Multiple Terminal Servers

[Not so Smart]

Going to have three, possibly four Terminal Servers
running on Windows Server 2000 SP4 Member Servers.
Windows 2000 Advanced Server is not an option
financially. Neither is Citrix. Have two Domain
Controllers and one Exchange Server running on a Windows
2000 Member Server.

Perfectly fine setting up one Terminal Server as far as
installing applications ( MS Office XP, Adobe Acrobat
Reader 6.0.1, Winzip 8.1 and five other boxed
Applications )is concerned. Going to lock the Terminal
Server down according to the Microsoft Knowledge Base
article ( included in this is folder redirection ). I
then need to simply log on as each user and create that
user's profile and configure all of the applications and
move on to the next one. No problem with one Terminal
Server and 10 users!

However, when a second and third Terminal Server is
introduced ( and possibly a fourth )and I have 73 users I
am no longer sure. Do I need to install those same eight
applications on all of my Terminal Servers? That does not
seem right. What about the user's profile?

Would like to not have to specify 24 certain users to use
specifically TS01 ( configured via the RDP software ),
specify yet another 24 users to use specifically TS02 and
finally specify the last 23 user to use specifically
TS03. We will be using RDP to access the LAN Terminal
Servers. However, several of the Sales people will
occassionally access the Terminal Servers via a WAN link.

I would like some sort of load balancing. I am thinking
about WTSGateway Pro from Claudio Rodriguez. Anyone have
any comments on that product? Looks good - and the price
is right!

Printing should not be a problem. I guess that only time
will tell on that one!

Thank you,

Not so smart

 

[Guest]

eYou ned something to load balance the sessions. Since you've stated Citrix is out of your pricerange, look at alternatives like WTSGateway Pro by Terminal-Services.net.

http://www.workthin.com/tshw.htm

Yes, you need to install the programs on each of the servers (they should be as identical as possible) and users should have roaming terminal server profiles, so their desktop settings are the same regardless of the server they're connecting to.

http://www.workthin.com/tshta.htm