If you just created your first deployment, make sure to read our First Deployment Checklist to help get you started.
Once you have used MyCloudIT automation to build your deployment, make sure to check out our Do's and Don’ts below to help you better utilize your deployment. If you still have questions, feel free to email support@mycloudit.com.
A word of caution, some of our customers have tried to modify the MyCloudIT configuration after it has been deployed. Please do not make changes directly to the RDS configuration, it will disable our automation and management capabilities, thus making it harder for you and your team to take advantage of our cost saving capabilities.
Here are some Do’s and Don’ts as you move forward with your MyCloudIT deployment:
Do...
Do install your applications within the RDS Session Hosts built for your deployment.
If you did not create a Golden Image, ensure that all applications installed within a collection are installed on all Virtual Machines within the collection.
Do leverage the extra storage space on the RDSMgmt server as shared storage for your users.
Do create additional directories on the F\: drive of the RDSMgmt server for this additional storage space.
Do realize that by default, each user is given their own User Profile Disk (UPD) for each collection they belong to. This means that each users’ settings will travel with the user to every session host within the RDS collection.
Do know that by default, the first RDS collection is named Desktop Collection and has the AD Security Group Desktop Collection Group assigned as the security group managing permission to the collection.
Do know that by default, the first RemoteApp collection is named RemoteApp Collection and has the AD Security Group RemoteApp Group assigned as the security group managing permission to the collection.
Do know that if you create a new share on the RDSMgmt server and set the permissions to the name of your Desktop Collection Security Group (i.e. Desktop Collection Group), every user assigned to the Desktop Collection will have access to the share you created.
Do create additional VMs through the MyCloudIT marketplace so these additional infrastructure VMs can take advantage of the MyCloudIT automation like the scheduler.
Do remember that if you are using the scheduler to turn VMs on and off, you should update the scheduler after any VM additions.
Do know that for Standard RDS and RemoteApp deployments, you can create additional RDS and RemoteApp collections. Each new collection will also have a corresponding AD Security group. If you create a new Desktop Collection named MyNewCollection the AD Security group for your collection will be named MyNewCollection Group.
Do know that if you deployed a Basic RDS or Basic RemoteApp deployment, it only supports a single session host and does not support additional collections. If you need to support more users, you will need to increase the size of the single session host.
Do know that the Basic RDS and Basic RemoteApp deployments are offered as a lost cost offering and as such, they do not offer the expandability of our standard offerings.
Don't...
Do not use the existing directories F:\NTDS, F:\Shares, and F:\SYSVOL for data storage. The existing directories contain RDS and Windows Server specific files. Please create additional directories for your customer data.
Do not change the security groups assigned to your RDS collections.
Do not change the name of the RDS collections.
Do not increase the vCPUs of your session host if possible, instead, reduce the number of users per session host. This lets you save money by leveraging auto-scaling. Check out this article on the details.
Do not change the Active Directory security group associated to an RDS collection to another group within Active Directory. This will break our automation and may increase your MyCloudIT and RDS licensing costs since every user that has access to an RDS collection will be charged for their MyCloudIT and RDS SAL licenses.
Billing FYI: Our user count is billed based on the maximum number of users assigned to each RDS collection throughout the month.
- If you grant the Domain Users group, or other groups within your Active Directory access to the collection, all users within the new group will be charged for both the RDS and MyCloudIT licenses.
- If a user is given access to multiple collections, the user will be counted once per collection.
Have other questions? Check out some of our other common questions and answers here.
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