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Configuring DNS for RD Connection Broker Load Balancing

  • Article

Updated: March 2, 2011

Applies To: Windows Server 2008 R2

To load balance sessions in an RD Session Host server farm, you can use the RD Connection Broker Load Balancing feature together with Domain Name System (DNS) round robin. To configure DNS, you must create a DNS host resource record for each RD Session Host server in the farm that maps the RD Session Host server’s IP address to the RD Session Host server farm name in DNS.

The following procedure provides the steps to configure DNS on a Windows Server 2008 R2-based domain controller.

You must be a member of the Domain Admins, Enterprise Admins, or the DnsAdmins group to complete this procedure.

To add DNS entries for each RD Session Host server in the farm

  1. Open the DNS snap-in. To open the DNS snap-in, log on to a computer where the DNS snap-in has been installed, click Start, point to Administrative Tools, and then click DNS.

  2. Expand the server name, expand Forward Lookup Zones, and then expand the domain name.

  3. Right-click the appropriate zone, and then click New Host (A or AAAA).

  4. In the Name (uses parent domain name if blank) box, type the RD Session Host server farm name.

    The farm name is the virtual name that clients will use to connect to the RD Session Host server farm. Do not use the name of an existing server. For management purposes, we recommend that you use the same farm name that you specified when you configured the RD Session Host servers to join a farm in RD Connection Broker.

  5. In the IP address box, type the IP address of an RD Session Host server in the farm.

  6. Click Add Host.

  7. Repeat steps three through six for each RD Session Host server in the farm.

Important

You must specify the same farm name in the Name (uses parent domain name if blank) box for each DNS entry. 

For example, if you have three RD Session Host servers in a farm named FARM1, with IP addresses of 192.168.1.20, 192.168.1.21, and 192.168.1.22, the entries would look similar to the following:

    Farm1     Host(A)     192.168.1.20
    Farm1     Host(A)     192.168.1.21
    Farm1     Host(A)     192.168.1.22
  1. When you are finished, click Done.

Note

By default, DNS round robin is enabled when using DNS on a Windows Server 2008 R2-based domain controller. The Enable round robin setting is available on the Advanced tab when you view the properties of the server in DNS.