TS Session Broker

Applies To: Windows Server 2008

Terminal Services Session Broker (TS Session Broker) is a Terminal Services role service in Windows Server 2008 that supports session load balancing between terminal servers in a farm, and reconnection to an existing session in a load-balanced terminal server farm.

Note:  TS Session Broker was formerly called Terminal Services Session Directory.

Aspects

The following is a list of all aspects that are part of this managed entity:

Name Description

Terminal Server Communication

For the Terminal Services Session Broker (TS Session Broker) server to support session load balancing between terminal servers in a farm, and to reconnect users to existing sessions in a load-balanced terminal server farm, the TS Session Broker server must be able to communicate with the terminal server across the network.

Note:  TS Session Broker was formerly called Terminal Services Session Directory.

Terminal Server Farm Membership

Terminal Services Session Broker (TS Session Broker) uses a farm name to determine which terminal servers are in the same terminal server farm. You must use the same farm name for all terminal servers that are in the same load-balanced terminal server farm. To configure the farm in TS Session Broker for the terminal server to join, use the Terminal Services Configuration tool or Group Policy.

Note:  TS Session Broker was formerly called Terminal Services Session Directory.

TS Session Broker Configuration

In Windows Server 2008, Terminal Services Session Broker (TS Session Broker) supports a built-in load balancing functionality and supports configuring multiple IP addresses (including IPv6 addresses) to be used for redirection. Both of these capabilities are supported only by terminal servers running Windows Server 2008.

With TS Session Broker Load Balancing, when a user without an existing session connects to a terminal server in the load-balanced farm, the user will be redirected to the terminal server in the farm with the fewest sessions.

Note:  TS Session Broker was formerly called Terminal Services Session Directory.

TS Session Broker Security Group Configuration

The Terminal Services Session Broker (TS Session Broker) server will not accept any connections from a terminal server whose computer account is not a member of the Session Directory Computers local group on the TS Session Broker server. By default, the Terminal Services Session Broker service creates the local group, but the group is initially empty.

Note:  TS Session Broker was formerly called Terminal Services Session Directory.

TS Session Broker Server Availability

The Terminal Services Session Broker (TS Session Broker) server relies on the Terminal Services Session Broker service to be running in order to perform session load balancing between terminal servers in a farm, and to reconnect a user to an existing session in a load-balanced terminal server farm.

Note:  TS Session Broker was formerly called Terminal Services Session Directory.

Terminal Services