Deploying a New VDI Collection Using Scenario-Based
Deployment
I focus on a pooled scenario in this walk-through because it’s by far the most common
VDI deployment. The process is intuitive, with minimal changes required. If you do
need some personal VDI images, the personal VDI assignment is configured through
the Active Directory Users and Computers MMC snap-in via the Personal Virtual
Desktop tab. A user can be assigned only one personal desktop, and a VM can be
assigned to one user as a personal desktop. A personal desktop must not be in a VDI
pool. Make sure that the personal desktop name exactly matches the name of the VM.
The name needs to be the fully qualified domain name (FQDN), which means that you
need to give the VMs the name of the FQDN of the client OS. When using personal
virtual desktops, you need to ensure that the name of the virtual machine in Hyper-V
matches the FQDN of the OS within the virtual machine.
If I had walked through deploying VDI in Windows Server 2008 R2, this would be a
different section. I would direct you to the 50-page Microsoft Quick Start Guides that
require huge amounts of complicated configuration. Windows Server 2012 completely
changed this with the new scenario-based deployments available in Server Manager.
Remote Desktop Services deployment is now performed through Server Manager; all
of the servers that will participate in the scenario are deployed through a single wizard
to a best-practices configuration. While it is still possible to deploy and configure each
server role manually, it’s strongly discouraged and offers no advantage. The
management of Remote Desktop Services is also through Server Manager for nearly
all actions (except for licensing management and troubleshooting).
Server Manager supports deployment for all of the major scenarios, including session
virtualization with application publishing, VDI with pooled desktops, and VDI with
personal desktops. The scenario deployment also features two types of deployment.
The quick-start installs all of the required components on a single server and is
designed to be used in a test or pilot-type scenario or small environment. The standard
deployment option allows multiple servers to be selected for a more production-ready
deployment. The easiest way to understand the scenario-based deployment is to walk
through a deployment. For a session virtualization deployment, the entire process can
be performed through Server Manager, but VDI requires extra steps because of the
additional configurations required. The basic process to use RDS scenario
deployments is as follows:
1 . Launch Server Manager.
2 . From the Manage menu, select the Add Roles And Features action.
3 . Click Next on the introduction page of the Add Roles And Features Wizard.
4 . The installation type must be selected. Select the Remote Desktop Services
installation option, which performs the scenario-based deployment instead of the