Prerequisites

As discussed in the Load Balancing Remote Desktop Session Host section, implementing load balancing for RD Session Host is performed by load balancing RDP traffic on port 3389. In essence, the LoadMaster replaces the load balancing options that come with the Microsoft RD Connection Broker. It is important to realize that starting from Windows Server 2012, in most cases, Remote Desktop Services is deployed using the Scenario-Based Deployment as part of the Server Managed in Windows Server 2012. In these cases, you automatically get an RD Connection Broker as part of your deployment. This RD Connection Broker automatically starts load balancing sessions for the RD Session Host servers in your deployment. You will want to avoid this because it will result in double load balancing.

To disable RD Connection Broker Load balancing and Use IP Address Redirection, create a Group Policy Object on the OU where your RD Session Host servers are located and set the following GPO to disabled:

Computer Configuration\Policies\Administrative Templates\Windows Components\Remote Desktop Services\Remote Desktop Session Host\RD Connection Broker\Use IP Address Redirection

Computer Configuration\Policies\Administrative Templates\Windows Components\Remote Desktop Services\Remote Desktop Session Host\RD Connection Broker\User RD Connection Broker load balancing

Disabling these options does not prevent the RD Connection Broker from allowing users to reconnect to an existing session. That functionality still operates.

Besides the Scenario-Based Deployment in Server Manager, you could also use the Role-Based Deployment and only deploy the RD Session Host servers. This would result in a set of RD Session Host servers without an RD Connection Broker, and thus the above GPO setting would not be needed.

Before configuring the LoadMaster, ensure to have the DNS names and IP addresses available for all Web Servers running the RD Session Host role.

To retrieve the RD Session Host servers in your deployment, open the Remote Desktop Management Services (RDMS) console as part of server manager, go to the Overview and refer to the Deployment Servers section as shown above.

Alternatively, use the PowerShell equivalent by running the command GET-RDServer as part of the Remote Desktop PowerShell module.

In the above example, two RD Session Hosts servers are part of this deployment.

Ensure that all RD Session Host servers are accessible on port 3389. This can be done by opening the command line and running the command telnet <IPAddressOfConnectionBroker> 3389 or use mstsc.exe to open an RDP connection to the RDP Connection Broker.

Also, ensure you have an IP address and DNS available that are used to access the load balanced RD Session Host environment. In our example, the above information was used.