Applications close on disconnect in server 2012

timeoutwindows-server-2012

I have an application that I'd like to continue to run after disconnecting. This is in a Windows server 2012 environment that I access via remote desktop connection. Currently, it shuts down my applications after some specified time elapses after disconnecting. I haven't figured out exactly how long that period is, but if I wait long enough and reconnect, the application has closed. How can I prevent this? My server manager doesn't seem to have the collections (see: http://www.tomshardware.com/answers/id-1936940/server-2012-rdp-auto-disconnect.html) or remote desktop services icons (another potential solution here: http://blogs.technet.com/b/askperf/archive/2012/10/30/windows-8-windows-server-2012-remote-desktop-management-server.aspx), so I cannot get to those properties. My IT team is perplexed as well.

EDIT (additional information requested):
This software is SRCware v 0.2 (I don't have a high enough reputation to post the link). It launches via an exe file. I've run this app in several environments with no problem: RDP, Citrix XenApp, and VMware vShpere web client, all Windows server 2008 environments. It's been quite a while, but very quickly one day, my IT team checked off a setting that prevented all of my apps from closing on disconnect. I believe this was in Citrix. No changes were necessary in the other environments. Something is different about Server 2012, however. Disconnecting leads to the app closing after an undetermined period of time. My IT team suggested that I X out instead of disconnecting. Here, I get a message that my programs will continue to run, and I can log in later and they will still be there, but that's not the case if I wait long enough.

Best Answer

You have a couple of options based on the "type" of applications you are trying to keep running. None of them will come without some knowledge of how Windows Server runs.

Due to the lack of info about "what", the following is a general guideline that you can use to further investigate:

OPTION 1:

Setup the applications to run as a Windows Service. This can be achieved by opening up a CMD prompt using Elevated Permissions and using the following Syntax (Replace "CAPS" with your info:

sc create YOURSERVICEDISPLAYNAME binpath= C:\YOURSERVICE-EXECUTIBLE.EXE-OR-CMD-etc start= delayed-auto obj= DOMAIN-ACCOUNT-FOR-SERVICE-PERMISSIONS password= ACCOUNT-PASSWORD

NOTE: This will not work to just launch an EXE for something like "Photoshop" as an example. There is usually a script that is run with this that give the Executible, Command, or whatever the file is instructions on what to do.

OPTION 2:

Use the Windows Task Scheduler. This is a bit easier than a service, in that you can setup some schedules to ensure that the software continually runs, or you can invoke it based on some "triggers" that you can customize.

Ultimately, it will be up to you to figure out what is best for your environment. Without all the info, and knowing "what" you need, this is probably the best you will get. Let me know if you have any additional info, and I can edit/add to this. But for what you are asking, these are 2 viable options.

Related Solutions

RDP – Configure Custom SSL Certificate for RDP on Windows Server 2012 and Later

It turns out that much of the configuration data for RDSH is stored in the Win32_TSGeneralSetting class in WMI in the root\cimv2\TerminalServices namespace. The configured certificate for a given connection is referenced by the Thumbprint value of that certificate on a property called SSLCertificateSHA1Hash.

UPDATE: Here's a generalized Powershell solution that grabs and sets the thumbprint of the first SSL cert in the computer's personal store. If your system has multiple certs, you should add a -Filter option to the gci command to make sure you reference the correct cert. I've left my original answer intact below this for reference.

# get a reference to the config instance
$tsgs = gwmi -class "Win32_TSGeneralSetting" -Namespace root\cimv2\terminalservices -Filter "TerminalName='RDP-tcp'"

# grab the thumbprint of the first SSL cert in the computer store
$thumb = (gci -path cert:/LocalMachine/My | select -first 1).Thumbprint

# set the new thumbprint value
swmi -path $tsgs.__path -argument @{SSLCertificateSHA1Hash="$thumb"}

In order to get the thumbprint value

Open the properties dialog for your certificate and select the Details tab
Scroll down to the Thumbprint field and copy the space delimited hex string into something like Notepad
Remove all the spaces from the string. You'll also want to watch out for and remove a non-ascii character that sometimes gets copied just before the first character in the string. It's not visible in Notepad.
This is the value you need to set in WMI. It should look something like this: 1ea1fd5b25b8c327be2c4e4852263efdb4d16af4.

Now that you have the thumbprint value, here's a one-liner you can use to set the value using wmic:

wmic /namespace:\\root\cimv2\TerminalServices PATH Win32_TSGeneralSetting Set SSLCertificateSHA1Hash="THUMBPRINT"

Or if PowerShell is your thing, you can use this instead:

$path = (Get-WmiObject -class "Win32_TSGeneralSetting" -Namespace root\cimv2\terminalservices -Filter "TerminalName='RDP-tcp'").__path
Set-WmiInstance -Path $path -argument @{SSLCertificateSHA1Hash="THUMBPRINT"}

Note: the certificate must be in the 'Personal' Certificate Store for the Computer account.

Remote Desktop – Configure Licensing Mode in Windows Server 2012

If you're only using RDP to manage the server then you don't need any of the RDS roles or services. Remote Desktop (for managing the server) uses the RDP protocol just like RDS does, but it's not neccessary to add the RDS roles. the RDP protocol is built in to the OS and remote management via RDP is enabled in the Local Server settings in Server Manager.

Best Answer

Related Solutions

RDP – Configure Custom SSL Certificate for RDP on Windows Server 2012 and Later

Remote Desktop – Configure Licensing Mode in Windows Server 2012

Related Topic