Remote Desktop Services supported configurations
Microsoft's edit ·
Microsoft's commit message in MicrosoftDocs/windowsserverdocs · commit 5f9f9d7 · +21 −24 lines · also on GitHub
⋯ 11 unchanged lines
1212
1313
>Applies to: Windows Server 2022, Windows Server 2016, Windows Server 2019
1414
15
−When it comes to supported configurations for Remote Desktop Services environments, the largest concern tends to be version interoperability. Most environments include multiple versions of Windows Server - for example, you may have an existing Windows Server 2012 R2 RDS deployment but want to upgrade to Windows Server 2016 to take advantage of the new features (like support for OpenGL\OpenCL, Discrete Device Assignment, or Storage Spaces Direct). The question then becomes, which RDS components can work with different versions and which need to be the same?
15
+When it comes to supported configurations for Remote Desktop Services environments, the largest concern tends to be version interoperability. Most environments include multiple versions of Windows Server. For example, you may have an existing RDS deployment running an earlier version of Windows Server but want to upgrade to Windows Server 2016 to take advantage of the new features (like support for OpenGL/OpenCL, Discrete Device Assignment, or Storage Spaces Direct). The question then becomes, which RDS components can work with different versions and which need to be the same?
1616
1717
So with that in mind, here are basic guidelines for supported configurations of Remote Desktop Services in Windows Server.
1818
⋯ 2 unchanged lines
2121
2222
## Best practices
2323
24
−- Use Windows Server 2019 for your Remote Desktop infrastructure (the Web Access, Gateway, Connection Broker, and license server). Windows Server 2019 is backward-compatible with these components, which means a Windows Server 2016 or Windows Server 2012 R2 RD Session Host can connect to a 2019 RD Connection Broker, but not the other way around.
24
+- Use the most recent version of Windows Server for your Remote Desktop infrastructure (the Web Access, Gateway, Connection Broker, and license server). Windows Server is backward-compatible with these components, which means a Windows Server 2016 RD Session Host can connect to a 2019 RD Connection Broker, but not the other way around.
2525
2626
- For RD Session Hosts - all Session Hosts in a collection need to be at the same level, but you can have multiple collections. You can have a collection with Windows Server 2016 Session Hosts and one with Windows Server 2019 Session Hosts.
2727
⋯ 7 unchanged lines
3535
3636
Windows Server 2016 removes the restriction for the number of Connection Brokers you can have in a deployment when using Remote Desktop Session Hosts (RDSH) and Remote Desktop Virtualization Hosts (RDVH) that also run Windows Server 2016. The following table shows which versions of RDS components work in a highly available deployment with three or more Connection Brokers.
3737
38
−|3+ Connection Brokers in HA|RDSH or RDVH 2022|RDSH or RDVH 2019|RDSH or RDVH 2016|RDSH or RDVH 2012 R2|
39
−|---|---|---|---|---|
40
− |Windows Server 2022 Connection Broker|Supported|Supported|Supported|Supported|
41
− |Windows Server 2019 Connection Broker|N/A|Supported|Supported|Supported|
42
− |Windows Server 2016 Connection Broker|N/A|N/A|Supported|Supported|
43
− |Windows Server 2012 R2 Connection Broker|N/A|N/A|N/A|Not Supported|
38
+|3+ Connection Brokers in HA|RDSH or RDVH 2022|RDSH or RDVH 2019|RDSH or RDVH 2016|
39
+|---|---|---|---|
40
+ |Windows Server 2022 Connection Broker|Supported|Supported|Supported|
41
+ |Windows Server 2019 Connection Broker|N/A|Supported|Supported|
42
+ |Windows Server 2016 Connection Broker|N/A|N/A|Supported|
4443
4544
## Support for graphics processing unit (GPU) acceleration
4645
⋯ 11 unchanged lines
5857
5958
The following table shows the scenarios supported by different versions of RDSH hosts.
6059
61
−|Feature|Windows Server 2008 R2|Windows Server 2012 R2|Windows Server 2016|Windows Server 2019|Windows Server 2022|
62
−|---|---|---|---|---|---|
63
−|Use of hardware GPU for all RDP sessions|No|Yes|Yes|Yes|Yes|
64
−|H.264/AVC hardware encoding (if supported by the GPU)|No|No|Yes|Yes|Yes|
65
−|Load balancing between multiple GPUs presented to the OS|No|No|No|Yes|Yes|
66
−|H.264/AVC encoding optimizations for minimizing bandwidth usage|No|No|No|Yes|Yes|
67
−|H.264/AVC support for 4K resolution|No|No|No|Yes|Yes|
60
+|Feature|Windows Server 2016|Windows Server 2019|Windows Server 2022|
61
+|---|---|---|---|
62
+|Use of hardware GPU for all RDP sessions|Yes|Yes|Yes|
63
+|H.264/AVC hardware encoding (if supported by the GPU)|Yes|Yes|Yes|
64
+|Load balancing between multiple GPUs presented to the OS|No|Yes|Yes|
65
+|H.264/AVC encoding optimizations for minimizing bandwidth usage|No|Yes|Yes|
66
+|H.264/AVC support for 4K resolution|No|Yes|Yes|
6867
6968
### VDI support for GPUs
7069
⋯ 12 unchanged lines
8382
> [!NOTE]
8483
> Because of security concerns, RemoteFX vGPU is disabled by default on all versions of Windows starting with the July 14, 2020 Security Update and removed starting with the April 13, 2021 Security Update. To learn more, see [KB 4570006](https://support.microsoft.com/help/4570006).
8584
86
−Remote Desktop Services supports RemoteFX vGPUs when VM is running as a Hyper-V guest on Windows Server 2012 R2 or Windows Server 2016. The following guest operating systems have RemoteFX vGPU support:
85
+Remote Desktop Services supports RemoteFX vGPUs when VM is running as a Hyper-V guest on Windows Server. The following guest operating systems have RemoteFX vGPU support:
8786
88
−- Windows 7 SP1
89
−- Windows 8.1
90
−- Windows 10 1703 or later
91
−- Windows Server 2016 in a single-session deployment only
87
+- Windows 11
88
+- Windows 10
89
+- Windows Server in a single-session deployment only
9290
9391
### Discrete Device Assignment support
9492
9593
Remote Desktop Services supports Physical GPUs presented with Discrete Device Assignment from Hyper-V hosts running Windows Server 2016 or later. See [Plan for deploying Discrete Device Assignment](../../virtualization/hyper-v/plan/plan-for-deploying-devices-using-discrete-device-assignment.md) for more details.
9694
97
−## VDI deployment – supported guest OSes
95
+## VDI deployment – supported guest operating systems
9896
99
−Windows Server 2016 or later RD Virtualization Host servers support the following guest OSes:
97
+Windows Server RD Virtualization Host servers support the following guest operating systems:
10098
99
+- Windows 11 Enterprise
101100
- Windows 10 Enterprise
102
−- Windows 8.1 Enterprise
103
−- Windows 7 SP1 Enterprise
104101
105102
> [!NOTE]
106103
> - Remote Desktop Services doesn't support heterogeneous session collections. The OSes of all VMs in a collection must be the same version.
⋯ 26 unchanged lines
Microsoft's Markdown source from MicrosoftDocs/windowsserverdocs, © Microsoft Corporation, under CC BY 4.0. Changed lines with up to 3 unchanged lines around each; ChangeIntel kept this copy 10 Oct 07:51 UTC. The commit date is when the source changed, which can be hours or days before Learn published it.