Hello everyone, I am Geanina Andreiu from the Remote Desktop Virtualization Team. I’m writing today to let you know that we have published the Remote Desktop Services migration to Windows Server 2012 R2 document that will walk you through various migration scenarios for a Remote Desktop Services (RDS) deployment. This guide describes how to migrate the Remote Desktop Services roles by providing the necessary steps to prepare and migrate the roles and to verify the deployment post-migration.
To help further with the migration of existing deployments we will outline below the supported operating system (OS) upgrade paths to Windows Server 2012 R2 for all RDS roles, along with recommendations on how to upgrade in place an existing VDI deployment, with as little disruption as possible. This information can also be found in the RDS Wiki .
Upgrades from Windows Server 2012 R2 MP (Milestone Preview) to Windows Server 2012 R2 RTM will not be supported.
This document outlines the supported upgrades and interoperability for RDS features, as per Windows Client and Server guidelines.
1.1 Windows Server 2008 R2 to Windows Server 2012 R2For RDS, we support upgrade only for the following role services (see table below):
For all other roles (RD Session Host, RD Virtualization Host, RemoteFX, RD Web Access, RD Connection Broker) upgrade is blocked (same as for upgrades from Windows Server 2008 R2 to Windows Server 2012): administrators will need to uninstall the role, upgrade the OS, and then install the role again.
1.1 Windows Server 2012 to Windows Server 2012 R2
Upgrade is supported for all RDS role services (see table below):
The following matrix shows the RDS role services that are supported when upgrading from the version listed to Windows Server 2012 R2 :
2 Deployment upgrade – recommended flow
Based on the table above, upgrading in production deployments from Windows Server 2008 R2 to Windows Server 2012 R2 will not work without downtime and redeployment.
Upgrading Windows Server 2012 to Windows Server 2012 R2 deployments is possible. The deployment will be down only during the server(s) upgrade. See the following steps to keep the downtime limited to the duration of RD Connection Broker server(s).
We recommend the following flow:
1. RD Connection Broker server (s) should be the first to be upgraded. If there is an active/active (AA) setup in the deployment - all servers should be upgraded at the same time.
The deployment will not be available during the upgrade of RD Connection Broker server(s).
NOTE: It is mandatory to upgrade the RD Connection Broker server; we do not support Windows Server 2012 RD Connection Broker server in a mixed deployment with servers running Windows Server 2012 R2.
After the RD Connection Broker server(s) are running Windows Server 2012 R2, the deployment will be functional, even if the rest of the servers in the deployment are still running Windows Server 2012.
2. RD Session Host server(s) can be upgraded next to avoid downtime; during the upgrade the admin can split the servers to be upgraded by using the following two steps. All servers will be functional after the upgrade.
To upgrade the RD Session Host servers:
2.1 Step 1
2.1.1 Select a number of servers to be upgraded (i.e. half of the RD Session Host servers in the deployment)
2.1.2 Prevent new connections on the servers to be upgraded (set Allow New connections = false)
2.1.3 All sessions on the servers should be logged off
2.1.4 Remove all servers to be upgraded from the collection
2.1.5 Upgrade the servers to Windows Server 2012 R2
2.2 Step 2
2.2.1 Prevent new connections on the reaming servers (second half) to be upgraded in the collection (set Allow New connections = false)
2.2.2 Add back the upgraded servers to the collection
2.2.3 Repeat Step 2.1.3 – 2.1.5 for the second half of servers to be upgraded.
2.2.4 Add the upgraded servers back to the collection.
NOTE: If the admin decides to upgrade all servers at once, the steps 2.1.2 to 2.1.3 and 2.1.5 will need to be followed.
3. RD Virtualization Host server(s) upgrade:
3.1 Standalone RD Virtualization Host servers in the deployment : the servers should be upgraded all at once. Use the following steps to upgrade:
3.2 Multi-RD Virtualization Host server environment to be upgraded where Cluster Shared Volumes (CSV) is used for VM storage:
IMPORTANT : Ensure this path is to an empty folder for the specific VM.
NOTE : As mentioned, you will need to pre-create a new destination sub folder prior to this step. The Select Folder dialog will not allow for creation of the appropriate sub folder in this step. Click ‘Next’, and then click ‘Finished’.
3.3 Multi-RD Virtualization Host server environment to be upgraded without using Cluster Shared Volumes (CSV) for VM storage:
NOTE:
4. RD Web Access server can be upgraded anytime.
NOTE: Windows Server 2012 RD Web Access will work with a Windows Server 2012 R2 deployment.
5. RD Licensing server can be upgraded anytime.
NOTE: we support Windows Server 2012 RD Licensing in a Windows Server 2012 R2 deployment.
6. RD Gateway server can be upgraded anytime – will work with all OS versions.
NOTE: we support Windows Server 2012 RD Gateway in a Windows Server 2012 R2 deployment.
3 VDI deployment – supported guest OSsOn Windows Server 2012 R2 RD Virtualization Host servers, we support the following guest operating systems:
The table below shows the supported RD Virtualization Host s operating systems and guest operating system combinations:
NOTE:
Administrators will have the following options to upgrade VM collections:
4.1 Upgrade Managed Shared VM collections
Administrators will create a gold image with the desired OS version and use it to patch all the VMs in the pool.
We support the following patching scenarios:
- Windows 7 SP1 can be patched to Windows 8 or Windows 8.1
- Windows 8 can be patched to Windows 8.1
4.2 Upgrade Unmanaged Shared VM collectionsEnd users cannot upgrade their personal desktops. Administrators should perform the upgrade. The exact steps are still to be determined.
Note: Questions and comments are welcome. However, please DO NOT post a request for troubleshooting by using the comment tool at the end of this post. Instead, post a new thread in the RDS & TS forum . Thank you!
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