***Please review all of the instructions and setup videos before scrolling down to download the Remote Desktop Canary installer. Click each section to expand and review its contents**
RDPSoft™ Remote Desktop Canary™ Version 4.x Release Notes
Where Should I Install Remote Desktop Canary?
We recommend always installing an instance of Remote Desktop Canary inside your local network for all testing scenarios, as this will allow you to take advantage of Remote Desktop Canary’s Workflow Builder Wizard to rapidly build synthetic testing workflows. You can later transport the created RDCW workflow files to a separate external VM running Remote Desktop Canary if your RDS deployment has a Remote Desktop Gateway, and you want to test through your Gateway.
If you are running Remote Desktop Services, and you DO NOT utilize a Remote Desktop Gateway, you must install our software on a server/virtual machine running inside your internal network, with the ability to RDP into your collections and/or individual session hosts.
If you are running Remote Desktop Services, and you DO utilize a Remote Desktop Gateway, you can also install our software on a server/virtual machine running OUTSIDE your internal network, such as a VM located in Azure/AWS/Google Cloud, and transfer over a created Remote Desktop Canary workflow file (.RDCW file) that connects THROUGH the RD Gateway and on to your connection broker(s) and/or session hosts. When deployed in this manner, Canary can test connectivity of the Remote Desktop Gateway AND the connection brokers/session hosts.
If you are running Azure Virtual Desktop, Citrix, Parallels RAS, VMWare, etc, you will need install our software on a server/virtual machine running inside your internal network (or Azure VNet), with the ability to RDP into your individual session hosts.
Supported Operating Systems:
Installation is supported on the following operating systems:
- Windows Server 2012
- Windows Server 2012 R2
- Windows 10 Enterprise Multiuser for Azure Virtual Desktop
- Windows 11 Enterprise Multiuser for Azure Virtual Desktop
- Windows Server 2016
- Windows Server 2019
- Windows Server 2022
Hardware Requirements for Main Installation System
- CPU: 2 or more vCPUs recommended.
- RAM: 4GB+ minimum, 8GB+ recommended.
- Available Disk Space: 200MBs
In most testing scenarios, you will want to use Remote Desktop Canary to also do OCR event based testing in order to detect the successful or unsuccessful loading of user desktops and apps. OCR analysis of images taken during the login process can use a non-trivial amount of CPU, and a greater amount of memory. You can control HOW much CPU and memory is actually utilized by how frequently you test each collection or server in Canary, and how far apart you stagger each test from one another. The more frequently you test, with a smaller stagger time, the more CPU and memory will be consumed at once. In some cases, it may be advisable to provision a system with 4 or more vCPUs and 8+ GBs of RAM if you plan on doing frequent OCR based event testing. The absolute minimum for the VM running Remote Desktop Canary is 2 vCPUs and 4 GBs of RAM.
IP Affinity Must Be Enabled At Your Network Load Balancer for Multiple Gateway Configurations
If you are using Remote Desktop Canary to test your environment through a Remote Desktop Gateway, and if you are using multiple Remote Desktop Gateways via a network load balancer or Remote Desktop Gateway farm, you must turn on Source/IP affinity on your network load balancer or our RDP client will not be able to successfully connect into your environment. In general, Microsoft recommends using Source/IP affinity for multiple RD Gateways managed by a NLB as it increases stability and reduces connection issues.
Multi-factor Authentication Must Be Disabled For the Test User Account(s) You Assign To Canary
Remote Desktop Canary does not support multi-factor authentication. Therefore, for the accounts used with testing, you must disable MFA. When setting up test accounts in your domain, always use the least amount of permissions required to perform a full RDP login (e.g. Domain Users). If you allow Remote Desktop Canary to create your testing accounts automatically, it will always create them with Domain Users rights only.
Does Your Organization Require the Use Of Login Banners When Signing On to Server(s)?
If your organization requires that users read and consent to network policies before signing on to a terminal server (e.g. login banner), read the “Working Around Login Banners” section of the Remote Desktop Canary Help File. This will show you how to enable synthetic input to bypass login banners during testing.
Also, please note that you must DISABLE login banners on the VM where you are installing Remote Desktop Canary, or else the Remote Desktop Canary service will not be able to initiate the Remote Desktop Canary Testing User session on demand.
If your organization uses login banners, make sure you place the Remote Desktop Canary VM inside an organizational unit that does NOT inherit login banner policy settings like the rest of your servers. After doing this, inspect the local policies on this VM, remove any login banner policies if they still exist, and then update group policy on the Remote Desktop Canary VM by using the gpupdate.exe /force command.
