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So I've come to the conclusion that something by default must prevent RDC from operating on a 2012 R2 DC. This particular post (link) suggests RDC on a DC is a bad idea and the I understand the reasoning.

I finally figured out I can access the DC remotely relatively easily by going through the Hyper-V application after connecting to the Hyper-V host remotely.

Once my server is up and running, I won't really have a terminal on it, so remote access would be convenient. This is a small LAN network not outward facing with very few users at present.

But, even though I will use the Hyper-V route, I would still like to know what would need to be changed from the default to allow RDC; I hoped someone might have the settings 'off the cuff'. One of the other posts I read (link) had suggestions to do this, but they looked to me to be opening far more than was necessary.

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    The question you mention talks about Remote Desktop Services, so allowing normal users to RDP into the server. That's certainly not a good idea for a domain controller. But I think all you want to do is manage the server via RDP as a domain administrator, there's nothing wrong with that, just enable RDP as you would on any other Windows machine.
    – Peter Hahndorf
    Jun 10, 2015 at 1:34
  • Thanks for confirming the distinction on when using RDC (or RDP?) may be OK. Re the final phrase in your comment, I didn't mention it above, but I did everything the same on the DC's as on the non-DC servers. The non-DC servers allow RDC just fine, but neither DC server allows it. So something appears to be changed during DC installation and I guess I need to find out what that is if I want to use RDC on the DC directly. I'm thinking I should only 'open things up' just enough for my local server management needs.
    – Alan
    Jun 10, 2015 at 16:29

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To be able to simply connect with Remote Desktop to manage the server, go in through the Hyper-V console, right-click on the Start button on the desktop, choose System, then click Remote Settings on the left side and change as needed. You will be allowed (and licensed) to have up to two simultaneous connections for server management.

If you are trying to set up Remote Desktop Services for multiple users to connect and run sessions on the server, that is not recommended. But if you insist on doing it you would use the Add Roles and Features wizard to do that. You also have to license this service separately.

Regarding server management in general, it's much much better to manage 2012 R2 servers from a Windows 8.1 box using the RSAT. You can also remotely manage the Hypver-V host from Windows 8.1 box without even installing the RSAT by launching the Hyper-V manager and connecting it to the host. That lets you open up consoles on your guest VMs without using RDP at all.

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