So I wanted to retrieve the remoteapps present on VM’s in a uniform way, without logging in to either VM’s or database.

Using a custom extension, I tried to execute the Get-RDRemoteApp command and got the following:

Get-RDRemoteApp : A Remote Desktop Services deployment does not exist on server. This operation can be perfor
med after creating a deployment. For information about creating a deployment

Apparently, all the powershell commands for RDS require that you DON’T run them under SYSTEM. Of course VMExtensions run under SYSTEM. So, to get all remoteapps in a RDS deployment, execute the following Powershell script as VMExtension on a connection broker VM:

$farms = get-childitem "HKLM:\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Terminal Server\CentralPublishedResources\PublishedFarms"
foreach($farm in $farms){
    (get-childItem "HKLM:\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Terminal Server\CentralPublishedResources\PublishedFarms\$($farm.PSChildName)\Applications").PSChildName
}

To register this Powershell script as a VM extension and retrieve the results

1. Save the above PS code to a file
2. Upload the file somewhere (e.g. public blob storage)
3. Get the URL of the File
4. Use Login-AzureRMAccount
5. Execute Set-AzureRmVMCustomScriptExtension -FileUri URL TO SCRIPT -Run FILENAME OF SCRIPT -VMName VMNAME -Name “RetrieveRemoteApps” -ResourceGroupName RESOURCEGROUP NAME -location “westeurope” -ForceRerun $(New-Guid).Guid
6. To retrieve the list (after execution): [regex]::Replace(((Get-AzureRmVMDiagnosticsExtension -ResourceGroupName RESOURCEGROUP NAME -VMName VM NAME -Name “RetrieveRemoteApps” -Status).SubStatuses[0].Message), “\\n”, “`n”)