you specify) is chosen automatically. So, the R10L's ThinOS RDP client doesn't support specifying a Pool, and it doesn't matter, because the Sesssion Host/Connection Broker goes with the default pool specified in the registry key. With Personal Virtual Desktop, this doesn't matter, as there's really only 1 Pool (called a Virtual Desktop Collection in 2012). You could create multiple pools/collections, but it's not really necessary with Personal Virtual Desktop, as they are assigned to individuals rather than assigned randomly.

My R10L now connects fine and pulls up the proper VM assigned to users. This is kind of a workaround and wouldn't be practical for a pooled deployment where different pools are necessary for different classes or departments of VMs, but it certainly will work for Personal Virtual Desktop until Wyse releases an updated ThinOS that supports pools. If anyone needs additional information, please let me know.

Sorry for the 3 posts in a row, but I have some more information. I read through this thread:http://community.wyse.com/forum/show...X-and-VDI-pool

They mentioned the loadbalanceinfo command in an RDP file that is required for Pooled Virtual Desktops. Since I suspected that Server 2012 uses the Pooled method for VDI to accomplish both Pooled Virtual Desktops and Personal Virtual Desktops, I accessed the RD Web page from Google Chrome and clicked the Virtual Desktop icon to download the RDP file (where as it just launches in IE). I opened the file and I see: loadbalanceinfo:s:tsv://VMResource.1.Virtual_Desktops

I'm using Personal Virtual Desktop, not Pooled, so this basically confirms that 2012 uses the Pooled method of connecting for both VDI methods, and that's why it doesn't work with ThinOS 7.1. I will discuss this with the Wyse engineer and ask about future support, etc. but it looks like I'll have to switch to Windows Embedded 7 terminals, as I can't switch to Server 2008 R2 due to other project requirements that need features in 2012.

Hmm, I don't seem to have that issue. When they log in first, they get logged into the Broker with a RDP icon on the ThinOS desktop. If they click that, they get connected to their Personal Virtual Desktop.

When they log out of the Personal Virtual Desktop, they return to the ThinOS desktop (and could click the RDP icon to reconnect if they wanted). If they log out of ThinOS, they get back to the ThinOS broker login.

Hopefully I understood you right...a YouTube video would definitely be helpful.

I finally heard back from the Wyse Engineer: "Windows Server 2012 has not been tested with our thin clients yet. RDS broker on Windows Server 2008 is supported. Please let me know if you have any questions."

I will provide them this this thread to read! 

TS_Ryan,

This is fantastic information! Thank you for sharing it with us all.

 Originally Posted by DPetropolis 

TS_Ryan,

This is fantastic information! Thank you for sharing it with us all.

No problem. I have been running like this for a few weeks now with no issues from the R10L. It even works with 2012 RemoteFX, though I'm having some unrelated RemoteFX performance issues (also seen when connecting from a PC).

Looking forward to seeing Wyse's response to Server 2012 VDI. They'll pretty much be forced to finally implement the pooled connection method, which should then allow ThinOS to connect to pools on both 2008 R2 and both pools and personal VMs on 2012 without any registry modifications.

In server 2008r2,you need to create one RDSH for VM redirection if you are using VDI.In server 2012,RDCB has changed a lot compared to server 08r2.There is no Farm conception.Instead, we use the collection conception.We don't need to use the DNS RR or VM redirection to connection to the destination server or VM. All is dependent on the RDCB SQL DB.I don't know Wyse client app in IPAD whether to be supported in the Server 2012 platform.It is likely not supported.The recommended clients are win 8 and RDP 8.

To manage user connection,once a collection has been created and virtual desktops have been added to the collection, users will be able to connect to the collection and virtual desktops by logging on to the RDWeb page or by subscribing to the RemoteApp and Desktop Connections feed. If the user subscribes to the feed then the applications will appear on the Start menu of their Windows client machine.

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Any update to this? I am using a Wyse T10, connecting to a 2012 RDS Environment. I am having similar issues, but when connecting to applications. I essentially have my web server, connection broker, and session host separate. Thin Client connects and reads from web server just fine. I get application icons and everything, however when launching applications it fails. I can see in the connection properties it's actually trying to connect to the broker and not the session host. In a test environment where the broker and session host are the same, it will connect to the apps just fine.

The broker is not redirecting to the correct session host, or the Thin Client doesn't know how to understand the connection properly.

This is really not good, as this would be a great solution if worked properly.