ERROR The terminal server has exceeded the maximum number of allowed connections
When a user establishes a Remote Desktop connection to the WHS this connection will remain active until the user selects “Log Off” from the Start Menu. If a user simply closes the remote desktop window when they’re finished, that username will still remain logged on.
The software running on the WHS to facilitate the Remote Desktop connection will only allow for up to two simultaneous sessions. Active and disconnected sessions are calculated in this connection limit as is the Administrator account also. The console session, however, does not count against the connection limit.
If a third attempt is made to login to the server, the dreaded “The terminal server has exceeded the maximum number of allowed connections” error will be shown to the user, and they will be unable to complete the login process. You can’t even connect to disconnect the old sessions BUT there is a way around this:
Simply click OK to the error message and wait for unto 30 seconds for the window to close then simply type the following in a Start – RUN or CMD Prompt on your client machine.
mstsc /v:00.00.00.00 /f -console
Replace 00.00.00.00 with your server’s IP Address or server name. e.g.SERVER
Type in your administrator password. This will then connect you to the Console Session on the server and allow you to remote control the machine again.
Once in Click Start, point to All Programs, point to Administrative Tools, and then click Terminal Services Manager.
In the left hand column you should see your server name. Click on it once. Note the Users Tab in the right pane.
You should see a list of users. You need to reset the two “Disconnected” users. You can do this by right clicking the disconnected user and selecting “Reset.” You should now be able to connect with RDP again after Start – Log Off.
When logging in under this special Console session always kill the inactive sessions first, because if you get disconnected again you will have to connect your monitor, keyboard and mouse.
Only use this session to terminate the other two sessions and not for any other use.
In future when you are done with a Remote Desktop session on WHS, you should always use “Log Off” rather than disconnecting by closing the RD window with the X as this will disconnect from the session but leave it active.
P.S. You could also use the easy option and just reboot the Windows Home Server.
Share this WHS Article with Others:
Khaing: Quonting MicrosoftJunkie:”The way remote desktop for administration works in terminal services is that you are allowed: 1 console session for admin purposes and 2 rd sessions for users. The only way to increase this number is to install terminal server and add some cals to the server. Once you install terminal server and switch to remote desktop for apps instead of administration, you will be given a grace period, something like 90 or 180 days, before having to setup the licensing. Hoever, this is only meant for giving you time to set this up, it isn’t intended soley as a free grace period.”
How can I check what users are using the 2 sessions?
Thanks in advance
Rafael, you should be able to see what users are using the two sessions by following the instructions above.
See the original notes, “… In the left hand column you should see your server name. Click on it once. Note the Users Tab in the right pane. You should see a list of users.”
This is a nice solution but I want to know, How can I increase the limit of users on terminal server (O.S. 2000 server) ?
Please help me.
Thanx & Regards
Romy.
Hello, it’s a nice temporary solution.
So, I changed the parameter:
“maximun connections” on the network adaptor icon from Terminal Services Configuration, I verify the registry (MaxInstanceCount) and the value was changed.
But I think that the limit is always 2.
Have you got an idea about?
Best regards.
Thanks a lot!
Thanks a lot for sharing this. You saved me
Thank you very much. It does saved lots of my time…
You saved me… Cheers
Thanks for sharing…
thanks for the information.
saved my life bud, thanks!!!
did have to use this: mstsc /v:00.00.00.00 /f /admin
If the above solution did not work as it not worked for me i extended the command admin switch
and login with Admin userid and password
mstsc /v:xxx.xx.xxx.xxx /admin
Replace xxx.xx.xxx.xxx with your IP Address
Happy logging
You are the man….thanks a lot buddy..You saved me…
A quick way to check logons is to go into task manager, select the last tab (Users) and you can see who is logged on and/or disconnected.
You also get the option to log them off and hence reclain the termin server session
I just find it much quicker to check this
Cheers
Hi,
This solution does not helped me…
but It made me to read “mstsc” help.
I found that the parameter -admin help you to connect any way !
this is my command :
mstsc -v:X.X.X.X -admin
It works! just works. Thanks
You have nol idea how much of a headche you just saved me from. mstsc /v:00.00.00.00 /f /admin is what I had to use. Thanks a million…IT folks will ALWAYS SAVE THE WORLD. Peace!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Thanks!
THIS IS THE LIFE SAVER RIGHT HERE
log off remote desktop RDP Terminal exceeded
run:
mstsc /v:00.00.00.00 /f /admin
replace 00 with your server IP
thank you all, thank you james!
I use the admin switch and it works great! i am using XP. and our users always leave the connection on in the windows 2003 server! thank you very much for the tip!!!
Thanx alot mate.Saved My life
ohh….thank you so much…saved my day!!
Oke it works fine.
Tnx.
Very Nice. Thank You.Saved my day
you write:
Khaing: Quonting MicrosoftJunkie:”The way remote desktop for administration works in terminal services is that you are allowed: 1 console session for admin purposes and 2 rd sessions for users. The only way to increase this number is to install terminal server and add some cals to the server. Once you install terminal server and switch to remote desktop for apps instead of administration, you will be given a grace period, something like 90 or 180 days, before having to setup the licensing. Hoever, this is only meant for giving you time to set this up, it isn’t intended soley as a free grace period.”
But where to get this or buy these cals for WHS?
need 3 more thx
for 2k use the following:
qwinsta /server:0.0.0.0
rwinsta /server:0.0.0.0 session_num
replace 0.0.0.0 with ip of server
session _num = session_num as displayed in the output of qwinsta.
Thanks a lot. You saved my time
Thank You, You saved the day
This brilliant I was about to reboot the server you have just made my work more easier than before.
Thank You, very much
… or you could actually use the command-line approach to find out who is on the server and reset their connections.
Query:
QWINSTA /SERVER: … will give you each of the connections and their session ID numbers.
Reset:
RWINSTA /SERVER: … will disconnect the specified session ID.
… or you could actually use the command-line approach to find out who is on the server and reset their connections.
Query:
QWINSTA /SERVER:servername … will give you each of the connections and their session ID numbers.
Reset:
RWINSTA /SERVER:servername sessionid … will disconnect the specified session ID.
This was great!!! This worked if my client was win2k. for xp mstsc /v:servername /admin worked.
thanks Jasvinder
Hi – wondered if anyone could help me out.
I need to find out how many concurrent client connections Windows Server 2008 can handle as we are currently bringing our hosting in house and thinking of buying a box with windows server 2008 R2 on it.
I understand that this all depends on your set-up but we currently have about 50000 unique visits a day and I need to find out how many unique visitors we could have if we brought our hosting in house.
I have been looking for an answer for about a week now and keep drawing up blanks so any help would be really appreciated.
Thanks,
Mark
Many blessings for the /admin entry — that worked for me.
Another thing you can do is bring up a command window
and run:
qwinsta /server:<server name or IP>
This will list whose connected. After finding one that can
be removed, get the entry from the ID column and run:
rwinsta /server:<server name or IP> <ID>
It worked this way for me:
mstsc /v:[SERVERIP] /f -console
I’m using XP for the client and the remote box is running WIN2000. It’s not working
It connects but when I input the log in credentials, it gives me the same error.
Hi,
I got the error message “The terminal server has exceeded the maximum number of allowed connections” while trying to open remote desktop from my desktop (win xp sp3). So i have execute the command “mstsc /v:00.00.00.00 /f -console”. Even though i am getting the same error message. Please suggest me how to fix this problem.
It does not work for me…
It will open the RD window however if you already have 2 logged in RD clients you will receive the same error…
Has anyone that is claiming it works actually tried to use this console command code while having 2 users already logged in via RD.. If so it will not work, Maximum 2 exceeded error will still pop up even as Console login…?
mstsc -v:0.0.0.0 -admin This will work to get a 3 login working on Windows Server 2003… the /console login has never worked for me personally…
It does not work for me either…
Then I do qwinsta /server: it gives me an error “Error [1722]: The RPC server is unavailable”.
I’m trying to shutdown sessions on a Windows 2000 Server.
Any help would be appreciated as the server is in the UK and I am in Australia!
Tony;
If you have another server, probably on the same domain (mebbe?) you can use the following app;
start -> run -> %SystemRoot%\system32\tsadmin.exe
I’ve found that to be easier than the command line.
Otherwise, you will have to auth to the server first (a net use command works, amongst other things) to be sure your admin account authenticates before you can list/disconnect the remote sessions.
If you need a hand, shoot me an email (nathan.murphy at framegroup.com.au) and I’ll see if I can help. Always willing to assist another Aussie.
Perfect…Perfect…Perfect
I was stuck at my work as I cant have access on the server itself except remotely.
Thanks so much for your support
Best Regards,
M.Mokhtar
Umm, I think you all are just making this WAY more difficult then it needs to be. Why not just run the WHS Console, click options, then click “Reset the Windows Home Server Console…”???? This works everytime for me and I always just close RDP using the “x”. Sometimes Microcrap builds in solutions, you don’t always have to make it so complicated.
In my case I’m running Windows 7 and am having a problem even getting into the WHS Console because of network problems, so I can’t use it to reset the Remote Desktop Connection. I’ve tried several of the suggestions but still get the same message. Anything special needed for Windows 7?
Are you able to log in at the home server itself or are you running totally headless? If you can log in at the server, run windows update. There has been a lot of work done to make win7 work great with WHS. You will need to copy the “new” connector software from the software folder and install it on the client. If you are having network issues not related to the server then this probably wont work as the connector software needs to “see” the WHS to install. Let me know if I can be of anymore help.
The admin console procedure works (Windows Server 2003 R2), thanks a lot!
However in order to use the qwinsta and rwinsta commands you need to have network access to the RPC port of the server. It is unfortunately very often blocked by firewalls in order to avoid hacker attacks. So do not count on these two commands in every occasion.
No, it does not work
sometimes it happens
very very useful information i got here, i had host my site on VPS and almost getting the issue which is described here, and due to which my site got down and i can’t do anything but with this i can again access my VPS .. Thanks a lot
hi
i use in server 2003 but problem my rdp user login
my server 55 user login no problem but login 56,57 user not loding user profile error