Console logon to 2012 Session Host

A little tip for admins needing to RDP onto  a session host that is part of a load balanced collection…

Problem… A user has reported a problem with one or more apps in the collection.  As part of troubleshooting you want to log into the desktop via a direct RDP session.  So you enter the IP of the session host, log in, and suddenly find you actually logged into one of the other session hosts!

This is because your collection is ‘load balanced’, and by default all session hosts carry the same weight.  So when you log in (even though its a direct RDP connection) the broker directs you to the host with the least number of sessions.

Solution… Either log in as a local user, or run ‘mstsc.exe /admin’ instead.

Happy troubleshooting!