In the post before we mentioned terminal services licensing ports and in this one we will deal with Terminal Services Session Directory ports.
System service name: Tssdis
Application protocol Protocol Ports
RPC TCP 135
Randomly allocated high TCP ports TCP random port number between 1024 – 65535*
For any extra info on port customization, see the “Remote Procedure Calls and DCOM”.
Everybody knows that for access terminal services it is enough to open just 3389 ports and remote clients will be able to access the terminal server.
For terminal services licensing to communicate between two servers there are few more ports that would need to be available.
This is for a scenario when you have licensing server in one site or behind firewall.
Application protocol Protocol Ports
RPC TCP 135
Randomly allocated high TCP ports TCP random port number between 1024 – 65535*
NetBIOS Datagram Service UDP 138
NetBIOS Name Resolution UDP 137
NetBIOS Session Service TCP 139
SMB TCP 445
Terminal Services Licensing communicates by using RPC over named pipes. Service has the same firewall requirements as those of the “File and Printer Sharing” feature.
Microsoft allows you to use downgrade rights and if you, let’s say, purchased licenses for Windows 2008 you can downgrade it to Windows 2003. For full list of downgrade options please use the link below.
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsserver2008/en/us/downgrade-rights.aspx
Recently we have upgrade our runtime access components from Access 2000 to Access 2007. There were questions whether Access 2007 Runtime will run without any issues under terminal services.
The answer is: it will run without any issues.
I have preliminary tests because I have run some current DB in test environment and old databases were running fine in the new Access 2007. I have noticed that some of the MDE files need to be compiled again from Access or otherwise they could generate some strange characters. After recompilation was done via Access 2007 everything was OK.
I will continue to test our current program on Access 2007 but as far as I can tell, in production it will run without problems.
Windows was unable to load the registry. This is often caused by insufficient memory or insufficient security rights.
DETAIL – Insufficient system resources exist to complete the requested service. for C:\Documents and Settings\Administrator\ntuser.dat
For more information, see Help and Support Center at http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/events.asp.
Event ID 1508
Windows cannot load the user’s profile but has logged you on with the default profile for the system.
DETAIL – Insufficient system resources exist to complete the requested service.
For more information, see Help and Support Center at http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/events.asp.
Event ID 1505
I got these two errors on one of my servers yesterday.
Accordinf to MS knowledge base the problem was on PoolUsageMaximum and the PagedPoolSize value.
You have to create a new DWORD value in HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Session Manager\Memory Management named PagedPoolSize and PoolUsageMaximum.
PoolUsageMaximum should have value of 30 and PagedPoolSize should have value ffffffff.
This happens when many users are connected to the terminal server.
I have done as Microsoft recommends,and the problem vanished but I will continue to monitor the server.
Do you wish to find out which keyboard shortcuts are available for the terminal services client?
Click on this link http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=186624
There are various shortcuts like that are similar to windows local shortcuts, for example:
CTRL+ALT+END is similar to CTRL+ALT+DEL.
ALT+PAGE UP is similar to ALT+TAB.
ALT+PAGE DOWN is similar to SHIFT+ALT+TAB.
ALT+INSERT is similar to ALT+ESC.
ALT+HOME is similar to CTRL+ESC.
CTRL+ALT+BREAK full screen and windowed
ALT+DELETE Windows menu
(….)
You have the Terminal server, and the freshly installed Terminal CALs for per user mode but your server is issuing temporary terminal CAL. What is going on?
When installed, the Terminal services licensing is configured in per device mode. So if you have installed per user cals and the server is in per device mode (you haven’t changed licensing mode), the server will issue temp terminal CALs. To fix this you will need to change the licensing mode.
Change this in Terminal Services Configuration – Server settings.
When changed to per user mode you will note that available licenses listed as “N/A” and “Issued” will not change as in per device mode.
This is because terminal services licensing per user mode is not fully implemented in Windows 2003. You will need to this on your own.
Per user terminal licensing mode is fully managed in Windows 2008.
Yesterday one of the server hanged because of printer spooler service
No one is able to log on to the server, when users try to log on there is just a blank screen.
Nobody is able to access the console because the server is in a remote datacenter, and VNC access is not working as a result. How was I able to gain access to the server?
Because I know that spoolsv is the main reason the server hanged, I logged on to the member terminal server. I needed to gain access to the hanged server services. Opening services.msc and connecting to remote terminal server gave me services from the hanged computer. Then, just a simple restart of the printer spooler brings the server back to life.
Do you have problems with slow or incomplete user log off on your terminal server?
I did, now I don’t. The problem my be with with the third party printer drivers, virus scanner and other software. As you know, the best software installation on the terminal server is only by the software that has been tested on terminal servers. If the software or driver is not designed primarily for terminal services then it is best not to install that software.
The answer to your problem could be User Profile Hive Cleanup software that kills any processes that may be left running in the Remote Session.
After I installed this on one of the terminal servers that were causing these problems, errors disappeared and users were even reporting faster log off.
Have you ever been in a situation to move licenses from one licensing server to another?
Unfortunately that is not a trivial job to do. There are few steps you will need to perform in order to move terminal CALs.
1. Install Terminal Services Licensing on the new server
2. Activate the Terminal Services Licensing Server on the new server
3. Install your terminal CALs on the new server. Licenses cannot be activated more than once, so you will have to call the Microsoft Clearinghouse. They will re-issue your CALs for installation on the new server.
* make sure that you have all the paperwork for the terminal CALs
* start the Terminal Services Licensing management, choose server Properties, choose “Telephone” on the “Connection Method”, choose your country,
* call the regional MS Clearinghouse; they will guide you
4. verify that your Terminal Server(s) can locate the new TS Licensing Server (you may need to override terminal licensing server on your terminal services server)
5. deactivate the TS Licensing Server on the old server and uninstall it
