Installing and Configuring Login PI Login PI Hands-on lab In this lab, you will configure Login PI to provide performance insights for a Windows Server 2012 R2 Remote Desktop Services installation. To achieve this, you will first ensure that all the required pre-requisites are configured in the environment to support Login PI, then perform an installation. After the installation is completed you will verify that the installation has been successful and then complete the configuration of Login PI. You will then commence a Login PI performance job. Produced by HynesITe, Inc. Version 1.0 2/18/2015 All trademarks are property of their respective owners.
Introduction Estimated time to complete this lab 60 minutes Objectives After completing this lab, you will be able to: Understand the pre-requisites for Login PI Complete a Login PI installation. Verify a Login PI installation. Configure Login PI for testing. Complete a Login PI job. Prerequisites Before working on this lab, you must have: Basic understanding of Active Directory. Understanding of Remote Desktop Services in Windows Server 2012 R2. Basic understanding of PowerShell Overview of the lab In this lab, you will configure Login PI to provide performance insights for a Windows Server 2012 R2 Remote Desktop Services installation. To achieve this, you will first ensure that all the required prerequisites are configured in the environment to support Login PI, then perform an installation. After the installation is completed you will verify that the installation has been successful and then complete the configuration of Login PI. You will then commence a Login PI performance job. Virtual machine technology This lab is completed using virtual machines that run on Windows Server 2012 R2 Hyper-V technology. To log on to the virtual machines, press CTRL+ALT+END and enter your logon credentials. Computers in this lab This lab uses the computer as described in the following table. Before you begin the lab, you must ensure that the virtual machine is started and then log on to the computer. Virtual Machine Role Configuration DC01 SVR1 Windows Server 2012 R2 domain controller Windows Server 2012 R2 Remote Desktop Server Windows Server 2012 R2 domain controller with Microsoft SQL Express 2012 installed. Windows Server 2012 R2 with the Remote Desktop Services Role installed Credentials for the virtual machine is Contoso\Administrator with a password of Passw0rd!
Note regarding pre-release software Portions of this lab may include software that is not yet released, and as such may still contain active or known issues. While every effort has been made to ensure this lab functions as written, unknown or unanticipated results may be encountered as a result of using pre-release software. Note regarding user account control Some steps in this lab may be subject to user account control. User account control is a technology which provides additional security to computers by requesting that users confirm actions that require administrative rights. Tasks that generate a user account control confirmation are denoted using a shield icon. If you encounter a shield icon, confirm your action by selecting the appropriate button in the dialog box that is presented. Note on activation The virtual machines for these labs may have been built by using software that has not been activated. This is by design in the lab to prevent the redistribution of activated software. The unactivated state of software has been taken into account in the design of the lab. Consequently, the lab is in no way affected by this state. For operating systems other than Windows 8.1, please click Cancel or Close if prompted by an activation dialog box. If you are prompted by an Activate screen for Windows 8.1, press the Windows key to display the Start screen.
Exercise 1: Login PI Installation In this exercise, you will first examine the current environment to ensure that all the required pre-requisite software is installed. You will then perform an installation of Login PI. Examine the current environment In this task, you will examine the current configuration of servers DC1 and SVR1 to ensure that they meet the pre-requisites for the software and environment. Log on to DC1 as Contoso\Administrator using the password Passw0rd! 1. When the Networks charm appears, click No. 2. In Server Manager, right-click All Servers and select Add Servers. 3. In the Add Servers dialog box, click Find Now. 4. Select SVR1 and then click on the arrow to add it to the Selected column. 5. Click OK. 6. Click Manage and then click Add Roles and Features. 7. In the Add Roles and Features Wizard, on the Before You Begin page, click Next. 8. On the Installation Type page, click Next. 9. On the Server Selection page, select SVR1.contoso.com and then click Next. 10. On the Select server roles page, note that the Remote desktop Services role is installed (1 of 6 installed) 11. On the Select server roles page, click Next. 12. On the Select features page, note that.net Framework is installed (.NET Framework 3.5 Features (1 of 3 installed)) Note:.NET Framework 3.5 has already been installed on the server that will be the target server. 13. On the Server Roles page, click Previous twice. Note: The workload that we are going to test in this lab with Login PI is the Remote Desktop Services workload. Remote Desktop Services is installed and configured on SVR1. 14. On the Server Selection page, select DC1.contoso.com and then click Next. 15. On the Select server roles page, click Next. 16. On the Select features page, note that.net Framework is installed (.NET Framework 4.5 Features (2 of 7 installed)) 17. On the Select features page, click Cancel.
Note:.NET Framework 4.5 has already been downloaded and installed on the server. This is a requirement for the installation of Login PI. The Login PI server also has a requirement of Windows Server 2008 R2, 2012 or 2012 R2. 18. On the Start screen, type SQL Server Management Studio and then press Enter. 19. In the Connect to Server dialog box, click Connect. Note: Microsoft SQL Server 2012 Express has been installed on DC1. Login PI requires Microsoft SQL 2008 or 2012 Express or Enterprise. In this case it has been installed on the same machine where Login PI will be installed. Co-locating Login PI and SQL is not a requirement. Login PI and SQL need to be accessible within the target environment. Note: If using Microsoft SQL Server 2012 Express, the TCP/IP binding is disabled by default and will need to be enabled manually prior to installing Login PI. 20. Minimize Microsoft SQL Server Management Studio. 21. In Server Manager, click Tools, and then click Active Directory Users and Computers. 22. In Active Directory Users and Computers, navigate to Contoso.com/Users. It is required to have Windows Active Directory installed and configured. The recommended installation is Windows Server 2008 or above. The domain and forest functional level can be pre-windows 2008. 23. Minimize Active Directory Users and Computers. You have now ensured that the pre-requisites for installing Login PI have been met and configured. Perform a Login PI installation In this task, you will install Login PI onto a server in your environment. Ensure you are logged on to DC1 as Contoso\Administrator using the password Passw0rd! 1. In File Explorer, navigate to E:\LoginPI. The contents of the LoginPI folder is the extracted ZIP file downloaded from the Login VSI website, http://www.loginvsi.com/. In addition, there is a license key that has been downloaded; this the license key provided is by Login PI, for either a free trial or a full license. 2. Double-click Login_PI_Setup_1.0.0. 3. In the Login PI Setup wizard, click Next. 4. Check I accept the terms in the License Agreement, and then click Next. 5. On the Destination Folder page, click Next. 6. On the Ready to install Login PI page, click Install. The installation of Login PI will take approximately 2 minutes. This must complete before proceeding to the next step.
7. On the Completed the Login PI Setup Wizard page, check Launch Login PI Management interface, and then click Finish. The installation of Login PI is complete; however there is further configuration required when starting for the first time. The Login PI management interface will launch in your default browser. 8. Complete the Configuration screen with the following settings and then click Submit: Hostname Instance name DC1 SQLExpress Port 1433 Database name Use integrated Login_PI Yes security Username Password Domain Administrator Passw0rd! Contoso.com The values entered in a production environment would reflect the values for the SQL server, instance and connection for the database and instance. If the database name entered does not already exist, then it will be created. Wait for the database setup to complete before proceeding to the next step. 9. Complete the AD Setup screen with the following settings and then click Generate Script: Base OU Username Password Domain (FQDN) Launcher username Launcher password DC=CONTOSO,DC=COM LoginPI Passw0rd! CONTOSO.COM PI-Launcher Passw0rd! Number of users 1 Note that the creation of the AD script is optional. It enables the automatic creation of the AD accounts used by Login PI. If you decide not to use the script you will need to manually create accounts. 10. In the Save dialog box, click the Arrow next to Save and then click Save As. 11. In the Save As box, navigate to E:\LoginPI, and then click Save.
12. Close the Save dialog box and then click Skip. Note the error now displayed that the share in the LoginPI Directory has not been created. This is expected. 13. Minimize Internet Explorer. 14. Open File Explorer and navigate to C:\Login PI. 15. Right click shared and then click Properties. 16. In the shared Properties dialog box, click the Sharing tab and then click Advanced Sharing. 17. Check Share this folder. 18. Click Permissions. 19. In the Permissions for shared dialog box, select Everyone and then then check Full Control: Allow. 20. Click OK. 21. Click OK. 22. Click Close. These share settings will allow the Active Directory setup script access to the Login PI installation to copy group policy objects into place. 23. Open Windows PowerShell. Because the machine you are using is a Domain Controller, you will automatically be presented with an elevated Windows PowerShell screen. 24. In Windows PowerShell, type the following commands and then press ENTER after each line. Set-ExecutionPolicy Unrestricted Y This will allow the Windows PowerShell script to run. 25. In Windows PowerShell, type the following command and then press ENTER. CD E:\LoginPI 26. In Windows PowerShell, type the following command and then press ENTER..\ADSetup_LoginPI.ps1 This must be run while logged in as a user who is a member of the Domain Admins group. Running the script must be completed before you proceed to the next step. 27. Restore Active Directory Users and Computers. 28. In the tree pane, click contoso.com. 29. Click Refresh.
30. Navigate to Contoso.com/LoginPI/Users/Target. The newly created target user is displayed. 31. Right-click LoginPI1 and click Properties. 32. Click on the Profile tab. In the User profile, there is a now a logon script PI_Logon.cmd. This has been copied to the SysVol share of Contoso.com. If you navigate to \\contoso.com\sysvol\contoso.com\scripts you will find it located there. The logon script calls an executable in the shared folder to create a load in the remote desktop session. 33. Click on the Member of tab. The Target users have all be added to a new group named LoginPI, this group will be used to give permissions to the shared folder. 34. Click Cancel. 35. Navigate to Contoso.com/LoginVSI/Users/Launcher. The newly created launcher user is displayed. 36. Right-click PI-Launcher and click Properties. Instead of an installation, a user is created that is used to log in to a launcher. The PILauncher user has a logon script that automatically starts the Launcher agent from the shared folder. To work, the user and launcher machine needs a connection to the shared folder. 37. Click on the Profile tab. In the User profile, there is a now a logon script PI_Launcher.cmd. This has been copied to the SysVol share of Contoso.com. If you navigate to \\contoso.com\sysvol\contoso.com\scripts you will find it located there. The logon script calls an executable in the shared folder you configured earlier to create a load in the remote desktop session. 38. Click on the Member of tab. The Launcher user has been added to a new group named LoginPI, this group will be used to give permissions to the shared folder. 39. Click Cancel. 40. Close Active Directory Users and Computers. 41. Open File Explorer and navigate to C:\Login PI. 42. Right click shared and then click Properties. 43. In the shared Properties dialog box, click the Security tab and then click Edit. 44. In the Permissions for shared dialog box, click Add.
45. In the Enter the object names to select text box type Contoso\LoginPI and then click Check Names. 46. Select the LoginPI group and then click OK. 47. Click OK. 48. In the Permissions for shared dialog box, select LoginPI and then then check Full Control: Allow. Adding this group and permissions to the folder ensures that the launcher and the target users now have appropriate access. 49. Click OK. 50. Click OK. 51. On the Start Screen, type Group Policy and open Group Policy Management. 52. In the Group Policy Management console, expand Forest: contoso.com/domains/contoso.com/loginpi/users/target Note that there is a new Group Policy Object named PI-User which is linked to the Target OU. 53. In the left hand pane, select PI-User and then click on the Settings tab. 54. Click show all. Note the settings contained in the Group Policy Object. The settings will allow the launcher processes to run without user intervention. 55. Close the Group Policy Management console. 56. Maximize Internet Explorer. 57. In the PI share was not detected page, click Refresh. 58. In the top right hand corner, click on the cog icon and then select License. 59. Click on the Browse button and then browse to E:\LoginPI. 60. Select LoginPI.lic and then click Open. This license is a small and limited test license for this environment. 61. Click Upload file. The installation of Login PI is now licensed. 62. Close Internet Explorer.
Exercise 2: Login PI Verification In this exercise, you will confirm the installation of Login PI was successful. This will ensure that the further configuration and tests will run successfully. Verify the database configuration In this task, you will ensure that the SQL database was create successfully. Begin this task logged onto DC1 as Contoso\Administrator using the password Passw0rd! 1. Maximize Microsoft SQL Server Management Studio. 2. Expand DC1/Databases/Login_PI. Login_PI is the database created as part of the installation of Login PI. 3. Expand DC1/Security/Logins. The newly created LoginPI Active Directory group will need to be added to the database to ensure that the Login PI users will have access to the database. 4. Right-click Logins and then click New Login. 5. In Login New, click Search. 6. In Select User, Service Account, or Group, click Object Types. 7. In the Object Types dialog box, check Groups and then click OK. 8. In the Enter the object names to select text box type Contoso\LoginPI and then click Check Names. 9. Select the LoginPI group and then click OK. 10. Click OK. 11. Under Select a page, click User Mapping. 12. Select the checkbox next to Login_PI and then select the checkbox next to db_owner. 13. Click OK. 14. Close Microsoft SQL Server Management Studio. Verify the IIS configuration In this task, you will ensure that the IIS configuration for the Login PI interface is completed and running. Begin this task logged onto DC1 as Contoso\Administrator using the password Passw0rd! 1. In Server Manager, click Tools, and then click Internet Information Services (IIS) Manager.
2. Expand DC1. 3. In the Internet Information Services (IIS) Manager dialog box, click No. 4. Expand DC1/Sites and click PI Interface. The IIS configuration for the PI Interface is displayed. You have now confirmed that the Login PI installation is completed. In the next exercise you will complete the configuration of Login PI. 5. In the Actions pane, click Browse *:8080 (http). Leave Internet Explorer open for the next exercise.
Exercise 3: Configuring Login PI In this exercise, you will complete the configuration of your new Login PI installation. To begin we will create a new profile for the Remote Desktop Services server. You will then configure a workload setting and then a connection to the RDS server. You will then configure the dataserver and webserver connections before finalizing the configuration with the Login PI launcher settings and creating a new job. Configure Login PI. In this task, you will complete the configuration of Login PI so that a new job will be able to be run for Remote Desktop Services on SVR1. Ensure you are logged on to DC1 as Contoso\Administrator using the password Passw0rd! with the Login PI console open from the previous exercise. 1. In Internet Explorer, in the Login PI console, click Configuration/1. Profiles. 2. In the Profiles page, click Create profile. 3. Complete the Profile screen with the following settings and then click Save: Profile Name Profile type RDS Profile Microsoft RDP Connection (connector) Note that you would create a profile for each platform you wanted to connect Login PI to. 4. In the Login PI console, click Configuration/2. Workload Settings. 5. Complete the Workload settings page with the following settings and then click Save: Office Language English Office Version 2013 OS Language Workload English Default workload native windows apps.txt Note that the profile that the workload is being linked to is located in the top left hand corner of the page. Also note that the configuration of the Workload should reflect your operating environment. 6. In the Login PI console, click Configuration/3. Connections. 7. In the Connections page, click Create connection.
8. Complete the Create new connection page with the following settings and then click Save: Connection name SVR1 Timeout in seconds 180 Enabled RD Session host Domain Checked SVR1 Contoso.com The timeout is used to determine the amount of time before timing out the connection the RD session host. 9. Under Options, click on the Users icon ( ). 10. Complete the User overview page with the following settings and then click Save: Username Password LoginPI1 Passw0rd! The values entered are the same as the values created by the Active Directory script you ran earlier in the lab which created the LoginPI1 user. If you had created more users with that script then you would need to also add them in this page. 11. Click Close. 12. In the Login PI console, click Configuration/4. Dataservers. Note that the path to the default configuration is set up automatically during installation. The path will reflect the values as defined during setup. 13. In the Login PI console, click Configuration/5. Webservers. Note that the path to the default configuration is set up automatically during installation. The path will reflect the values as defined during setup. 14. In the Login PI console, click Configuration/6. Launchers. 15. In the Connections page, click Create Launcher. 16. Complete the Create/Update Launcher page with the following settings and then click Save: Launcher name DC1 Capacity 1 Enabled Checked The launcher name should be the hostname of the launcher machine (in this case DC1)
Note that the Launcher is added to the profile selected in the top left hand corner of the screen. 17. In the Login PI console, click Configuration/7. Jobs. 18. In the Jobs page, click Create job. 19. Complete the Create/Update Launcher page with the following settings and then click Save: Name Starts at Default Select a time and date which will be some time in the past. (This means that the job will be active already) Expires on (optional) <leave blank> Interval in minutes 1 Enabled Checked Having the interval means that there will be a delay of 1 minute between each job executing. You have now completed the installation and configuration of Login PI and are ready to run your first job in the next exercise. Leave Internet Explorer open for the next exercise.
Exercise 4: Launching a Login PI job. In this exercise, you will run the job you created in the previous exercises. This job will then run on server as defined in within the connection settings. Running a Login PI job. In this task, you will use the job created at the end of the last exercise to connect to and to test SRV1. Ensure you are logged on to DC1 as Contoso\Administrator using the password Passw0rd! with the Login PI console open from the previous exercise. 1. In File Explorer, browse to \\DC1\Shared\bin. 2. Double-click Launcher. Ensure you launch Launcher.exe the application not Launcher.exe.config the XML file. 3. At the command prompt, type the following values and the press Enter after each line. DC1\SQLExpress,1433 Login_PI Y The job will now run and launch an RDP Session on SVR1. It may take some time to launch depending on the time you configured as the launch time. You will need to wait for the job to start and finish before you can progress to the next step. (You will see a number of RDP session begin and complete) Wait for a few launches to complete and then move on. 4. Restore Internet Explorer. 5. In the Login PI console, click Dashboard. The dashboard will show the results of the applications which ran as part of the configured work load.