How to provide high availability for the Terminal Services Session Directory server in Windows Server 2003

The Terminal Services Session Directory service is a database that keeps track of sessions on terminal servers in a cluster. The Terminal Services Session Directory service also provides information that is used at connection time to connect users to existing sessions. Sessions on all servers in the cluster are stored as records in the database. This database is updated and queried when users log on, when users log off, or when users disconnect from sessions.

The Session Directory server can be any computer that is running Microsoft Windows Server 2003 Enterprise Edition or Datacenter Edition, that is visible on the network, and that is running the Terminal Services Session Directory service. As a best practice, the Session Directory server should be a highly available network server that is not a terminal server.

To provide high availability for the Terminal Services Session Directory server on a server cluster, follow these steps:

1. Set the Terminal Services Session Directory service to start automatically on all computers in the server cluster that are running Windows Server 2003 Enterprise Edition or Datacenter Edition. To do this, follow these steps:
   1. Click Start, click Run, type Services.msc, and then click OK.
   2. Right-click Terminal Services Session Directory, and then click Properties.
   3. In the Startup type box on the General tab, click Automatic, and then click OK.
      
      Note If you do not set the Terminal Services Session Directory service to start automatically on all computers in the server cluster that are running Windows Server 2003 Enterprise Edition or Datacenter Edition, you will receive an error 1069 from the Cluster service (ClusSvc) in the event log. You will also receive an error message in the Cluster.log file on that node that is similar to the following:

      ERR Generic Service Generic Service Resource namesvc: The service is DISABLED

      Note This error message is not replicated to all nodes.
2. Review the "Creating server cluster resources" topic and the "Generic Service resources" topic in the Microsoft Windows Help and Support Center. To do this, follow these steps:
   1. Click Start, click Run, type Helpctr.exe, and then click OK.
   2. Click Availability and scalability, expand Windows Clustering under Availability and scalability, and then expand Server Clusters.
3. Use Cluster Administrator (Cluadmin.exe) to verify that the follow resources are available in the server cluster.
   
   Note To verify that these resources are available, log on to a computer as a cluster administrator, and then connect to the server cluster by using Cluster Administrator (Cluadmin.exe).
   • A physical disk that is not used to store quorum information and that can failover to all nodes in the cluster where you want to host the Terminal Services Session Directory database
     This physical disk must be configured in the cluster before it is configured to provide failover of the Session Directory Service.
   • A static IP address that is available to all the terminal servers
     This IP address will be configured in the load balancing cluster so that the terminal server can update the Session Directory database.
   • A network name that is available to all the terminal servers in the cluster so that the Sessions Directory database can be updated
     All communication between the terminal servers and the Session Directory server must have Kerberos authentication. Therefore, you must click to select the DNS Registration Must Succeed check box and the Enable Kerberos Authentication check box when you configure the group name properties.

The terminal servers in the cluster use the IP address and the network name of the server cluster to maintain consistent network connectivity even if another cluster node hosts the Session Directory database. If a cluster group exists that has the IP address, the network name, and the disk resources you want to use for the Terminal Services Session Directory server, you can create a Generic Service resource to manage the Terminal Services Session Directory service.

To create a Generic Service resource, follow these steps:

1. Click Start, click Run, type Cluadmin.exe, and then click OK.
2. On the File menu, point to New, and then click Resource.
3. Type a name and description for the resource, click Generic Service in the Resource type box, and then click Next.
   
   Note The Description field is not required. However, the information that you enter appears in Cluster Administrator.
4. On the Possible Owners screen, click the cluster nodes that you want to add, click Add, and then click Next.
5. On the Dependencies screen, click the resources that you want to add, click Add, and then click Next.
6. On the Generic Service Parameters screen, type TSSDIS in the Service name box, click to select the Use Network Name for computer name check box, and then click Next.
7. On the Registry Replication screen, click Add, type SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\Tssdis\Parameters, and then click OK.
   
   Note You must replicate the
   SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\Tssdis\Parameters
   key between the cluster nodes to keep the service configuration consistent when failover occurs. This configuration is required for the Terminal Services Session Directory service.
8. Click Finish, and then click OK.