Adding an RD Session Host

RD Session Host requirements

An RD Session Host must have the Remote Desktop Services (RDS) role installed. You can install RDS right from the RAS Console, as described later in this section.

To push install the RAS RD Session Host Agent on a server, the following requirements must be met:

• The firewall must be configured on the server to allow push installation. Standard SMB ports (139 and 445) need to be open. See also Port Reference for the list of ports used by Parallels RAS.
• SMB access. The administrative share (\\server\c$) must be accessible. Simple file sharing must be enabled.
• Your Parallels RAS administrator account must have permissions to perform a remote installation on the server. If it doesn't, you'll be asked to enter credentials of an account that does.
• The RD Session Host should be joined to an AD domain. If it's not, the push installation may not work and you will have to install the Agent on the server manually. See Installing the Agent manually section.

Note: The rest of this section applies to regular RD Session Hosts only. If you are looking for the information on how to add an RD Session Host based on a RAS Template, see Grouping and Cloning RD Session Hosts.

Quickly add an RD Session Host

You can quickly add an RD Session Host to a site from the Start category in the RAS Console. This process is described in the Setting Up a Basic Parallels RAS Farm section.

The rest of this section describes how to add an RD Session Host from the Farm category. Compared to using the Start category, this process consists of more steps but gives you more options.

Adding an RD Session Host

To add an RD Session Host:

1. In the RAS Console, navigate to Farm > Site > RD Session Hosts.
2. Click Tasks > Add.
3. In the dialog that opens, specify the following:
   • Server. Specify the server IP address or FQDN.
   • Add firewall rules. Automatically configure the firewall on the server to meet Parallels RAS requirements. See Port Reference for the list of ports used by Parallels RAS.
   • Install RDS role. Install the RDS role in Windows running on the server.
   • Enable Desktop Experience. Enable the Desktop Experience feature in Windows running on the server. This option is enabled only if the Install RDS role option (above) is selected. The option applies to Windows Server 2008 R1/R2 and Windows 2012 R1/R2 on which the Desktop Experience feature is not enabled by default.
   • Restart server if required. Restart the server if necessary. Please note that this option is ignored if a restart is pending on a local machine (i.e. the restart of a local machine will not be forced).
   • Specify users or groups to be added to the Remote Desktop Users group. This option allows you to add Parallels RAS users or groups to the Remote Desktop Users group in Windows running on the server. This is necessary for your Parallels RAS users to be able to access published resources hosted by an RD Session Host. If a Parallels RAS user is not a member of the Remote Desktop Users group on a given RD Session Host, they will be denied access to its published resources. Select this option and then use the [+] icon below it to specify users or groups.
4. Click Next.
5. In the next step, a checking is performed if the RAS RD Session Host Agent is installed on the server.

   If the agent is not installed:

   1. Click Install to push install the agent.
   2. In the Installing RD Session Host Agent dialog, select the target server.
   3. (Optional) Select the Override system credentials option to specify different credentials to connect to the server. You need to do this if the RAS admin account that you are using doesn't have permissions to perform a remote installation on the target server.
   4. Click Install to install the agent. Click Done once the agent is installed. If the push installation of the RAS RD Session Host Agent fails for any reason, you have an option to install it manually. Please see Installing the Agent Manually.
6. In the Agent Information dialog, click Add to add the RD Session Host to the Parallels RAS farm.
7. Click Apply in the Parallels RAS Console to commit the new settings.