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I have a Dell R710 with 72GB of memory running Hyper-V. Within Hyper-V I have a Windows 2008 (32-bit) VM running Terminal Services. How do I allocate memory so that any user who connects to this Terminal Server (from their thin-client) is allocated 2GB (or whatever amount I choose) of memory? Currently I have provisioned the TS with 2GB of memory but it seems that this is shared among all that connect.

Please let me know if there is further information I can provide.

Thank you.

Update 1: What I'm looking to accomplish with this server is setting up a VDI to allow users to connect from thin-clients from within our network. They will also have to connect from outside our network via VPN which is already in place. Am I able to set this up using Windows Server 2008 (not R2) because I have a 16-bit application which needs to be supported. Unfortunately it's not a candidate as a Remote App.

JohnyD
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    I don't think there is any way you can do this. Perhaps you need a VDI solution instead? – Zoredache Jun 01 '10 at 17:09
  • Terminal Services (now known as Remote Desktop Services) is a VDI solution. – JohnyD Jun 01 '10 at 17:16
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    No it isn't. VDI means that every user gets a virtual machine to themselves. RD means that every user gets their own WinSession on a single Server machine. – mfinni Jun 01 '10 at 18:18
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    Edit - Server 2008 TS on its own isn't VDI. You can use it as part of a VDI, but I understand it's most commonly used to serve desktops. Are you using the Connection Broker and VECD, the whole suite, to actually server VDI instances? – mfinni Jun 01 '10 at 18:35
  • That's exactly the information I'm looking to obtain. What you please explain how to configure it as a VDI? – JohnyD Jun 02 '10 at 11:13
  • OK, so if you're looking to implement VDI but don't have all the pieces, you need to start reading up on it. Server 2008 with TS alone does not get you a VDI solution. – mfinni Jun 02 '10 at 13:28
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    So remote apps (and servering applications ) is not VDI. VDi require different and specific licensing as well as (usually) more resources becasue you are now server up entire partitions to your users rather than shared applications. Definitly look at VDI and what it entails but it sounds to me like you are looking for terminal services- not VDI. Take a look at brian maddens vdi vs tS video here: http://www.brianmadden.com/blogs/videos/archive/2009/03/23/terminal-services-versus-vdi-brian-s-presentation-from-vmworld-europe-2009.aspx – Jim B Jun 02 '10 at 16:22
  • @Jim - if you read his history of posts, it seems like he started by trying to do something with TS, but now is trying to see if VDI will do it, but doesn't know where to start. – mfinni Jun 02 '10 at 18:08
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    @mfinni- yes I understand that. Going from TS to VDI is like going from formula 1 race cars to nascar truck racing. Both Are server based computing technologies but have very different implications and requirements. If as stated he just wants thin clients that is most certanly not a reason to implement VDI. That is why I pointed him to the video which gives a great explanation as to when you should go VDI and when to go TS. In my experience usually when folks want to go VDI they don't realize how expensive it is. – Jim B Jun 02 '10 at 19:42
  • Thank you, Jim. That video was incredibly helpful. VDI definitely has its benefits (live migration, suspended sessions, etc) but the additional costs outweigh the benefits. I'm still confused about memory provisioning for a TS. If I give the server 2GB of memory... does that mean 2GB are consumed each time a user connects? – JohnyD Jun 07 '10 at 13:39

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You could use Windows System Resource Manager to limit memory. There are 2 policies specific to terminal services (Equal_Per_User, Equal_Per_Session) prebuilt. On the face of it (without any details as to why you would want to do this) this seems like a really bad idea as you would usually run out of kernel memory (page table entries) before you run out of physical ram and limiting the amount of ram would exacerbate the problem

Jim B
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