When you create a Windows-based Azure Virtual Machine, Azure infrastructure services automatically configures the virtual machine for access through a Remote Desktop connection. This configuration consists of the Remote Desktop Services service listening on its default TCP port of 3389 and an Azure endpoint for the virtual machine with a randomly-determined external TCP port number.

When you initiate a Remote Desktop connection from the Azure Management Portal or the Azure Preview Portal, you download and then run an RDP file with the correct cloud service DNS name and external port number.

What could go wrong?

Well, as it turns out, a lot could go wrong, especially over time as you configure endpoint access control lists (ACLs) and other elements of host security that could unintentionally block Remote Desktop connection traffic between your computer and the Azure virtual machine.

The good news is that there is an Azure IaaS diagnostics package that corrects most problems. For those problems that the diagnostics package cannot fix, the new Troubleshoot Remote Desktop connections to a Windows-based Azure Virtual Machine topic steps you through a process that isolates the source of the issue for further investigation.

Here are the major sources of problems for Remote Desktop connections to Windows-based Azure Virtual Machines:

1. The Remote Desktop client
2. The organization intranet edge device
3. The endpoint and ACL for the cloud service in which the virtual machine is contained
4. The settings and the state of the Azure Virtual Machine

The new Troubleshoot Remote Desktop connections to a Windows-based Azure Virtual Machine topic isolates and examines each source of possible issues in turn and provides you with advice or workarounds to correct the problem.

If there are additional troubleshooting topics for Azure infrastructure services that you would like to see, please leave a comment below.

Thanks.

Joe Davies
Senior Content Developer