Adding RD Session Host to Parallels RAS Farm

Introduction

Parallels RAS is a fantastic product for SME companies. For an overview of what Parallels RAS is and the services we provide to help organizations design, deploy, and manage their RAS environments, visit Parallels RAS page.

Expanding a Parallels RAS environment often requires adding additional RD Session Hosts to accommodate increasing user demand, distribute workloads, or provide additional capacity and redundancy.

Adding a new RD Session Host to an existing Parallels RAS farm is relatively straightforward, but there are several prerequisites and configuration steps that should be considered before the server is introduced into production. The new host needs to be correctly prepared, joined to the appropriate domain, configured with the required applications and policies, and registered with the RAS infrastructure.

In this guide, I’ll walk through the process of adding a new Windows RD Session Host to an existing Parallels RAS farm, from preparing the server through to adding it to the farm and verifying that it is available for user sessions.

The examples in this article are intended for system administrators who already have a basic understanding of Windows Server, Remote Desktop Services (RDS), Active Directory, and Parallels RAS.

Prerequisites

Before adding an RD Session Host to an existing Parallels RAS farm, ensure the following requirements are met:

- A supported Windows Server installation with the latest updates.
- The server is joined to the Active Directory domain used by the RAS environment.
- Network connectivity between the Session Host, Parallels RAS infrastructure, and required domain services.
- Appropriate firewall rules and network ports are configured for RAS and RDS communication.
- An account with the required administrative permissions to install and configure the RAS components.
- RDS Client Access Licenses (CALs) are available and configured as required.
- The server has sufficient CPU, memory, and storage resources for the intended user workload.
- Access to the Parallels RAS Console with permissions to add the server to the existing farm.

Current environment

For this guide, I am using a Parallels RAS farm with all components installed on one server.
The former RD Session Host will be running on a Windows Server 2025 server.

Also the following was in place for this guide:

Domain joined Windows Server
Parallels RAS site
Active Directory
Administrative access
Remote Desktop Services Licensing

Note:

Keep in mind that when adding an extra RD Session to an existing Host Pool, you need to verify that the new server is compatible with the existing Parallels RAS farm and that the RAS components installed on the server match the farm's RAS version.

Parallels RAS installs the RD Session Host Agent as part of its RAS components, and the agent is responsible for communication between the session host and the RAS infrastructure. So incompatible agents will reduce your environments stability and even support.

With the prerequisites in place, we can start by adding the RDS Session Host to Parallels RAS.

Terms and Technologies

Host
An individual server or virtual machine that provides applications or desktops to users within a Parallels RAS environment.

Host Pools
A host pool is a group of servers (hosts) that provide the same applications or desktops to users, providing benefits such as load balancing, scalability, high availability, and simplified management.

FSLogix
A Microsoft solution that manages user profiles and application settings in virtual desktop environments, providing faster logins, consistent user experiences, and simplified profile management.

Site Default
Default settings and configurations applied automatically to all users, groups, and resources within a specific RAS site unless overridden

Adding a RDS host to your Site

1. Go to Farm -> Site -> RD Session Hosts and hit the + button in upper right corner

2. In the dialog box hit the + button again and select Add manually

3. Type the name of your RDS server and hit tab. If the RAS agent is not installed yet, you will notice the status _Not verified_. Hit Next

4. Leave all the options selected and hit Next

5. If you do not have any host pools yet, you can create one by typing a pool name and hit the + sign. If you have created a host pool before you can choose one from the list. When you are done by selecting your pool, hit Next to continue

6. Specify which users/groups you want to use for providing access to the RDS Session host. You can specify this in your host pool as well. For now we choose to use Domain users in this scenario. Hit Next

7. By default you have 3 options for profile management for a RD Session Host:
- Do not manage by RAS (Choose this if you have a profile management solution already outside of RAS)
- Use Profile Disk (This option is Superseeded and not recommended)
- FSLogix, a Microsoft solution which can be fully managed by Paralles RAS.

8. In this case we choose for FSLogix, which is already the site default in this farm with the deployment mehthod on Manual. You can also choose to install the agent from an URL, a networkshare or you can push the agent from a connection broker. Hit Next when you are done configuring.

9. Its recommended to optimize your RD Session host. Leave Enable Optimization selected with Automatic as the preferred method. You can also choose to manually choose your optimizations from the category list. This also contains a Custom Script option so you can insert your own optimazation script as well. For now we leave the defaults and continue by clicking Next

10. On the summary page review your settings and hit Next
11. For the installation of RAS RD Session Host Agent admin credentials are needed, put in the creds to continue
12. Hit Done when the installation has been finished succesfully
13. Hit Finish on the installation report to Finish the installation of the RD Session host to your farm
14. After you hit Finish you will return to the RD Session Hosts part in your farm. Don't forget to hit Apply now to commit your changes.
You will notice the Status of the Session Host is Not applied

15. After you've applied your changes you will notice the status of the RD Session Host is changed from Not applied to OK

16. You're now ready to publish applications and desktops on this RD Session Host

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