Need explanation of tag loadbalanceinfo:s:tsv:

Question

I'm making a rdp file based on my user parameters

full address:s:<c_host>
alternate shell:s:||<c_appname>
remoteapplicationprogram:s:||<c_appname>
remoteapplicationname:s:<c_alias>
...
loadbalanceinfo:s:tsv://MS Terminal Services Plugin.1.<c_collection>

I read from the parameters and replace the tag with the value, that's why I need to create params for every single value that can change, I mapped all tags that the value can change, like: remote app name, host, port, alias, collection, the only one i'm afraid that can change but i don't know what is it is the last one:

loadbalanceinfo:s:tsv://MS Terminal Services Plugin.1.<c_collection>

I tried to look for it but could not find, what I know is that this tags will define where the application will be launched, in this case, on the host that is defined in the collection.

What's the meaning of: "s:tsv:"?

What's the meaning of "//MS Terminal Services Plugin.1."? Can it change? What does the "1" stands for? If I have more than a collection configured in my Server Manager it would be //MS Terminal Services Plugin.2 ?

Thanks in advance.

Solution

The parameter you mention allows the Broker to know which collection the client is trying to connect to.

Since a broker can manage multiple hosts and several collections, this setting is essential.

Let's break this parameter in multiple parts:

loadbalanceinfo:s:tsv://MS Terminal Services Plugin.1.<c_collection>

• loadbalanceinfo is the parameter name
• s is the type of value that this parameter expects. "S" means "String". I'm sure that if you look in your RDP file, you will find settings with "i", it means "Integer".
• tsv://MS Terminal Services Plugin.1.<c_collection> is the value of the parameter "loadbalanceinfo", it's a string.

and this string is processed by the broker, so the client will be redirected accordingly (MS Terminal Services Plugin.1.... is a value used and processed internally)

The "problem" here, is that the RDP setting loadbalanceinfo is not really documented by Microsoft, it can change at anytime...

You should be ready to change the whole value very quickly if you rely on your own RDP file for use in production.

You noticed that there is the collection name in the loadbalanceinfo, be careful, this is not necessarily the name of the collection as displayed in the management console! You can try if you want: from a certain length, this value is truncated.

My advice is to use only official RDP files, generated by the Remote Desktop Web Portal (RDWeb) or be ready to respond quickly when a change occurs in the contents of the RDP file (Microsoft can change the loadbalanceinfo, for example, tomorrow with a Windows Update if they want)