Remote Desktop Connection (RDC) freeses

J

JoK

Weaksauce
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Feb 24, 2017
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107
Hi,

At home, I've got an AMD with 16GB memory that acts as my file server and hosts some VMs. It runs Windows 11.

Then, I use my laptop to connect to it via remote desktop connection when I want to use the VMs. The files are accessed via networked drives. I also use ZeroTier.

When I access the server from home, RDC works very well. Then only issue I have is that sometimes the server freeses and then RDC is disconnected. I have to physically restart it to make it work.

When I am away from home and access the server , the freeses happen more often, which is annoying because I can not restart the server.

I tried to figure out why this happens but I really can't find anything. It seems that after prolonged time on RDC from an outside network, the machine stops working.

Has anyone experienced this or has any idea why this might be happening?

I am now thinking of replacing windows 11 with Windows Server with the hope that RDC will be more stable. But, not sure about this either.
 
Are you using Hyper-V as the virtualization?

Have you checked your Windows Event logs to see any errors are reported at the time the freezing occurs?

When you say you RDP to the system, are you RDP to the host Windows 11 box, or do you RDP direct into the VMs?
 
It's freezing locally and it's freezing more often over ZeroTier outside the LAN. I wouldn't suggest just switching the OS from Windows to Windows Server in an attempt to fix this. Event viewer was good to start but if you didn't find anything...

What are the full specs of the server? Can it pass a memtest? SMART data looking good on all your storage? Wouldn't hurt to try in an elevated command prompt on the host system "dism /online /cleanup-image /restorehealth" and "sfc /scannow"
 
Dopamin3 said:
It's freezing locally and it's freezing more often over ZeroTier outside the LAN. I wouldn't suggest just switching the OS from Windows to Windows Server in an attempt to fix this. Event viewer was good to start but if you didn't find anything...

What are the full specs of the server? Can it pass a memtest? SMART data looking good on all your storage? Wouldn't hurt to try in an elevated command prompt on the host system "dism /online /cleanup-image /restorehealth" and "sfc /scannow"
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I wouldn't say it is a server machine in terms of specs. It is a mini PC (AMD, 16GB mem, 2TB SSD) that I use as a file server.

I will do the system health check as you propose. It may help.

SMART shows very good health on all drives. The PC is new; probably 4-5 months old.

Haven't tried a memtest. How do I do this?Is there a Win command or a dedicated software?
 
JoK said:
Haven't tried a memtest. How do I do this?Is there a Win command or a dedicated software?
Click to expand...
There are some third party programs like HCI Memtest or memtest86+ but Windows has a built in utility. You can just run "mdsched"
 
JoK said:
I wouldn't say it is a server machine in terms of specs. It is a mini PC (AMD, 16GB mem, 2TB SSD) that I use as a file server.

I will do the system health check as you propose. It may help.

SMART shows very good health on all drives. The PC is new; probably 4-5 months old.

Haven't tried a memtest. How do I do this?Is there a Win command or a dedicated software?
Click to expand...
Can you be more specific? What AMD cpu?

Type of internet? Speed? Quality of the connection? Is this all running on a wired gigabit lan? Wireless?
 
JoK said:
AMD Ryzen 5 5500U

The setup in on wired gigabit lan (except when I log in from outside of home).
Click to expand...
Thank you. So the host and the computer you are accessing it from are both on gigabit lan correct?

Have you considered a proxmox install with vm’s setup and accessed independently from there?
 
Dreamerbydesign said:
Thank you. So the host and the computer you are accessing it from are both on gigabit lan correct?

Have you considered a proxmox install with vm’s setup and accessed independently from there?
Click to expand...
No, i haven't actually.How am I going to access the VMs directly? Should be via RDC? I may have the same problem
 
JoK said:
No, i haven't actually.How am I going to access the VMs directly? Should be via RDC? I may have the same problem
Click to expand...
Nobody really uses the term RDC. You use RDP for hosts that run Windows, you can use SSH for things that don't need a GUI (perhaps Linux VMs), or you can use VNC for graphical user interfaces for all non Windows VMs. You'll have to set up the necessary config in each VM itself. But when the host freezes, I presume all VMs running freeze too so you need to fix that before you consider directly accessing the VMs.

I really like Apache Guacamole for a front end of managing this. It supports RDP/SSH/VNC and runs in a browser window, like the RDP connection works flawlessly and automatically scales to your browser window size. Don't expose it to the Internet, just access it from your ZeroTier network outside the home kinda like you're doing now. When you log in you''ll be provided a list of your machines you've set up on it, you can set up the main "server" host, each VM, etc... and optionally save your username/password and you can just one click log in to any machine you have set up on it.

Back to the mini PC thing... Did a memtest pass? I really like mini PCs, I've used quite a few of them. But I never trust the "pre-builts" where they already kitted the RAM and SSD. I've always done the barebones models and added my own SO-DIMMs from like Crucial or G.Skill or whatever so I'm not using trash no name Chinese memory. Same with buying an actual reliable SSD rather than what was bundled with it.
 
No chance it's running out of memory and swapping to disk? That could cause issues if your VM has limited swap space, especially if it's a memory leak and not just normal memory usage.
 
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