Hey folks, I’m Omair Gillani, a program manager on the Remote Desktop Virtualization team. Windows Server 2012 and Windows Server 2012 R2 make deploying and managing Remote Desktop Services (RDS) super easy by using a single pane of glass management interface. However, RDS deployments can get complex, where an issue with any one of the multiple infrastructure components (such as networking, storage, or Active Directory) can cause unexpected issues with the deployment. Diagnosing the exact root cause for a failure can be tricky given that the relevant logs can be spread across multiple servers in the deployment.
The RDV team is very excited to announce the availability of the RDS Diagnostic Tool, a tool designed to help troubleshoot and diagnose issues with RDS deployments. The RDS Diagnostic Tool can be used to get the current status of an RDS deployment or diagnose various types of issues in the deployment. The tool has several tabs that display different aspects of the deployment.
You can download the tool from the Microsoft Download Center at http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=40890 .
Prerequisites for running the tool:· The tool needs to be run under a user account with Administrator privileges on all the servers of the RDS deployment.
· The tool needs to be launched on the RD Connection Broker server.
· The tool supports Windows Server 2012 and Windows Server 2012 R2 deployments (no support for Windows Server 2008 R2).
Details
Let’s look at some of the details of the tool. The tool is divided into five different tabs. Each tab displays specific information for the deployment.
Virtual Machines tab
The Virtual Machines tab gathers detailed information about all the virtual machines on the Hyper-V servers.
Single-click: The administrator can click a particular row to see more detailed information in the side panel. Each time a row is clicked, only that row gets refreshed.
User Disks: Shows the current User Disk settings of the virtual machine. If there is any error in applying the user profile, the “Profile” should show as “Temp” and there will be a corresponding error under “Error.” If the virtual machine has successfully attached a user profile, the “Profile” should show as “Roaming.”
Tracking: Lists the current status of the virtual machine from the perspective of the RD Virtualization Host role service. If the RD Virtualization Host server failed to monitor the virtual desktop, there will be an error under “Boot error.”
Broker: Shows whether the RD Virtualization Host server is actively connected to an RD Connection Broker server and the error if it isn’t.
Collections tabThe tab gathers information about all the collections supported by the RD Connection Broker server.
Single-click: When a collection is selected, it displays more detailed information about each collection in the side panel.
Provisioning tabThis tab displays all the provisioning jobs—running, completed, failed—that were run by the RD Connection Broker server.
If a row is selected, the tool shows the job report and all the related events of this provisioning job. Events are gathered from all the RD Virtualization Host servers as well as from the RD Connection Broker server.
This tab also actively monitors new provisioning jobs and does not require a refresh.
Connections tabThis tab lists the last 300 connections that have been made through the RD Connection Broker server.
The results can also be filtered in two ways:
1. User: User name – Displays only the connections made by a specific user.
2. VM: Virtual machine name – Displays only the information associated with a specific virtual desktop.
Database tabWhen the Display button is clicked, the entire database from the RD Connection Broker server is displayed in the text box.
Menu options
Tracing: Press F4This allows administrators to collect all the Events and Traces from all the computers in the deployment with just one click.
1. Pressing F4 displays the tracing dialog box.
2. To start the tracing on all the computers, the Administrator should press Start .
3. After the error is reproduced, the Administrator should click Repro and Stop .
4. The following Events and Traces log files are collected. These files can be compressed and sent to Microsoft through your respective Customer Support Services (CSS) representative.
Log files: Press F1This allows administrators to collect all the information of the deployment and put it in a single log file. A log file will be created in the same location that the tool is running.
Refresh: Press F5This refreshes all the information currently being displayed by the tool.
Summary
The RDS Diagnostic Tool will help improve the reliability of RDS deployments by enabling IT administrators to identify and fix issues quickly. Keep an eye out for updates on the Microsoft Download Center as we improve the tool in our effort to help make the management of RDS deployments easier.