Unable to RDC to Windows Server 2022 server

Question

I have a number of Windows Server 2022 instances I have inherited from previous administration that I and other permissioned staff cannot RDP to.

These hosts can be accessed directly from the host with a permissioned account, but will not work when attempting to authenticate using RDP.

I and others receive the following message via a dialogue box upon successful authentication:

Your Remote Desktop Services session has ended, possibly for one of the following reasons:

The administrator has ended to session

An error occurred while the connection was being established

A network problem occurred

I've engaged our MSP and they are unsure of the underlying cause of this. We have since implemented additional Windows 2022 servers that do not have this same issue.

Any support/advice on how this can be remediated would be greatly appreciated.

Answer 1

Hello,

The most basic test to confirm if the issue is networking, is by logging to the server (console session) and trying to RDP to the localhost.

If you don’t get the error message using this method, then that means the issue is networking. Ensure port 3389 is open.

If the error is the same, then the issue is on the Server.

if those Server 2022 instances are Azure VMs, then this test cannot be applied.

Next:

• Check if the RDP Listener is working : run the qwinsta command. If rdp-tcp is visible, the RDP listener is working.
• Chek if RDP Port was modified: Open the registry on path KEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Terminal Server\Winstations\Rdp-Tcp and look for a key named "PortNumber" and ensure the port is 3389
• Check if Remote Desktop Self-signed certificate is expired or inexistent:

You can also follow this step-by-step guide to fix the connection issue: General Remote Desktop connection troubleshooting - Windows Server | Microsoft Learn

I hope this information helps.

Best regards,

Karlie