Introduction

Windows Server 2003 is a robust operating system that builds off of the successes (and failures) of previous Windows operating systems. One of the most useful improvements in Windows Server 2003 is in the area of Terminal Services. Although Terminal Services is not a completely new feature, having been around since Windows NT (as an add-on) and integrated in Windows 2000 Server, Windows Server 2003 Terminal Services is more powerful and easier to use than ever before.

Regarding Terminal Services, it is important to understand two things prior to studying how the service works, and its basic configuration principles. These two background information items are examined before looking at the troubleshooting end of the Terminal Service, which directly relates to the exam objectives for exam 70-292. Windows Terminal Services is, in some respects, similar to Citrix MetaFrame (www.citrix.com), where applications are loaded on a main server (sometimes consisting of a cluster of load balanced servers) for thin clients to access and use. This concept dates back to the IBM mainframe concept, with green screen dumb terminals, where all applications resided on a centralized system. For those unfamiliar with the term dumb terminal, it refers to a terminal with no real intelligence located on the system, for instance a central processing unit (CPU) or hard drive storage. All processing is done on the central system (mainframe) and only screen changes (referred to as screenshots) are sent to the dumb terminal.

Terminal Services is available in two major modes one that...