The Research Remote Desktop Service (RRDS) has been updated due to the need for a current version of Windows Server and the growing necessity of OneDrive availability. This article contains important information regarding the new system and what you need to do to start using it as an existing user of the service. Please read the information below and perform the necessary steps to start using the new system as soon as possible. The old servers will be retired on March 6th, 2024. Any locally stored data on RRDS will be lost after this date, so it is important to perform these steps prior to March 6th, 2024.
Moving Important Data to RRDS 2022
Data in your Documents, Desktop, Downloads and Pictures folders can be migrated from the current RRDS system to RRDS 2022. Anything else that is not in those four folders or on a network drive cannot be migrated automatically.
To ensure those folders are moved, perform the following steps.
- Sign into the current RRDS system as usual.
- Save any work that might be open from a previous, disconnected session and leave the session open for at least an hour. You may continue to work as usual during this time, as long as you save your work.
- This is necessary because a policy has been applied to the old RRDS system that redirects your Desktop, Documents, Downloads and Pictures folders to a network file server that is used by the RRDS 2022 (The new servers). This process happens behind the scenes and won’t be apparent to you when you follow the above steps. It is important to keep the session open for at least an hour before moving onto Step 3.
- Log out of RRDS by right-clicking the START button, click “Shut down or sign out” and click “Sign out”.
- Sign into the new RRDS 2022 servers (instructions below) and the data in those four folders will be available in your session there, as the same policy is enabled on the new system that points to the local network location. If you find that some data is missing from those four folders, sign out of RRDS 2022 and back into the old RRDS system. Leave the session open overnight to ensure it all gets copied over.
- After your data appears in RRDS 2022 in the Desktop, Documents, Download and Pictures folders, please do not log into the old RRDS system again unless absolutely necessary.
Signing into RRDS 2022
In order to connect to RRDS 2022, you need an RDP file that is configured to connect to it. Please visit the following support articles depending on what operating system you are using:
If you have questions or run into any issues accessing the new RRDS, please contact research-computing@uiowa.edu.