Window Server 2012 RDS

Published on 25 October 2012

Microsoft has just released Windows 2012. Microsoft has made a lot of improvements to both the RDS as VDI components. Several articles are already published describing those enhancements, but I did not see a complete overview of the whole suite. In this review I will go through all steps for the Session Host (SBC) component. I will start with the installation.

Installation

Microsoft improved the whole installation procedure a lot. It’s now possible to add roles and features via Server Manager to remote servers. This enables a much easier deployment of RDS infrastructures. This can already been seen when starting the add roles and features component. Besides the Role based or Feature based option a new option is displayed called Remote Desktop Services Installation. RDS can still be installed and configured via the Role based option; this will show the same set-up as Windows 2008R2 for example. The specific RDS option makes it easier to set-up a RDS infrastructure, because it is based on scenarios (and therefore adding the necessary components).

Citrix XenApp 6

Published on 11 May 2010

On the 24th of March 2010 Citrix releases XenApp 6 also known as XenApp for Windows 2008 R2. In this article I will review this first Citrix version available for Windows 2008 R2. Notice that this XenApp 6 also will only run on Windows 2008 R2 (so no Windows 2003 or Windows 2008 R1 support). (Logically) I will focus on the most interesting new features and how already existing features have changed. For more information on other non changed features check the reviews of earlier reviews of Citrix XenApp/Presentation Server on this website.

Windows 2008 R2 RDS

Published on 03 November 2009

I already wrote this article earlier in which I describe the new features and enhancements in the Windows 2008R2 release. If you have wrote the article you have noticed that Microsoft changed a lot to the Terminal Services infrastructure. One of the major changes is the addition of a VDI solution into the previous Terminal Services architecture. This addition is causing the first change, which is not technical: the name change from Terminal Services to Remote Desktop Services. In addition all the roles have been renamed to reflect the new name. It is import to know and understand these new roles names for the rest of this review. Therefore I will display the changed names again.

Previous name	Name in Windows Server 2008 R2
Terminal Services	Remote Desktop Services
Terminal Server	Remote Desktop Session Host (RD Session Host)
Terminal Services Licensing (TS Licensing)	Remote Desktop Licensing (RD Licensing)
Terminal Services Gateway (TS Gateway)	Remote Desktop Gateway (RD Gateway)
Terminal Services Session Broker (TS Session Broker)	Remote Desktop Connection Broker (RD Connection Broker)
Terminal Services Web Access (TS Web Access)	Remote Desktop Web Access (RD Web Access)
Terminal Services Manager	Remote Desktop Services Manager
Terminal Services Configuration	Remote Desktop Session Host Configuration
TS Gateway Manager	Remote Desktop Gateway Manager
TS Licensing Manager	Remote Desktop Licensing Manager
TS RemoteApp Manager	RemoteApp Manager

In this review I will focus on the RD Session Host (previously known as Terminal Server, so I will not go into detail about the VDI component. However most parts described in this review are applicable to the VDI component like the RD Web Access and RD Connection Broker, but I won't describe the RD Virtualization Host component and corresponding configuration in this article (probably I will make a separate article about is later on). Because I already mentioned the new enhancements and features in the previous article I will concentrate in describing the configuration of these new features and enhancements.

Read more: Windows 2008 R2 RDS

Netman Desktop Manager

Published on 25 June 2009

When I was searching for User Management Product I stumbled to Netman Desktop Manager. But when I read actually the homepage of the manufacturer they were presenting as a Server Based Computing product (but it could be used with Citrix Presentation Server/XenApp), but it is offering also some kind of application management. This combination made me curious so I decided to download the product and evaluate the product. In this review the results are written down.

Read more: Netman Desktop Manager

Citrix XenApp 5

Published on 30 October 2008

With the acquisition of XenServer Citrix again changed most of the product names again. Most people just became used to Citrix Presentation Server (instead of Metaframe), but the product has already another name called XenApp. Version 5 is the new version of Citrix Presentation Server, which is fully labeled XenApp.

Just like the previous Citrix Presentation Server 4.5 review I will go through the features already available in previous versions and the new versions.

Read more: Citrix XenApp 5

Windows 2008 Terminal Services

Published on 17 April 2008

In February 2008 Microsoft launched the long awaited Windows Server 2008. From the start it was already known that the Terminal Services functionality would be extended and through the time those new functionalities were introduced in the several beta versions which were launched and even some functionalities even disappeared again. Finally the following new features are available in the final version:

Terminal Services RemoteApp

Terminal Services Web Access

Terminal Services Gateway

Terminal Services User Based Session Broker

Terminal Services Easy Print

Plug and Play redirection for Media Players and Digital Camera's

Single SignOn for Terminal Services

Display Enhancements

In this review of Windows 2008 Terminal Services I first would show you the installation process of these components, followed by a brief overview of the new features and other changes to components that were already available within Windows 2003 Terminal Services.

Read more: Windows 2008 Terminal Services

Jetro COCKPIT 3.6 SR1

Published on 26 March 2007

Jetro COCKPIT 3.6 SR1

Jetro Platforms, with their R&D centre based in Israel, delivers with Jetro COCKPIT a complete Server Based Computing product based on Microsoft Terminal Services and the RDP protocol.

What does offer Jetro in this market space where still more and more players are attending?

- Published Applications and application access management;
- Scaleable Load Balancing;
- Printing solution;
- Software license metering;
- Monitoring and reporting facilities;
- Secure access via the Internet;
- Virtual Desktops;
- And more.

Read more: Jetro COCKPIT 3.6 SR1

Citrix Presentation Server 4.5

Published on 26 March 2007

Probably the release of the newest version of Citrix Presentation Server 4.5 created the most post and blog entries on the community websites. I never saw so much previews and quick looks of CPS45 in comparison with earlier releases. There were so much pre(reviews) I even doubted to write my own review of this product. On the other hand a website were most of the content is about reviews it would be a little bit silly that a review of the market leader in SBC product would be absent.

In comparison with Citrix Presentation Server 4 Citrix introduced the following new features: Health Monitoring & recovery, Configuration Changes logging, ADFS support, enhanced product security, management enhancements, graphics improvements and the biggest application streaming.

In this review I will go quickly through the current and new features.

Read more: Citrix Presentation Server 4.5

Propalms V5

Published on 24 January 2007

The history of this product goes back to the time that there were just a few players on the SBC market. One of these products was called Canaveral. Canaveral was bought by Tarantella. This company already had an equivalent for this kind of products for the UNIX environment and renamed the product to Tarantella Global Desktop. Not long after this acquisition of Canaveral Tarantella it selves was bought by Sun. Sun did not do bought Tarantella for the Windows Terminal Server product and sold it after a few months to Propalms.

Propalms TSE is now at version 5. Because of all these items it is time to review the product and compare the product with the previous Tarantella Global Desktop release.

Read more: Propalms V5

2X Application Server

Published on 24 October 2006

2X is already known for its thin client solution called 2X ThinClientServer. Almost a year ago the company released 2X LoadBalancer, which made it possible to balance a Terminal Server based on resource usage. Now 2X has launched 2X ApplicationServer version 4.

2X ApplicationServer is a full SBC product offering Published Application, Seamless Integration, Load Balancing, SSL support and clients for several platforms.

Are you already curious about this product? Ok, let's not waste any more time and let's take a look at this product.

Read more: 2X Application Server

Ericom PowerTerm WebConnect 5.5

Published on 09 August 2006

Ericom is a company founded in 1993 with several offices and a R&D center in Israel. Ericom develops solutions that enable secure, centrally managed connectivity to applications running on Windows Terminal Servers as well as on numerous types of legacy systems (for example AS/400, Mainframe, VMS, Unix types and many more) and VNC connections. In recent years Ericom have extended their focus to the SBC market with their Powerterm Webconnect product, so Ericom also covers the same market as Citrix Presentation Server, Provision Framework Enterprise, GoGlobal and so on. Ericom was the first manufacturer which supported the 64bit platform in the SBC market, so let's take a look at their latest release version 5.5.1.

Read more: Ericom PowerTerm WebConnect 5.5

Thinworx 2.8

Published on 09 August 2006

In the SBC market Citrix is still the best known and most used product to extend Microsoft Terminal Servers. In the time competive products are announced and sometimes products (quietly) disappears. One of the newer products is Thinworx of Genuit. This Canadian company released version 2.8 in January.

Thinworx just like product uses Microsoft Terminal Server as platform, so the RDP protocol is used. The users connects to the applications using a portal server bases on Internet Information Server. One of the biggest improvements within this version Genuit is Secure Router component. This component has the same function as the Citrix Secure Gateway, but it is now rebuild to a full SSL VPN solution including with a VPN component in the Thinworx client.

The Thinworx implementation exists of the following components:
- Controller. This is the main component of the product. is responsible for managing communications between all
Application Servers and Portals within a farm. Only one Controller can be implemented within a single farm. The THINWORX Controller is also the primary point of administration. Some tasks are monitoring the health, load balancing, session establishment, catalogs available applications and so on.
- Application servers. This component is add-on on the Terminal Servers to provide the Thinworx functionality providing the applications to the end-users.
- Portal. This component provided by the website is the central location for the client to connect to and launch the applications.
- AdServer. This component makes it possible to add predefined banners for advertisement spaces.
- Secure Router. This component makes is possible to connect to the Thinworx environment using secure channels using SSL VPN.
- Client. This component is needed on the client to use the Thinworx environment.

Read more: Thinworx 2.8

Provision Networks Enterprise 5.4

Published on 09 August 2006

Provision have developed lots of add-ons products for Terminal Server and Citrix servers.
These add-on products can be purchased per product or in two complete packages, called Management Framework.
There are two flavors:
- the standard edition, which includes all products except the Provision-IT, Web-IT, Secure-IT and Proxy-IT packages.
- the enterprise edition, which includes all products (including Provision-IT, Web-IT, Secure-IT and Proxy-IT packages).
The Standard edition can be used on Microsoft Terminal servers or Citrix servers (actually these are add-on which can be used with every dedicated SBC product). The Enterprise includes additional products. These product extends Microsoft Terminal Server with Application Publishing, Seamless Windows, Intelligent Load Balancing, credentials pass-through, web-enabled access and SSL-enabled access.

In this article we are reviewing the extensions which are only available in the Enterprise version. The standard edition tools, which are also available in this enterprise version are reviewed in another article.

Read more: Provision Networks Enterprise 5.4

HOBLink with Enhanced Terminal Services

Published on 09 August 2006

Hob had lots of product for all kinds of connectivity to several systems. With HOBlink JWT you can make a connection with Windows Terminal Servers. It's actually just a java client using RDP to connect to Terminal Server servers from different platforms. Yes, indeed, there are other freeware client available so we can not imagine that a company just buys JWT only even the HOB client adds some extra functionality like printer mapping. Normally the customer will also buy HOBLink Enhanced Terminal Services (ETS), which need to be installed on the Terminal Servers and where this review will focus on.

Read more: HOBLink with Enhanced Terminal Services

GrapOn GoGlobal 3.0

Published on 09 August 2006

Unlike most SBC Product Go Global does not use Microsoft Terminal Services for their product, but a webserver. Graphon just release version 3 with the following new features: session shadowing, session reconnect, load balancing and pass-through authentication. Features you really want to have in your SBC product. With this version time has come to review Go Global in depth.

Read more: GrapOn GoGlobal 3.0

Tarantella/Propalms Global Desktop 4.0

Published on 09 August 2006

A while ago Tarantella acquired NewMoon. After acquiring they released Global Desktop for Windows, which actually was still Canaveral iQ renamed to Tarantella. Tarantella now has version 4 available where almost no more referrals to NewMoon or Canaveral and also some improved options.

Read more: Tarantella/Propalms Global Desktop 4.0

Microsoft Terminal Services 2003

Published on 09 August 2006

All other SBC products uses the Microsoft Terminal Server as their basis functionality. Even Citrix Metaframe requires the installation of Microsoft Terminal Server. So their's no doubt about that you use MS Terminal Server in a Windows Server Based Computing. Why would you write a complete article if you need to use this product whatever SBC product you want to implement?

The answer is actually very simple. Do you need the extra functionality the other SBC offers, in other words: Is the standard Microsoft Terminal Service functionality enough for the organisation? In this article we will try to describe the functionality of MS Terminal Server including the installation and configuration of this product.

Read more: Microsoft Terminal Services 2003

Citrix Presentation Server 4

Published on 09 August 2006

A while ago the facto standard SBC manufacturer Citrix released their latest version of their Access Suite, included the newest version of their Presentation Server (now without the Metaframe name in the product name). With this new version Citrix again is pushing their competitors to the limit. In comparison with Metaframe Presentation Server 3.0 the product is really extended with lot of new cool features.

An enumeration of the best new features: Application Isolation Environments, Virtual IP addresses, new Printer subsystem including EMF-based universal printing, The Citrix licensing service now supports Microsoft Clustering, CPU workload management, Virtual memory optimization management, USB synchronization for PDAs, TWAIN imaging devices virtual channel and Windows key combinations can be transparently passed through to the remote server.

Citrix did add a lot of very long awaited options in this release, so let's go to take a look quickly.

Read more: Citrix Presentation Server 4