RDP Gateway via corporate proxy not connecting RDP sessions

Problem

You receive an error while attempting to connect to a remote server via a RDP Gateway. This usually occurs when using certain corporate networks or proxy servers.

Solution

Logon to the RDP Gateway server
Launch Regedit, browse to HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\TerminalServerGateway\Config\Core
Add the following registry entry
Type: REG_DWORD
Name: EnforceChannelBinding
Value: 0 (Decimal)
Reboot the server

Note: This setting will only apply once you have rebooted the RDP Gateway server

Reference: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2903333/

2014: 12/01
CATEGORY: Uncategorized
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RDP Gateway Customisation

Here are some quick notes on how to change a default installation of a RDP Gateway \ Web Access deployment.

After completing these steps you will have a central https website to logon to and launch internal RDP sessions via RDP over HTTPS.

On a Windows 2012 R2 server install and configure the following roles:

Remote Desktop Gateway
Remote Desktop Web Access

Change the default to be “This is a private computer”

Backup C:\Windows\Web\RDWeb\Pages\en-US\Default.aspx to C:\Windows\Web\RDWeb\Pages\en-US\Default.bak
Edit C:\Windows\Web\RDWeb\Pages\en-US\Default.aspx
Find “bPrivateMode = false” and change the false to true

Change the default IIS page to be the RDPWeb logon page

Launch the IIS manager console
Select Sites, Default Web Site
Select HTTP Redirect, select Redirect requests to this destination
Add /RDPWeb/Pages/en-US in the area provided

Change the defaults of the generated RDP connections

Launch the IIS manager console
Select Sites, Default Web Site, RDPWeb, Pages
Select Application Settings
Make the following changes

DefaultTSGateway – Address of the RDP Access Web external website
PrivateModeSessionTimeoutIn… – Time in seconds e.g. 480
xClipboard, xDriveRedirection, xPnPRedirection, xPortRedirection, xPrinterRedirection – Set to false if you want to disable them

Change the setting so that the RDP credentials will only be prompted once

Backup C:\Windows\Web\RDWeb\Pages\en-US\Desktops.aspx to Backup C:\Windows\Web\RDWeb\Pages\en-US\Desktops.bak
Edit Backup C:\Windows\Web\RDWeb\Pages\en-US\Desktops.aspx
Find “Authentication lelve:i:2\n” and add the following line under it RDPstr += “promptcredentialonce:i:1\n”;

2014: 12/01
CATEGORY: Microsoft
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Hype Cycle

Interesting graph and concept used by Gartner

Wikipedia Definition: “The Hype Cycle is a branded graphical tool developed and used by IT research and advisory firm Gartner for representing the maturity, adoption and social application of specific technologies.”

Five phases

Each Hype Cycle drills down into the five key phases of a technology’s life cycle.

No.	Phase	Description
1	Technology Trigger	A potential technology breakthrough kicks things off. Early proof-of-concept stories and media interest trigger significant publicity. Often no usable products exist and commercial viability is unproven.
2	Peak of Inflated Expectations	Early publicity produces a number of success stories—often accompanied by scores of failures. Some companies take action; many do not.
3	Trough of Disillusionment	Interest wanes as experiments and implementations fail to deliver. Producers of the technology shake out or fail. Investments continue only if the surviving providers improve their products to the satisfaction of early adopters.
4	Slope of Enlightenment	More instances of how the technology can benefit the enterprise start to crystallize and become more widely understood. Second- and third-generation products appear from technology providers. More enterprises fund pilots; conservative companies remain cautious.
5	Plateau of Productivity	Mainstream adoption starts to take off. Criteria for assessing provider viability are more clearly defined. The technology’s broad market applicability and relevance are clearly paying off.

Reference: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hype_cycle

2014: 11/19
CATEGORY: Uncategorized
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Citrix Virtual Desktop Handbook 7.x

Awesome deployment guide from Citrix , updated to include version 7.6:

Download here: Citrix Virtual Desktop Handbook (7x)

Reference: http://support.citrix.com/article/CTX139331

2014: 11/19
CATEGORY: Citrix
Citrix XenApp
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Lync 2013 Peer to Peer Video Freezing

Problem

When doing a Peer to Peer Lync 2013 video call, the video stream freezes or pauses for up to 30 seconds, but the audio continues to function as usual. This freeze will happen randomly, and the video stream will recover.

Solution

Configure the network adapter to 100Mbps full duplex and retest.

2014: 10/31
CATEGORY: Lync
Microsoft
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Manually create bootable Windows install media

1. Plug in a USB device that is 4GB or bigger.

2. Find the disk number of the USB device:

Open up an elevated command shell, run diskpart.exe.

Within diskpart, run ‘list disk’. The output will list all disks on the computer. From looking at the size, infer which one is your USB disk and note down the disk number.

3. Correctly format the USB device:

Run diskpart.exe and enter the below commands one by one.

select disk <disknumber of your USB disk>

clean

create partition primary

format fs=ntfs quick label=Win764

active

assign letter=Q

exit

Now you should see a “Q:” drive in Windows Explorer. This is your USB disk.

4. Mount the 64-bit Win7 ISO:

Windows does not have a built-in ISO mount feature. So you will have to use a third-part tool. I suggest “Virtual CloneDrive”. Once you have downloaded and installed Virtual Clonedrive, navigate to the folder that your ISO file is in, in Windows Explorer. Right-click on the ISO file and select “Mount”. After this, all your ISO files should show up in a drive called “I:”.

5. Populate the USB disk:

Copy all files and folders from I: to Q:.

6. UnMount the ISO:

In Explorer, navigate to the folder that has the ISO, right-click and select UnMount.

7. Boot from USB:

2014: 10/17
CATEGORY: Microsoft
Uncategorized
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Hyper-V Appliance Import Error

Problem

You download a Hyper-v appliance, in this example I have downloaded the XenMobile 9.0 Application Controller for Hyper-V appliance, you extract the downloaded *.zip file into the following folder\files structure.

When you try import it into Hyper-v you receive the following error “Hyper-V encountered an error while loading the virtual machine configuration…”

Solution

Rename the “D:\appc_9.0.0.97000.HyperV\Virtual Machines\95d31000-2f4f-4b63-b8d9-4870e6994980.exp” to “D:\appc_9.0.0.97000.HyperV\Virtual Machines\95d31000-2f4f-4b63-b8d9-4870e6994980.old” , close the import wizard and rerun it.

2014: 07/08
CATEGORY: Citrix
Uncategorized
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Powershell Command To find Event IDs

The below poweshell script will provide a count of Citrix Server1 and Server2 flash redirection errors 56 and 51.

$serverlist = “Server1”, “Server2”

$yesterday = (Get-Date) – (New-TimeSpan -Day 1)

foreach ($server in $serverlist)

{

$server; get-winevent “Citrix-Multimedia-Flash/Admin” -computername $server | where {$_.TimeCreated -ge $yesterday -and $_.id -eq “56” -or $_.id -eq “51”} | measure-object -Property id

}