On trying to connect to a Windows Server 2012 Remote Desktop Session Host published desktop I got the following error from my Remote Desktop Client:
Remote Desktop Connection This computer can't connect to the remote computer. Try connecting again. If the problem continues, contact the owner of the remote computer or your network administrator. [OK] [Help]
Which was annoying, I’d just built the RDSH server and via Server Manager – Remote Desktop Services everything looked ok for it: the TermService was running, Remote Desktop Services and Remote Desktop Session Host roles were present. Drilling down into Collections and looking in the collection containing the published desktop and this particular RDSH server, Allow New Connections was set to True.
Going back to Server Manager, Remote Desktop Services, Servers, I selected the connection broker server. In the Events section there were three events listed at the time when my client connection failed:
Log Name: Microsoft-Windows-TerminalServices-SessionBroker/Admin Source: Microsoft-Windows-TerminalServices-SessionBroker Date: 22/08/2013 11:26:16 Event ID: 802 Task Category: RD Connection Broker processes connection request Level: Error Keywords: User: NETWORK SERVICE Computer: RDCB2012-01.rcmtech.co.uk Description: RD Connection Broker failed to process the connection request for user RCMTECH\user. Error: Element not found. Log Name: Microsoft-Windows-TerminalServices-SessionBroker-Client/Operational Source: Microsoft-Windows-TerminalServices-SessionBroker-Client Date: 22/08/2013 11:26:16 Event ID: 1296 Task Category: RD Connection Broker Client processes request from a user Level: Error Keywords: User: NETWORK SERVICE Computer: RDCB2012-01.rcmtech.co.uk Description: Remote Desktop Connection Broker Client failed while getting redirection packet from Connection Broker. User : RCMTECH\user Error: Element not found. Log Name: Microsoft-Windows-TerminalServices-SessionBroker-Client/Operational Source: Microsoft-Windows-TerminalServices-SessionBroker-Client Date: 22/08/2013 11:26:16 Event ID: 1306 Task Category: RD Connection Broker Client processes request from a user Level: Error Keywords: User: NETWORK SERVICE Computer: RDCB2012-01.rcmtech.co.uk Description: Remote Desktop Connection Broker Client failed to redirect the user RCMTECH\user. Error: NULL
Which turned out to be caused by Remote Connections not being enabled for the server. This is the setting that you control via a right-click on the pop-up Start button – System – Remote settings. You can also change it via a script, I have one here. I clearly still need to add that setting into my automated server build process!
