All posts tagged Windows 8

The Drawbacks of Supporting Windows 7 Clients with Windows Server 2012 DirectAccess

Windows Server 2012 DirectAccess includes many new features to enhance scalability and performance. To take full advantage of many of these capabilities you must use Windows 8 Enterprise edition for your DirectAccess clients. Windows 7 Enterprise and Ultimate clients are supported, but there are a few important features that can’t be leveraged. Here are some examples:

IP-HTTPS Improvements – Windows Server 2012 supports NULL encryption for the IP-HTTPS IPv6 transition protocol. This eliminates the performance penalty and negative scalability caused by needlessly redundant encryption of DirectAccess client communication (IPsec encrypted traffic encrypted again with SSL/TLS). Windows 8 clients only request these NULL encryption cipher suites when establishing DirectAccess connectivity. However, Windows 7 clients do not support NULL encryption and will instead request an encrypted cipher suite when performing SSL/TLS negotiations.

Automatic Site Selection for Multi-Site – With Windows Server 2012 the administrator can configure multiple DirectAccess gateways to provide geographic redundancy for DirectAccess clients. Windows 8 clients are configured to intelligently select the nearest entry point and automatically reconnect to another gateway if the connection to the originally selected entry point fails. In contrast, Windows 7 clients can be configured for only a single entry point. The Windows 7 client is unaware of any other entry points and if the original connection becomes unavailable for any reason it will not have corporate network access until that entry point is back online.

Public Key Infrastructure (PKI) – The removal of the requirement to have an internal PKI to support DirectAccess clients is a popular feature for many organizations wanting to deploy DirectAccess (I don’t necessarily agree with this, but that’s the subject of another post!). Although Windows Server 2012 DirectAccess can be configured to use self-signed certificates, this deployment model is only supported for Windows 8 clients. If you plan to provide support for Windows 7 clients you will need a working internal PKI.

DirectAccess Connectivity Assistant – The Windows 8 client includes native functionality to indicate the status of DirectAccess connectivity and also includes a facility with which to quickly gather detailed log data for troubleshooting. Windows 8 clients can also establish DirectAccess connectivity when they are located behind an authenticating web proxy. For Windows 7 clients, the DirectAccess Connectivity Assistant (DCA) provides some of this functionality, but it is an optional component that must be deployed separately. Even with the DCA installed, Windows 7 clients cannot establish DirectAccess connections when a web proxy server requires authentication.

Although Windows 7 Enterprise and Ultimate editions are supported for DirectAccess when connecting to a Windows Server 2012 DirectAccess server, Windows 8 Enterprise clients should be deployed whenever possible to ensure the best and most complete experience.

10 Comments
by Richard M. Hicks on June 6, 2013  •  Permalink
Posted in Important Links, Windows 7, Windows 8, Windows Server 2012
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Posted by Richard M. Hicks on June 6, 2013

https://directaccess.richardhicks.com/2013/06/06/the-drawbacks-of-supporting-windows-7-clients-with-windows-server-2012-directaccess/

DirectAccess and NAT

One of the more common barriers to adoption for DirectAccess in Windows Server 2008 R2 and Forefront Unified Access Gateway (UAG) 2010 is the strict requirement for two consecutive public IPv4 addresses to be assigned to the external network interface of the DirectAccess server. Many small and mid-sized businesses have only a single public IPv4 address, or have a very small range of public IPv4 addresses that are already in use. For large organizations, corporate security policies often dictate that Windows-based systems cannot be internet facing, and many object to having a domain-joined Windows system exposed directly to the Internet. Further complicating matters is the fact that deploying a Window Server 2008 R2 or Forefront UAG 2010 DirectAccess server behind a border router or edge firewall performing Network Address Translation (NAT) is explicitly not supported.

Beginning with Windows Server 2012, deploying the DirectAccess server behind a border router or edge firewall performing NAT is now fully supported. No longer is there a requirement to have public IPv4 addresses assigned to the DirectAccess server’s external network interface. In fact, DirectAccess in Windows Server 2012 can be deployed with a single network adapter, allowing the DirectAccess server to be completely isolated in a perimeter or DMZ network.

Windows Server 2012 DirectAccess Network Topology

Be advised that deploying a Windows Server 2012 DirectAccess server behind a NAT device will result in all DirectAccess client communication being delivered to the server exclusively using the IP-HTTPS IPv6 transition protocol. If you are using Windows 8 clients, there’s nothing to worry about in terms of performance and scalability because Windows 8 clients leverage NULL encryption for IP-HTTPS traffic. However, Windows 7 clients cannot utilize NULL encryption and will instead encrypt all DirectAccess client communication using SSL/TLS. DirectAccess communication is already encrypted using IPsec, so this presents a problem. Double encryption places high demands on the DirectAccess server’s CPU and memory and will significantly impact performance on the client and the server. It will also impede the scalability of the solution by dramatically reducing the number of DirectAccess clients supported on a single DirectAccess server.

So, if you’re planning to deploy a Windows Server 2012 DirectAccess server behind a NAT, and you are also planning to support a lot of Windows 7 clients, please proceed cautiously. Monitor the DirectAccess server performance closely during your pilot and, if at all possible, offload SSL/TLS off box using F5 BIG-IP Local Traffic Manager (LTM) or equivalent device.

23 Comments
by Richard M. Hicks on March 19, 2013  •  Permalink
Posted in Forefront UAG 2010, Important Links, IPv6, Remote Access, Windows 7, Windows 8, Windows Server 2008 R2, Windows Server 2012
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Posted by Richard M. Hicks on March 19, 2013

https://directaccess.richardhicks.com/2013/03/19/directaccess-and-nat/

Windows Server 2012 DirectAccess Video Training Course Now Available

I’m pleased to announce that my Windows Server 2012 DirectAccess video training course is now available from TrainSignal! The course covers planning, installing, and configuring DirectAccess in Windows Server 2012 in a variety of different deployment scenarios. Here’s the course outline:

Lesson 1 – Introduction
Lesson 2 – DirectAccess Overview
Lesson 3 – Planning for DirectAccess
Lesson 4 – Configuring DirectAccess (Simplified Deployment)
Lesson 5 – Configuring DirectAccess (Complex Deployment)
Lesson 6 – Configuring DirectAccess (Multi-site Deployment)
Lesson 7 – Enabling Support for Windows 7 DirectAccess Clients
Lesson 8 – Enabling High Availability with Network Load Balancing
Lesson 9 – DirectAccess Monitoring and Reporting
Lesson 10 – DirectAccess Troubleshooting
Lesson 11 – Enabling Legacy Remote Access VPN

Special thanks goes to my friend and fellow MVP Jordan Krause who served as the technical reviewer for this series and provided valuable input and feedback during the production of the course. Before you implement DirectAccess with Windows Server 2012, be sure to sign up for a subscription at Trainsignal.com and not only will you receive this great DirectAccess training course, you’ll have access to the entire TrainSignal library of content for just $49.00 per month!

TrainSignal Windows Server 2012 DirectAcess Video Training Course

4 Comments
by Richard M. Hicks on March 11, 2013  •  Permalink
Posted in Important Links, IPv6, Remote Access, VPN, Windows 7, Windows 8, Windows Server 2012
Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Posted by Richard M. Hicks on March 11, 2013

https://directaccess.richardhicks.com/2013/03/11/windows-server-2012-directaccess-video-training-course-now-available/

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