You can use the vdmadmin command to enable authentication of clients that attempt to connect to their remote desktops via a Connection Server instance.

You must run the vdmadmin command on one of the Connection Server instances in the group that contains the Connection Server instance that clients will use to connect to their remote desktops.

Although you enable authentication for an individual Connection Server instance, all Connection Server instances in a group share all other settings for client authentication. You need only add an account for a client once. In a Connection Server group, any enabled Connection Server instance can authenticate the client.

If you plan to use kiosk mode with a session-based desktop on an RDS host, you must also add the user account to the Remote Desktop Users group.

Procedure

  1. Enable authentication of clients on a Connection Server instance. 
    vdmadmin -Q -enable [-b authentication_arguments] -s connection_server [-requirepassword]
    Option Description
    -requirepassword Specifies that you require clients to provide passwords.
    Important: If you specify this option, the Connection Server instance cannot authenticate clients that have automatically generated passwords. If you change the configuration of a Connection Server instance to specify this option, such clients cannot authenticate themselves and they fail with the error message Unknown username or bad password.
    -s connection_server Specifies the NetBIOS name of the Connection Server instance on which to enable authentication of clients.
    The command enables the specified Connection Server instance to authenticate clients.
  2. If the published desktop is provided by a Microsoft RDS host, log in to the RDS host and add the user account to the Remote Desktop Users group.
    For example, say that on the Horizon 7 server, you entitle the user account custom-11 to a session-based desktop on an RDS host. You must then log in to the RDS host, and add the user custom-11 to the Remote Desktop Users group by going to Control Panel > System and Security > System > Remote settings > Select users > Add.

Example: Enabling Authentication of Clients in Kiosk Mode

Enable authentication of clients for the Connection Server instance csvr-2. Clients with automatically generated passwords can authenticate themselves without providing a password. 

vdmadmin -Q -enable -s csvr-2

Enable authentication of clients for the Connection Server instance csvr-3, and require that the clients specify their passwords to Horizon Client. Clients with automatically generated passwords cannot authenticate themselves. 

vdmadmin -Q -enable -s csvr-3 -requirepassword

What to do next

Verify the configuration of the Connection Server instances and the clients.