A Closer Look At Session Broker Load Balancing In Windows Server 2008
Michel Roth has written an informative article detailing the steps necessary to set up Windows Server 2008 Terminal Services Load Balancing. Load Balancing in Windows Server 2008 is session based (as opposed to network based), and builds on a concept introduced in Window Server 2003 Enterprise Edition called Session Directory (now called Session Broker in Windows Server 2008). Fortunately, Session Broker only requires a Standard Edition license as opposed to Session Directory in Windows Server 2003.
Michel writes, “…the Load Balancing capabilities of Windows Server 2008 are built into the Session Broker feature of Windows Server 2008. There are four steps you have to take to create your own Load Balanced Terminal Server farm. Notice I used the word “farm” on purpose. Windows Server 2008 uses “farms” as a logical “grouping unit”. Not as advanced as the concept of a Citrix farm but it’s a decent start.
The four steps are:
1. Install the TS Session Broker role service on a Server
2. Populate the Session Directory Computers local group
3. Join the Terminal Servers to the Session Broker and make them participate in the Load Balancing (you could just do session reconnection and no Load Balancing)
4. Add DNS entries for all Terminal Servers in the same farm.”
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John Says:
June 10th, 2007 at 4:43 pm
Thanks for the info. Keeping up to date with all the MS changes is not always easy, we are still running a Windows 2000 TM server and it is normally at 100% CPU running a DOS app.