(WVD) Windows Virtual Desktop USB Redirection Full

[Wrapmaster4500]

Hi Guys,

I was wondering if there are plans for (or if it is already available) adding USB redirection

- for Other Supported RemoteFX USB devices , which is available using RDS and MSTSC, and was previously available in Azure RemoteApp.

This was/is required for redirecting footpedals (and some other peripherals)

All tests so far seem to suggest this isn't possible.

[#2]

Exactly the same as yours but Desktop session.

Using Windows 10 Enterprise for Virtual Desktop (1903)

Had some issues with the microphone but sorted that so the USB redirection is working.

That was obviously stopping it being used. I am just curious over whether you have had issues with the foot pedal?

And if Big Hand specifically said it wasn’t supported? I suppose if Multi-User isn’t then we could deploy Server.

[#3]

@Jamesatighe 

Are Big Hand reps saying its not supported? It is. We talked to rep who got us a terminal service add on that requires the use of BigHand Hub. There's a price of course, but those add ons they provide are necessary to get footpedals to work. 

In regards other peripherals like mics or cameras, try the suggested RemoteFX USB redirection options listed above. Those give you options to choose USB devices to redirect. 

[#4]

Yeah the RemoteFX USB redirection works fine like normal for audio so all good with that :)

You have confirmed that it is supported (which is what I was questioning) and that it great. I believe that Big Hans Hub is installed. I will check whether the plugin has been obtained and installed.

I was informed that Big Hand didn’t support WVD not sure the source of that information hence why I was checking.

Thanks for confirming though.

[#5]

@Jamesatighe 

We've rolled it out to a small handful of users already. Have you tried saying terminal service environment over WVD? The add ons to get it to work is for a terminal service environment. 

They might be thinking individual user WVD instead of terminal environment. Who knows.

If you'd like me to send you some documentation on it, shoot me a DM.

[#6]

@otde5000 Very interesting thread, we are starting to get more queries regarding WVD and BigHand for some of our customers.  I'll contact them directly regarding support for WVD, as I'd like an official answer from them. To be honest, it's still new so I'd be surprised if they outright supported it.   But glad it looks like with some tweaking this can be done.

[#7]

@GrahamCross 

yes we were told that it wasn't supported but since reading subsequent messages in here decided to look into it. We now have  it working as a published APP on a windows 10 multi session hosts (WVD).

so far so good!

[#8]

To be fair there is no real reason it shouldn’t be supported.

The WVD session hosts are just RDS under the hood. And Big Hand provide terminal services plugin so there shouldn’t be an issue.

We had mixed messages from Big Hand so I would recommend you just ask for the Terminal Services plug-in and don’t necessarily mention WVD as I don’t think they actually know much about it.

[#9]

@Jamesatighe I get that's it's just WVD under the hood to a certain extent, but if you roll this into production and there is a huge issue with the software, or USB redirection starts failing etc... you have to a log a ticket, Big Word would be quite justified to say it's unsupported, potentially leaving you with a huge issue for yourself or the customer.

[#10]

@GrahamCross definitely, I 100% agree with that.

My statement was a "why is it not supported" rather than use it anyway.

We are only looking at a POC at the moment, but ultimately if it is not actually supported then it can't really be rolled into production, which is a shame.

So it seems a full RDS or Citrix environment would be needed. Which is at least double the price and requires so much more infrastructure 

Hopefully Big Hand will add support for WVD in the future.

James

[#11]

@Jamesatighe 

This is the one - I came to them asking about WVD support and they said no. Another tech on my team reworded it to terminal services and went to them and we got what we needed the tools to implement it. 

[#12]

@otde5000  I actually got a correct answer from BigHand about this now!

They have stated the terminal services plugin and components will work in WVD, but there is a known issue with the BigHand audio channel with disconnected sessions.

They gave a workaround to this if it does occur.

I then pressed them on whether WVD is supported or not and got this back

"Unfortunately it is not fully supported currently and won’t be until Microsoft fix and update the current limitations referred to the below.

Here should you have any further questions."

So it WILL work but will not be supported is how I read that. So if we went live there would have to be severe caveats!

James

[#13]

@Jamesatighe 

We don't have that many users using the foot pedal in WVD but ideally in the near future, more will be able to use it as remote work becomes more common.

For the ones we do have using the foot pedals - once we went through the steps to set it up, we haven't heard or seen of any major issues.

A possible solution to those disconnected session audio issues would be to have a timeout period before it logs you out of a disconnected session you can roll out through GPO. I believe ours is set to an hour or two before it logs you out automatically. 

[#14]

Hi james
Do you mind me asking what the issue is and workaround for it?
Thanks

[#15]

@ahewitt BigHand themselves said that they have reported to Microsoft an issue with the BigHand audio channel not reconnecting. 

They stated that

"Although the BigHand audio channel will work as expected during the first logon of the day, if the Azure Remote Desktop session is later terminated or disconnected, the audio channel will fail to automatically initialise when a subsequent connection is established"

It is 100% possible this has already been fixed in the recent Remote Desktop Client updates so you may not see it anymore.

They gave a workaround to basically kill all the msrdc.exe processes on the local machine, then restart the BigHand client if it is still running to start a new virtual channel for your local recording and playback.

I am not actually sure if this error occurs for many people. I would imagine one of your users would have seen this by now. . . 

James

[#16]

@Jamesatighe Im having another issue here with Fusion by freedom scientific.  Your workaround of killing msrdc.exe fixes it.   This tool magnifies and then connects to a remote instance of the application through the same channels for audio also.

Connect first time, works

Reconnect- doesnt work

Kill msrdc.exe  works

I tried regressing the versions also

RemoteDesktop_1.2.1026.0_x64 Same problem

RemoteDesktop_1.2.1104.0_x64 This already didn’t work

RemoteDesktop_1.2.1185.0_x64 tried this build also.  Same problem. This is the newest build.

[#17]

@Jamesatighe Hi James,  having done some significant testing i believe this error relates to these event ids 227,228, 101 in RemoteDesktopServices-RdpCoreTS  On the host

Event ID 227 Failed GetConnectionProperty' in CUMRDPConnection::QueryProperty at 3008 err=[0x80004001]

Event ID 227 'Failed CreateVirtualChannel call on this Connections Stack' in CUMRDPConnection::CreateVirtualChannel at 2622 err=[0xd0000001]

Event ID 228 Disconnect trace:CUMRDPConnection Disconnect trace:'calling spGfxPlugin->PreDisconnect()' in CUMRDPConnection::PreDisconnect at 5073 err=[0x0], Error code:0x0

I have a ticket logged with Microsoft relating to this and will post the output here.

[#18]

This is interesting to read. So it is clearly an issue with the MSDRC process somehow not releasing the audio channel.

Be interesting to see what MS come back with as seems to be an issue with anything using audio connections in this way.

[#19]

@Jamesatighe Hi James.  The other thing i noticed yesterday.  I was having inconsistent results trying to reproduce the problem.  What i found was if i closed the remote app (which is running BigHand). I'm monitoring msrdc.exe using https://www.nirsoft.net/utils/cports.html current ports.  I can see after about 15 seconds that there are some additional connections that are made and dropped.  Then if i try and open the published app again after that, i'm prompted for credentials. I enter them, then it fails and BigHand audio does not work.  If you reopen before that 15 second window the problem doesn't occur and i'm also NOT prompted for credentials.  If you stay persistently connected. It doesn't seem to occur.  You can probably replicate the behaviour yourself, assuming its not some setting we have that's causing it.  Its like the remote host is somehow closing the connection and the client is not handling that correctly.

I think the reason we are seeing more of the problem at the moment is many users working from home with poor broadband connections.