So I am a Citrix guy here and looking for some suggestions for a build using RDS 2012R2. I have inherited a mess who currently has 180+ connecting to 3 different terminal servers (also the domain controllers, haha!) We are looking to build something new from the ground up with the ability to grow to 300 or so users. We have 2 beefy servers and a SAN in a VMware environment so hardware wise we are okay just trying to think how to build RDS to accomplish a few things. I am thinking of going with 2 x Windows 2012R2 DC’s (likely add a 3rd as we start to get around the 225 user range) 2 x File Servers with DFS (I want to store profile stuff here) & 3-4x RDS hosts to start with (the only application they run is DOS based and super lightweight) I would then run the RDS gateway likely 2 of them as well (for failover/load balancing)
Question #1, should that be enough? I know the terminal servers sound a little taxed but I think with what they run application wise, should be fine.
Question #2 with the RDS gateway can I load balance users across the various servers if using roaming profiles/folder redirection? (I am used to using Citrix Profile Manager) I want the users to log off and all profile information go back to my DFS store.
Questions #3 we are also looking to create some type of internet browsing sandbox where users can browse as they please. I have seen this done with Citrix and persistent desktops that were destroyed when the user logs off. That will be expensive for us so we are looking to do something slightly different. Can I publish/stream an internet browser within a user’s RDS desktop session and have it somewhat contained? I know anything the user downloads to the desktop session could cause issues, but likely we will block the ability to download to prevent that.