Netscaler RDP Proxy Interesting Issue

[Roberto Perez1709157566]

I am currently working on a project that involves using the RDP Proxy on the Netscaler (VPX - Enterprise - 12.0.56.20).

 

RDP Proxy works with no issues except one. At this location, we also use Rackspace for some servers, and we RDP into these servers. Using Netscaler we implemented the RDP Proxy so that Rackspace does not have to open access to 3389 to the outside world, rather we have a VPN connection with Rackspace and our access goes over this tunnel.

 

From home, a user can use the Unified Gateway and access these Rackspace servers using the RDP Proxy configuration. Our interesting issue is that we have two Rackspace servers we can RDP one via the Unified Gateway but not the second one.

 

I configured a service monitor for this secondary server for port 3389 and it can access the service port with no issues. However, when we attempt to RDP it via UG it fails.

 

I’m not sure what could be causing this issue and am hoping someone can give me some direction, perhaps I am just overlooking something simple.

 

Here is a simple explanation of what the RS servers are like (Assume these are the IP’s)

 

We have a VPN connection from our site (192.168.5.0/24) to Rackspace.

Server1 (10.209.1.150/20)

Server2 (10.223.80.200/20)

 

We can RDP Server1, but not Server2.

 

However, if I am on a workstation within (192.168.5.150) our site and I use the Remote Desktop application I can connect to both Server1 and Server2 no issues.

 

My issue is only through the Netscaler, I’m not sure what else I can check.

[Roberto Perez1709157566]

I figured out my own issue, turns out it was not the Netscaler - everything is configured correctly. It was also not the VPN or a routing issue.

 

Server1 is a 2K8 Server with RDSH.

Server2 is a 2K12R2 Server with RDS.

 

The issue turned out to be the Broker service on Server2. Rather than doing a full blown RDS Implementation which is what was causing the issue, I only did RDSH!

 

A simple one server setup, Session Host and License Server.

 

Now I could easily connect using the RDP Proxy to Server2 with no issues.

 

The question now becomes, why does the Netscaler have issues establishing an RDP connection with a full RDS environment, one that has the Broker Service installed?

[Julian Jakob]

This is a known issue, as since a RD Session Host is Member of a Broker Collection, ADC is failing becuase of Session Redirection of the Broker.

 

Citrix introduced a new Feature for this problem in 12.1 check out "RDP Connection Redirection" https://docs.citrix.com/en-us/citrix-gateway/12-1/rdp-proxy/rdp-redirection.html 

 

...but the description how it should work is very sketchy, I created another thread for this, see https://discussions.citrix.com/topic/395656-netscaler-121-rdp-connection-redirection/ but till now it's not clear how to configure this correctly, on my sight.