We have a Windows 2008 Server located in a remote data center connected over a highly latent (~200ms) 3MBps VPN connection to our primary location. This server has the Domain Controller and Terminal Services rolls installed. Logging into this machine takes a dramatic amount of time, much more than local desktops or other servers located in our primary facility (the server itself is 2 x quad core, 16GB RAM, 15K SAS drives, so it shouldn't be some hardware capacity issue).
It is my understanding that RDP login is mostly a function of starting up services and profile stuff, so my guess is that the profile may be streaming across the WAN and that takes the most amount of time? Would roaming profiles solve this? Is there a way to force profile "caching" on this machine? What else should I look for?