Enable Windows 2012 R2 RD Session Host without a Broker

Not related to AX development, but for sure needed in AX development infrastructure (I've been working exclusively on VMs when doing AX development for the last decade or so ...). The topic: enabling remote desktop services to allow more then two users to be logged on the server (I'm not talking about the remote desktop option that allows a max of two users, but of the Windows Server Role).

Until 2012 this was easy to setup, just enable the role, after which you would enter the info about the RDS Licensing Server in the host configuration form.

However, this changed in 2012. The new way the RDS is designed is bringing some good features to the table (I'm not going to talk about those), but, in our development we tend to use the old way of having the RDS setup. Been looking for a way to achieve that for a long time and some time ago I found a very good resource from MS explaining how to do that:

https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/kb/2833839. It was excellent to have found this and I use it frequently in our setup.

To highlight the important steps, in case the link will not be available at some point:

1. you start by installing the RD session host role normally (as you would do with any other role);

2. then in a PowerShell you do:

    $obj = gwmi -namespace "Root/CIMV2/TerminalServices" Win32_TerminalServiceSetting

    $obj.ChangeMode(value) (use for value 2 for Per device or 4 for Per user - this depends on how you have your CALs issued)

    $obj.SetSpecifiedLicenseServerList("LicServer") (replace LicServer with the alias of your License Server - you must have one)
    $obj.GetSpecifiedLicenseServerList() (this is just to check the setup)
    restart the machine 

That should do it, now you will have RDS without a broker.