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Remote Desktop Disconnected: The authentication certificate received from the remote computer is expired or invalid.

Upon connect to a remote machine I can across the following error. Since deploying Server 2008 I have seen this issue a few times so I thought I would blog it.

When connecting to a remote machine some clients (usually clients with a new version of the Remote Desktop client on their machine) the following error is received:

Remote Desktop cannot connect to the remote computer because the authentication certificate from the remote computer is expired or invalid. In some cases, this error might also be caused by a large time discrepancy between the client and server computers.

The first thing to check is the remote machines certificate. So from a client that can connect or directly on the console do the following:

  1. Start > Run > mmc.exe
  2. File > Add/Remove Snap-in…
  3. Certificates > Add > Computer Account > Local Computer > Finish
  4. Remote Desktop > Certificates rdpcert.png
  5. Check the certificate expiration date. If the date has past or the certificate is invalid simple right click and delete the certificate
  6. From a client that was failing to connect try and connect again. Upon the reconnection attempt the remote machine with auto generate a new certificate

Should you still have problems ensure the client settings for remote desktop connection are set to “Warn Me” or “Connect and don’t warn me” under Advanced and Server Authentication. Also check for clock drift (both time and date) between the client and remote computer, anything more than a few minutes can cause problems.

Happy troubleshooting! 🙂

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Remote Desktop Services: The Local Session Manager service failed the logon

After rebooting one on my XenApp servers the other day I was then unable to log on receiving the error “The Local Session Manager service failed the logon. The requested session access is denied”

13-06-2011 16-30-39.png

After some investigation the local session manager was failing to contact the Windows license server. The server was up but the Remote Desktop Licensing Manager was showing as “Not Activated”, clicking activate just resulted in a further error. The event manager was also showing the following.

13-06-2011 16-47-16.png

After some more search I discovered a Microsoft KB article KB983385, it turns out an expired certificate was causing the issue, after installing the hotfix and rebooting the license server I also had to reboot the XenApp server at which point I was then able to log on again.