When you create your custom Image for Azure RemoteApp you have to install the RDS Session Host Role. When this role is installed and not connected to a license server your licensing Grace Period will start. When you decide to make change based in this image you will end up in a situation where your grace period is expired. If you use Azure as your source for creating your Master Images you could get the following error when you connect want to make changes to your Master Image:

This error is visibile when your licensing grace period is expired and no licensing servers are configured. When you use this Master Image for Azure RemoteApp they will take care for configuring the licensing part of RDS. But how can you still continue with this Master Image as a source for your Azure RemoteApp environment. Let’s first check if the Grace Period registry key is available in your Master Image. Check for the following registry key: HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\TerminalServer\RCM\GracePeriod:

After RD Session Host server receives an RDS CAL, Microsoft creates LicensingGracePeriodEnded in the above key. But you can see this is not there. Now check for the event 1128 in your Event Viewer:

So the conclusion was right, my grace period is ended and therefore I’ve some difficulties in connecting to this Master Image from Azure.

RESOLUTION:

The easy resolution is to use an Admin session instead of a normal User session in RDS. You can to this by starting a Remote Deskop Connection with the commandline switch ‘/admin’. When using this switch you will be able to connect to your Master Image and you can make your changes to this image. When you apply this Image to a Azure RemoteApp collection, they will take care of providing the right licenses.