Setup Your Own Chocoloatey/NuGet Repository

In this article we'll examine setting up a NuGet/Chocolatey repository in your enterprise to distribute software. This will allow you to easily distribute development and software packages throughout your network.

NuGet? I don't need any more candy.

NuGet started life NuPack (not to be confused with NuPack), an open source solution for managing .NET packages. Since then it has evolved into a mature platform with numerous interfaces including a Visual Studio plugin, command line, and Mono support. Chocolatey and PowerShellGet are built on that framework. Speaking of Chocolate...

Chocolatey? I told you already, no more candy.

Where NuGet was meant for .NET packages, Chocolatey, which is built on the same infrastructure, is meant for machine (Windows) packages. Think of it like apt or yum for windows. PowerShell has also already shipped a preview of PowerShell OneGet which can use Chocolatey repositories.

But There are Already Repositories for These and I'm Hungry! Why Would I Make My Own?

Yup! There are great public repositories for Chocolatey and NuGet, but those are geared at freely available public software that wouldn't be built for an explicit purpose. By hosting your own you can host custom .NET packages specific to your business unit or even package commercially available software for distribution with Chocolatey provided your licensing is up to snuff.

Hosting Options

There are several options to get going that vary in terms of hosting location, ease of installation, and scalability. Some of the more popular options include:

• NuGet Server : A basic server that runs on-premise and is easy to setup. Doesn't have granular security features and will only scale so far before it slows down.
• NuGet Gallery: More complex NuGet server package that includes advanced security features and will scale for larger implementations (this is what the main public NuGet repo uses). 
• MyGet: A commercial NuGet repo service hosted in Azure. Has a limited free tier and reasonably priced paid tiers. Worth consideration if you don't want to host your own infrastructure. 

The assumption with this article is that you're hosting your first NuGet/Chocolately repo for the purposes of your enterprise or team use. Since the NuGet server includes most needed functionality for that purpose and can be replaced with the NuGet Gallery as you grow, we'll set up a NuGet Server(the first option) in this article.

Let's Get Started!

Assumptions

• We'll be setting up on a Windows Server 2012 R2. This will work on Windows Server 2008 and up. I'm assuming you have one set up and ready to go.
• (Updated, see note below) You will need Visual Studio Express 2010/2012 or Visual Studio Community 2013 or newer on your workstation. (Preferably not on the server)
• You will need Admin rights on both the server and your workstation.
• In enterprise environments you often have to make due with the resources you have available, so we'll be setting up the repo as a virtual application in IIS rather than its own site so that it can share port 80 for the sake of simplicity.

IIS Setup on Server

We'll walk through installing the minimum IIS requirements to run the NuGet Server package. Everything here could be very easily done with PowerShell but we'll use the GUI to make for a more visual tutorial.

1. On the server where you will host the application, start the "Add Roles and Features Wizard"
2. Click "Next" until you advance to the "Server Roles" section. If you're executing remotely make sure you select the correct server.
3. Of the Roles listed, select "Web Server (IIS)" and select "Add Features" when prompted. Click "Next". 





4. On the "Features" page, expand ".NET Framework 4.5 Features" and ensure ".NET Framework 4.5" and "ASP.NET 4.5" are checked. Click "Next".





5. Click "Next" to advance to the "Role Services" section under "Web Server Role (IIS)" and select the following (only the most granular required, not the headings):
• Web Server
• Common HTTP Features
• Default Document
• Static Content
• Health and Diagnostics
• HTTP Logging
• Performance
• Static Content Compression
• Security
• Request Filtering
• Application Development
• .NET Extensibility 4.5
• ASP.NET 4.5
• ISAPI Extensions
• ISAPI Filters
• Management Tools
• IIS Management Console





6. Click "Next" and then click "Install".
   
7. You shouldn't need to reboot, but check the installation status and do so if requested.

IIS Setup on Server

Now we'll set up the site that the NuGet Server will be served from. As mentioned earlier, I will walk you through setting it up as a virtual application off of the default web site. This configuration would allow you to share port 80 with an existing site as well as show you how to configure this application below the root, which does need a bit of special consideration worth mentioning.

1. Create the directory structure for your site. I always put my IIS sites on a non-system drive with the permissions locked down. In this example, I'll be using D:\Sites\NuGetRepo .
2. Create the directory for the NuGet/Chocolately package repo. We'll configure this below. This directory uses a different permissions structure and could potentially be shared out over your LAN, so it may be beneficial to place this separate from the site. In my example I'll be using D:\NuGetRepo .
3. (Optional/Best Practice) At the D:\Sites and D:\NuGetRepo levels disable inheritance ensure only Administrators and SYSTEM have write access. Do not allow any other access at this time, we'll get to that below.
4. On the server to host NuGet Server, open the IIS management tool.
5. Right click the Default Web Site (note this could be any web site) and select "Add Application..." (A virtual directory will not work!)





6. Set the alias to "NuGet", leave the "Application Pool" on "DefaultApplicationPool" (again, you could change this if desired) and set the physical path to what you created for the site. For our example we're using "D:\Sites\NuGetRepo" . 





7. The default out-of-box settings should work for the site, but in case the Default Web Site settings have been changed you may want to refresh your view and ensure IIS authentication is set to "Anonymous". If desired, change the logging location as well (D:\logfiles\IIS\NuGetRepo for example).

Setting File System Permissions on IIS Server

For clients to access the site and repo successfully we need to set file system level permissions. If you have used different directory names above substitute them here accordingly.

Note: We're assuming you have administrative access to this server from your Workstation as well to deploy the code in the steps below. If not, you'll need to grant whoever will be deploying the site access to the site folder. If you are admin, don't worry about it.

1. The directory containing the website needs to be read by the AppPool account and the Anon user account. Right click D:\Sites\NuGetRepo and select "Properties".
2. Click "Security", "Edit", and then "Add". Change the "Location" to the local system name.
3. Give the default web site application pool virtual service account and anonymous account permissions by typing "IIS APPPOOL\DefaultAppPool;IUSR", clicking "Check Names" and then "OK". Again, if you have elected to use a different site/pool/acct you will need to take that into account. This should resolve to two accounts, "DefaultAppPool" and IUSR".





4. Give each of the added users "Read & Execute", "List folder contents", and "Read" permissions and then click "OK".





5. The directory containing the actual repo only needs to be read by the AppPool account. Right click D:\NuGetRepo and select "Properties".
6. Click "Security", "Edit", and then "Add". Change the "Location" to the local system name.
   
7. Give the default web site application pool virtual service account permissions by typing "IIS APPPOOL\DefaultAppPool", clicking "Check Names" and then "OK". Again, if you have elected to use a different site/pool/acct you will need to take that into account. This should resolve to one account, "DefaultAppPool".
   
8. Grant it "Read & Execute", "List folder contents", and "Read" permissions and then click "OK".

NuGet Server Config on Workstation

Now we'll grab the NuGet Server package and configure it accordingly. Note some of these options will vary slightly depending on which version of Visual Studio you are using. I'm using 2012 Premium but everything is possible in 2010 Express and up. Edit: As pointed out by Nik below it looks as if Microsoft changed this starting in 2013. For 2013 and higher you'll need the community edition.

Note: We are assuming your IIS server is accessible to you and has file sharing turned on to push the site. If you are unable to get to the filesystem of the server from this machine you will need to use a different deployment mechanism when we get to that step.

1. On your workstation, open Visual Studio and start a new Project by selecting "File"->"New"->"Project"





2. Navigate to "Installed"->"Templates"->"Visual C#"->"Web" and select "ASP.NET Empty Web Application"





3. Right click on your newly created application under the solution and select "Manage NuGet Packages"





4. Assuming the defaults of the nuget.org feed and "Stable Only" are selected, type "nuget.server" in the search box and hit Enter. 
5. Select the "NuGet.Server" package and click "Install". This will install the NuGet server package and any dependencies. Accept license agreements associated with the other packages to continue and then close the package management window.





6. The only thing we need to customize is the web.config  file for our installation. In the Solution Explorer click "Web.config" under the web application. Note: This file is also where you can control API Key behavior, but that is outside the scope of this article.
7. Look for the add key="packagesPath" entry in the web.config file under the "<appSettings>" heading. We need to set this to the location of our repository. Change <add key="packagesPath" value=""/> to <add key="packagesPath" value="D:\NuGetRepo"/> (or other directory if appropriate). Note that there is no trailing slash. Save your project.





8. Now we need to publish. Click "Build"->"Publish WebApplication..."





9. If you already have a working publishing profile for the web server, select it and skip to step 12. Otherwise, select <new profile> from the drop-down box, enter a name, and click "OK". 





10. Change "Publish method" to "File System" and enter the full path to the web server site location, I.E. "\\<server>\d$\sites\NuGetRepo\" . Click "Next".
11. Accept the default publishing settings and click "Next". 
12. Review the settings and click "Publish". 
13. Review the Output window to ensure there weren't any errors.





14. Test your NuGet Server by navigating to http://<servername>/NuGet/ . If you encounter errors be sure to browse to it locally on the server to get the full error information.

That's it! Now all you need to do is configure the source in your clients, make packages, and enjoy! For instructions on those steps see below, and stay tuned for more. Thanks for reading!

Creating NuGet/Chocolatey Packages

Chocolatey.org : all things Chocolatey!
Chocolatey Docs: Create Packages Quick Start
NuGet Docs: Nuspec Reference
Chocolatey Docs: Chocolately Templates
NuGet Docs: Creating and Publishing a Package
Scott Hanselman: Creating a NuGet Package in 7 Easy Steps!
Chocolatey Docs: Creating Chocolatey Packages
Hong Xu: Create and Publish Chocolatey Packages
NuGet Docs: Configuration File and Source Code Transformations

Configuring Sources

Chocolatey Docs: Source command
NuGet Docs: Visual Studio Package Sources

References!

NuGet Docs: Hosting Your Own Feeds
Scott Hanselman: Is the Windows User Ready for Apt-Get?
MBrownNYC: Create Your Own NuGet Server to Serve Packages for Chocolatey
NuGet Docs: An Overview of the NuGet Ecosystem

Hyper-V Port Mirroring and Network Capture

Introduction

Hyper-V port mirroring, introduced in Windows Server 2012, allows you to easily monitor traffic on virtual machines without having to capture the traffic directly on that VM. It's exactly the same thing as standard port mirroring, only we're doing it using a virtual switch rather than a physical one. You can use this in your Hyper-V environment for all sorts of network troubleshooting. It only takes a couple of minutes to setup, so let's do it and then capture some packets!

Assumptions

• Administrative Access to 2012 Hyper-V Host/Cluster
• At least one vSwitch already configured (though we'll cover multiple)
• At least two VMs configured; one to monitor and one to collect the data

Set Up Port Mirroring (GUI)

Configure Machine to be Mirrored

1. Open the Hyper-V Manager
2. Right click the machine that you would like to capture from and select "Settings".





3. Expand the properties of the NIC (Network Interface Card) you would like to mirror by clicking the plus sign to its left and click "Advanced Features". 
4. Under "Port mirroring"->"Mirroring Mode" click the drop down and select "Source". This sets this NIC as the source of mirroring on the Hyper-V switch it is connected to.





5. Make note of the vSwitch the NIC is connected to (right below "Network Adapter") and click "OK".

Configure the Mirror Target

It makes setting up a network capture substantially easier if you add a dedicated NIC for each source machine. This NIC must be on the same virtual switch. A dedicated NIC allows unbinding all services/protocols in the guest OS, which will facilitate an entirely clean capture. More on that below...

1. Shut down the virtual machine you intend on being the target of the network capture.
2. After shutdown, right click that machine and select "Settings".
3. Under "Add Hardware" in the right hand plane select "Network Adapter" and click "Add".
4. The network adapter properties page for the new NIC will come up. Under "Virtual switch:" select the same switch that the source machine/NIC is connected to.
5. Expand the properties of the new NIC and select "Advanced Features".
6. Under "Port mirroring"->"Mirroring Mode" click the drop down and select "Destination". This sets this NIC as the source of mirroring on the Hyper-V switch it is connected to. Click "OK".





7. Start the VM back up.

Configure the Mirror NIC in Capturing VM OS

Note: The instructions for this portion are somewhat generic because your guest OS on the capturing VM may differ from mine.

1. After the capturing VM starts back up, log on via RDP or otherwise.
2. Open your network connections and determine which NIC is the added one for mirroring. Rename it something like "{VSwitchName} Port Mirror" for easy identification.
3. Open the properties of that NIC.
4. Un-bind all protocols and services from that NIC and click "OK". By removing all bindings we'll be able to ensure a clean capture without interfering with the existing network connection. None of the standard protocols or services are used in the mirror process; Hyper-V takes care of everything for you. If you already have your network sniffing software installed, you may need to reboot the capture machine in order to see the NIC.

Install and Use Packet Capture Software

I'll be using Wireshark for Windows; if desired you could substitute something like Microsoft Network Monitor or Microsoft Message Analyzer on Windows; Wireshark or tcpdump on Linux. 

1. Download and install Wireshark. The portable version works just as well if you prefer.
2. Open Wireshark and click the "Interface List" button on the upper left hand corner.





3. Select the dedicated capture NIC (which we renamed earlier), ensure it is the only selected, and click "Start".





4. Enjoy all your packets.

Powershell Commands for NIC Setup/Mirroring

• Add-VMNetworkAdapter: (Host) Add an adapter to a VM
• Set-VMNetworkAdapter: (Host) Change properties of NIC to mirror source, destination, etc.
• Get-NetAdapter: (Guest) Get list of NICs
• Rename-Netadapter: (Guest) Rename NICs

Caveats

• You won't be able to decrypt encrypted packets unless you get the private key from the target server for decryption, which obviously may be a security issue given we're not on that machine.
• Make sure you de-config (new word!) the port mirroring in HyperV when you're done as the packet replication continues even if you're not capturing.
• After unbinding all services/protocols in Windows the adapter won't appear in the "Network and Sharing Center" anymore. You'll have to click "Change adapter settings" to get to the NIC.

More Reading

• What's New in Hyper-V Virtual Switch for Windows Server 2012
• Jeff Wouter: Powershell Port Mirroring in Hyper-V

That's it, easy eh? Questions/Comments, leave 'em below!

Manage the Windows Firewall with Powershell

With the release of Windows Server 2012 and Windows 8, Microsoft has begun issuing the following warning when using NETSH to manage the firewall:

In future versions of Windows, Microsoft might remove the Netsh functionality
for Windows Firewall with Advanced Security.

    

Sounds like a good enough reason to learn how to manage the firewall with Powershell to me. Fortunately Microsoft has made welcome improvements to firewall management in Powershell for version 3. Let's do it.

Assumptions

• Windows 2012 or Windows 8
• Administrator access to the machine in question
• Powershell ran as administrator on the machine in question

CMDLets Involved

Powershell provides the following commands for firewall management:

Get-Command -Noun "*Firewall*"


Copy-NetFirewallRule
Disable-NetFirewallRule
Enable-NetFirewallRule
Get-NetFirewallAddressFilter
Get-NetFirewallApplicationFilter
Get-NetFirewallInterfaceFilter
Get-NetFirewallInterfaceTypeFilter
Get-NetFirewallPortFilter
Get-NetFirewallProfile
Get-NetFirewallRule
Get-NetFirewallSecurityFilter
Get-NetFirewallServiceFilter
Get-NetFirewallSetting
New-NetFirewallRule
Remove-NetFirewallRule
Rename-NetFirewallRule
Set-NetFirewallAddressFilter
Set-NetFirewallApplicationFilter
Set-NetFirewallInterfaceFilter
Set-NetFirewallInterfaceTypeFilter
Set-NetFirewallPortFilter
Set-NetFirewallProfile
Set-NetFirewallRule
Set-NetFirewallSecurityFilter
Set-NetFirewallServiceFilter
Set-NetFirewallSetting
Show-NetFirewallRule

As per normal, type get-help followed by the CMDLet name in question to get more information.

Common Examples

Below are some examples of common tasks you may wish to perform with Powershell:

Enable or Disable the Firewall

Disable the firewall on the DOMAIN profile:

Set-NetFirewallProfile -Profile Domain -Enabled True

Note the -Enabled parameter does not accept typical $True but rather True. Obviously False is an option and the other valid profiles are "Public" and "Private".

Enable a Group of Pre-Made Rules

Groups are sets of rules for a specific purpose. Windows ships with several; are a few you may find useful:

Set-NetFirewallRule -DisplayGroup "Remote Event Log Management" -Enabled True
Set-NetFirewallRule -DisplayGroup "Windows Firewall Remote Management" -Enabled True
Set-NetFirewallRule -DisplayGroup "Windows Management Instrumentation(WMI)" -Enabled True
Set-NetFirewallRule -DisplayGroup "Remote Desktop" -Enabled True
Set-NetFirewallRule -DisplayGroup "Windows Remote Management" -Enabled True
Set-NetFirewallRule -DisplayGroup "Remote Administration" -Enabled True

To list all groups, see the item below.

List all current Rule Groups

$rules=Get-NetFirewallRule
$DisplayGroups=foreach ($rule in $rules){$rule.displaygroup}
$DisplayGroups|Select-Object -Unique

Make a New Rule

New-NetFirewallRule -DisplayName "Allow Inbound OpenVPN Client Requests" -Direction Inbound -LocalPort 1194 -Protocol UDP -Action Allow
New-NetFirewallRule -DisplayName "Block Outbound itunes.exe" -Direction Outbound -Program "C:\Program Files\apple\itunes\itunes.exe" -Action Block

Enable or Disable an Existing Rule

Set-NetfirewallRule -DisplayName "Allow Inbound OpenVPN Client Requests" -Enabled True
Set-NetfirewallRule -DisplayName "Allow Inbound OpenVPN Client Requests" -Enabled False

Delete a Rule

This will permanently delete a rule. To disable use the set-netfirewallrule command from the previous section.

Remove-NetfirewallRule -DisplayName "Allow Inbound OpenVPN Client Requests"

Get Firewall Profile Information

Get-NetFirewallProfile -name Domain

Manage Rules Remotely

Any of the commands can be used remotely by using the New-CimSession cmdlet. This also assumes you have already enabled the firewall rule group "Windows Firewall Remote Management" as listed above.

$TargetComputer=New-CIMSession -Computername MYCOMPUTER
Set-NetFirewallRule -DisplayGroup "Remote Event Log Management" -Enabled True -CimSession $TargetComputer

What About Windows Server 2008/7?

Unfortunately, this will only work in 2012, 8, or newer even if you install Powershell 3.0 on  previous versions. The NetSecurity module was newly introduced in 2012/8. If you want to manage the FW on older versions you'll need to use NETSH.

Tip 'o The Iceberg!

So that's just a start to all the things we can do with powershell to manage the firewall. This article focuses on controlling one machine at a time so you'll most likely want to investigate controlling rules via group policy. Server 2012 introduces some very interesting tools for that as well. (Open-NetGPO!) For more information, see the links below and as always feel free to interact using the comments!

Further Reading

Technet: Windows Firewall with Advanced Security Administration with Windows Powershell
Let IT Know Blog: Manage Windows Firewall With Powershell 3
Microsoft Networking Blog: Deployment: Windows Firewall and Group Policy

Upgrade Windows Server Core 2008r2 to 2012 In Place..Unless it's a Domain Controller

I would never recommend an in place upgrade of any Windows version, but sometimes it may be required in certain situations. Should this be necessary I figured we could take a few minutes to walk through it. Note that doing this on a Domain Controller presents additional challenges listed at the end of this article. (TLDR: Don't do an in-place upgrade of a core 2k8r2 DC to 2012)

Let's do a core upgrade from 2008r2 to 2012:

Assumptions

• Your 2008r2 Filesystem is healthy and you don't have any major issues with the services on the node. 
• Local Admin Access
• A valid license

Upgrade

1. Insert the 2012 disk in the physical machine or VM you intend to upgrade. 
2. Change directory to the disk and execute setup.exe, i.e. "j:" (ENTER) "setup.exe"





3. When prompted, choose "go online and install updates now" if you've got internet access on this machine. If not, more forward without updating. 





4. Enter your product key for this install. Most enterprise customers will either use a volume license key or datacenter key. 
5. Here you can select to either stick with the core install or install the GUI as part of the upgrade. I'm assuming that because you are upgrading the core version you'll want to stick with core. 





6. Accept the license terms. 
7. Select "Upgrade" unless you want to do a custom install. I won't cover that here since the options would be specific to your implementation.





8. At the next screen you will be warned if there are any compatibility issues; often times virtualization components will be flagged. Oft times you can ignore this warning, but be sure you read it in full and consider how easy it would be to double back now and correct the issue. 





9. The upgrade process will now proceed; there will be a few reboots. 





10. After the upgrade is complete, ensure you update virtualization components if applicable and run Windows Update. 

Upgrading a domain controller on a core installation of 2008r2 to 2012 doesn't really work without relatively major workarounds. See this Microsoft support article for more information. This fix took quite awhile to be developed, and leaves a bit to be desired. It's probably easier to do the right thing anyhow; stand up new 2012 DCs and decommission the old 2008r2 servers. After you decommission the old ones, make sure you ensure the AD sites as well as the _msdcs and primary DNS zones are cleaned up correctly. (that's an article in and of itself) There is a long discussion thread regarding this workaround on the Technet forums.

The Dreaded Black Screen of Life!

It should also be noted that the Win2012 certification exams (70-41x) are not aware of this issue. Until next time!

What is RemoteFX on Windows 2012 Hyper-V and Deploying a Win 8 Virtual Desktop

Updated 2/3/2017 for Windows Server 2016 and Windows 10!

RemoteFX is Microsoft's advanced desktop RDP solution based on technology acquired from Calista Technologies. It allows for the following functionality above and beyond standard RDP:

This Article Written in RemoteFX. It's... amazing?

Server 2008r2 Based:

• Virtualized 3d GPU: you can split a single GPU into multiple virtual GPUs for VDI VMs. This allows for 3d accelerated apps to run in the RDP session.
• RemoteFX Codec: A more advanced version of the RDP compression scheme that allows for more efficient streaming of both video and audio. While it works fine for text, you can always get groceries in a Yugo. 
• USB Device redirection: Now you can finally use your USB Scan Toaster on your remote desktop!

Server 2012 Additions: 

• Multi-Touch: Multi-Touch support through RDP. Needs a compatible client! (RDP 8.0, etc.)
• Adaptive Graphics: Different compression codecs depending on the content (dynamically on a given screen) among other enhancements. 
• Media Redirection API: Used primarily to facilitate rendering audio and video of VOIP clients local to the client. (Only Lync right now) 
• WAN Enhancements: Support UDP; tweaks to lower bandwidth requirements for both remote and WiFi scenarios.  
• GPU Changes: Support either a software-emulated GPU or a real hardware GPU. DX11 support added. 

Server 2016 Additions: 

• OpenGL/CL Support: Now supports hardware-accelerated OpenGL (^4.4) and CL (^1.1)... CAD/Lightwave/Photoshop users rejoice!
• vRAM Assignment Enhancements: Decouple vRAM amount from monitors and resolution, increased dedicated vRAM per host capability to 1GB from 256MB. 
• Better Performance: More FPS=smoother performance. Noticeable in my case, videos now watchable through RemoteFX without the audio issues that sometimes accompanied the prior version. 
• Generation 2 VM Support: Allows for use of the new VM platform and all the associated features. 
• ... and more, see the reference links at the bottom of this article.

Hardware Requirements:

Full MSFT Article , RDS Blog reqs link

• The standard HyperV Requirements
• SLAT Enabled CPU; EPT on Intel, NPT/RVI on AMD
• DX11 (WDDM 1.2) Compatible GPU; All made for purpose DX11 GPUs from NVIDIA and AMD work, and for testing I've been using a consumer grade NVIDIA 650 in my lab without issue.

Software Requirements:

• Server: Server 2012/2016 (core preferred, see next section)
• Client: Windows 8/10 Enterprise, and Enterprise only. Pro won't work. Additionally, I found that re-keying a Win8 Pro to Enterprise install will not work either. While it will report that all is well, and it will install the RemoteFX graphics adapter, when you try to connect it will report "error during licensing protocol" in the final stage of connection negotiation.

Setup

Assumptions

• You have a fully functional HyperV Host that meets the hardware requirements listed above.
• You're using server core. You can do this on standard, but you should be using core for performance and patching (or lack thereof) reasons. The commands I relay assume core. 

Prepare the Host

1. Patch it up; make sure you're fully up to date. 
2. Install the graphics drivers for your GPU on the host. This may pose some issues on server core, but fortunately I've got a guide for NVIDIA GPUs to help. The procedure is most likely similar for AMD GPUs. Bounce the host after driver install regardless of if it tells you to do so or not. 
3. Install the Remote Desktop Virtualization Host feature. Either use the server manager remotely to do so, or execute the following directly on the Hyper-V host: "Install-WindowsFeature –name RDS-Virtualization -source j:\sources\sxs" where J: is the DVD-ROM or image with the 2012 install bits. You can use other sources if desired, for more information see this post.
4. Reboot the server. 
5. Enable the Adapter for use with the Hyper-V host by opening the Hyper-V management console, right click the server->Hyper-V Settings....
6. Select "Physical GPUs"
7. If configured correctly, you should see your adapter listed. Check the "Use this GPU with RemoteFX" box and click "OK". 

Alternatively for steps 5 through 7 you can use the following powershell cmdlets: 

• Get-VMRemoteFXPhysicalVideoAdapter
• Enable-VMRemoteFXPhysicalVideoAdapter

Setup The VM

1. As noted above, only Win 8 (7 if you want, update + 10) Enterprise will work. Use a template or build from scratch. There are no special needs at build time. 
2. Enable RDP on the Win8 VM
3. Install the VM Integration services & shut down the VM
4. Add a 3D Adapter to the VM by opening the Hyper-V management console, right click the VM->Settings
5. Under "Add Hardware" select "RemoteFX 3D Video Adapter", click "Add", select the max resolution and # of monitors you plan on using via RDP, and select "OK"
6. Start up the VM. You now will need to logon via RDP, as the Hyper-V remoting will be locked out. The machine should notify of new hardware being installed that requires a reboot. If it does not, re-install the integration services. Reboot the VM. 
7. To ensure the VM is operating with the adapter open device manager and look under "Display Adapters". You should see "Microsoft RemoteFX Graphics Device - WDDM"

Alternative Powershell Command:

• Add-VMRemoteFx3dVideoAdapter

Configuration

Note that unlike the previous version of RDP, you don't need to select your connection speed on RDS 8.0. So that said, the only configuration you really need in 8.0 can be done via GPO.

Adjust Settings via GPO

Primer: Modifying GPO settings.

Microsoft makes some RemoteFX settings "Tweakable" via GPO. These settings can be found here:

Computer Configuration->Policies->Administrative Templates->Windows Components->Remote Desktop Services->
  Remote Desktop Connection Client->RemoteFX USB Device Redirection
     -Allow RDP redirection of other supported RemoteFX USB devices from this computer
  Remote Desktop Session Host->Remote Session Environment
     -Configure compression for RemoteFX data
     -Configure image quality for RemoteFX Adaptive Graphics
     -Enable RemoteFX encoding for RemoteFX clients designed for WindowServer 2008r2 SP1
     -Configure RemoteFX Adaptive Graphics (Tweak if using only on a LAN)
     RemoteFX for Windows Server 2008 R2
        -Configure RemoteFX (this just allows for disabling RemoteFX via GPO)
        -Optimize visual experience when using RemoteFX (Tweak this one if using only on a LAN)
        -Optimize visual experience for Remote Desktop Service Sessions (Change to "Text" if you setup RemoteFX so Bobby can do his spreadsheets. Why did you setup RemoteFX again?)

Troubleshooting

 

Sound isn't working on the youtubes! : Seems like flash doesn't work correctly with audio redirection. HTML5 works though! Switch to the HTML 5 beta by going here.

Seems Slow: Make sure your color depth is set to 32bit. Based on my testing it seems that the codec favors full 32 bit color.

FAQ (By me of myself @ least, and by frequently I mean once until I answered them)

• Q: Should I want to, what can I use to benchmark this thing?  A: PassMark works great; I must admit that watching DX11 accelerated 3d benchmarks through an RDP session is kind of cool. :) 
• Q: Does RemoteFX work through an RDP gateway? What versions? A: Yup, it works through a gateway running on 2008, 2008R2, or 2012.
• Q: Is GPU performance good enough to run intensive applications or GPU computation tasks? A: In most cases, no. The RemoteFX solution virtualizes the GPU and exposes it as a Microsoft "GPU", essentially translating all requests through a proxy driver. While that solution allows for splitting the GPU across multiple VMs, it also makes for reduced functionality/performance of the card since the OS isn't exposed directly to the native driver. Additionally, framerate is limited by the RDP protocol itself.
• Q: Does RemoteFX support accelerated OpenGL? A: No, it is done in software.
• Q: Can RemoteFX do GPU direct passthrough? A: No, only Xenserver Enterprise or higher can do that right now. 
• Q: How do I know how much memory on my GPU is being used by my VMs? A: You can find the answer on the Hyper-V/Physical GPUs page for each server. The memory stats are listed right under GPU Details->Summary. 
• Q: Can I deploy RemoteFX in a VDI environment? A: Yeah, though note your max simultaneous RemoteFX sessions will be limited by available GPU memory. (See above post) Fortunately for you, I have a guide on how to setup Hyper-V based VDI!
• Q: Will this VMWare tweak help up the framerate on Hyper-V/RemoteFX? A: In my testing, it did not. I suspect this is because the HyperV NICs probably don't support interrupt coalescing. It looks like one could enable interrupt coalescing on the host with the following instructions and perhaps that would change the answer depending on how the packets are handled from the RemoteFX machine. 

References

Microsoft: What is RemoteFX?
RDS Blog: RemoteFX Features for Windows 8 and 2012
Technet: Frequently Asked Questions and Troubleshooting Tips
RDS Blog: Your desktop will be a rich DX11-based experience, and your virtual GPU should be too
My Crazy Adventures with RemoteFX, Part 1

2016 Updates

Enterprise Mobility and Security Blog: RemoteFX vGPU Updates in Windows Server Next
Technet: Experience guide for Enabling OpenGL Support for vGPU in Server 2016

Questions/Concerns? Contact me or leave a comment!