Easiest RDS Setup

theboyrob · 9 Aug 2013 at 08:51

One of my customers is setting up a new company with users in the uk and the us and they will both want to have access to Sage at the same time and a few shared documents.

I am looking at using a Terminal Services setup for this but have a few queries!

- I was hoping to install Windows Server 2012 and enable RDP services on it (not really recommend to have RDS on a DC but this used to be possible and would keep costs down) but it seems this is pretty much impossible with server 2012. Is this the case?

-The customer already has a file server and doesn't really need a DC so is it possible to have a basic install of Windows Server 2012 with its only role being RDS. Is this possible?

-If the above would work how would I setup user access and security. Would it be a case of local user accounts and passwords like with a standard desktop OS?

Cheers!

walnuts · 9 Aug 2013 at 09:52

I don't think terminal server would work in workgroup. It seems terminal server licensing requires domain.

If you were to purchase copy of Server 2012 you would be licensed to create 2 virtual machines. Why don't you consider installing Server 2012 on hardware and enable Hyper-V. Then you can create 2 virtual machines ( 1 x Domain controller and 1 x Terminal Server). With Server 2012 virtual domain controllers are fully supported by Microsoft.

theboyrob · 9 Aug 2013 at 11:11

Thanks for the reply.

Would it not be easier to install Server 2012 as a DC on the hardware then just have one virtual machine which would do the RDS stuff?

walnuts · 9 Aug 2013 at 11:33

It's recommended to not install any other roles on hardware other than Hyper-V.

Other big advantage is if you have 2 virtual machines you can use some great virtual machine backups tools like Veeam or Altaro (has free version to backup 2 VMs). You could even use built-in tool Windows Server Backup to protect virtual machines.

theboyrob · 9 Aug 2013 at 14:30

ok thats great

thank you very much!

Caged · 9 Aug 2013 at 15:40

If this is a brand new company then is there any particular reason you're going through all of this hassle just to run Sage? I'm assuming here that there isn't a ton of historical data. Xero is very well priced and will solve this problem quite nicely for you.

theboyrob · 9 Aug 2013 at 16:21

They already have the Sage licenses and all the server licenses so apart from the hardware the costs wouldn't be too bad

Caged · 9 Aug 2013 at 16:41

OK. From the sounds of things the infrastructure isn't particularly brilliant though in terms of connectivity etc so I'd still be inclined to look at hosting the application on something like Azure. Put it on the 90 day trial before you start buying hardware.

Edit: Azure will also let you run an AD setup, so might make your life a bit easier as far as authentication goes. And if it's all a bag of crap then you haven't spent anything other than staff time on it.

Xez · 9 Aug 2013 at 19:26

How many users is this for? I have just setup a very similar setup for a client who want to access Sage Accounts, Act and data file from all over Europe. This is a cloud based setup and users access this using two factor authentication with Duo Security and then Citrix to access the applications.

Cloud based sounds ideal for your client if they are accessing it all over the world.