Workaround to connect to a TFS Lab Environment from outside a TMG firewall

author Richard Fennell calendar Jul 8, 2011 · 2 min read · Uncategorised  ·
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Whist on the road I have had need to access our Lab Management system via our TMG firewall through which we expose our TFS 2010 for remote users (via SSL). When I load Microsoft Tests Manager (MTM) I can connect to the TFS server, as expected, and go into ‘Lab Center’ mode. I can see my project’s environment and can start, stop and deploy them without issue (all communication routed via our TFS server). However the MTM environment viewer fails to make a connection to the test VMs in the environments.

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MTM environment viewer can connect to an environment in two ways:

  • Host connection – via the Hyper-V management protocols
  • Guest connection – via a RDP session to the VM’s operating system

From outside our firewall a host connection is not an option as the required ports are not open. So my only option was a guest connection. However, our TMG firewall is set to provide a  RD gateway, effectively a proxy for RDP sessions. You have to configure RDP to use this, and have to authenticate with this gateway prior to authenticating with the actual target remote machine.

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The problem is MTM does not support the use of TMG RD Gateways.

However there is a solution. If I right click on the VM in MTM Environment Viewer you can launch a standard remote desktop session.

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If you do this you will be prompted to authenticate correctly.Firstly with your domain account to authenticate with the TMG RD gateway, then for other credentials to the test VM.

So a reasonable workaround, if a VPN or TMG Direct Access is not on option for you.