Managing Guest VMs

Viewing guest VMs created from a RAS Template

To view the list of guest VMs created from a RAS Template, select a template on the RAS Templates tab page and click Tasks > Show guest VM list . The Guest VM List dialog opens.

Note that the Group column in the list identifies whether a guest VM was created from a Virtual desktop template or an RD Session Host template.

The buttons on the right side of the dialog perform the following actions:

• Refresh . Refreshes the list.
• Delete . Deletes a selected guest VM (see the Deleting a guest VM subsection later in this section).
• Recreate . Recreates a selected guest VM (see the Recreating a guest VM subsection later in this section).
• Send message . Allows you to send a message to the user who is currently connected to a guest VM. For example, when you apply updates to the parent RAS Template, you need all users to be logged off, so you can use this button to send an appropriate message to connected users.
• Log off . Logs off the current session from a selected guest VM.

Performing guest VM power operations

The power operations icons at the bottom of the dialog allow you to start, stop, suspend, and reset a guest VM. To perform an action, select a guest VM and click an icon corresponding to the desired action.

Please note that the following requirements and rules/exceptions apply:

• If you are using Nutanix Acropolis , the suspend operation is not available (the Suspend icon is disabled). The reason for this is Nutanix Acropolis does not support the suspend operation on its virtual machines.
• If you are using Citrix XenServer , guest tools must be installed in a guest VM for the Suspend operation to work. In addition, if guest tools are not installed, the guest VM cannot be shut down gracefully and will be stopped forcefully when you click the Stop icon.

Checking the RAS Guest Agent status

A guest VM should have the RAS Guest Agent installed in it and the agent should match the Parallels RAS version. The agent is installed by default when a guest VM is created from a RAS Template. If a guest VM was created outside the RAS Console using the native hypervisor tools, it may not have the agent installed in it. In such a case, the guest VM will be able to serve only the desktop, but no applications or documents.

Note: Guest VMs based on an RD Session Host template must also have the RAS RD Session Host Agent installed. The functionality described here does not verify if this agent is installed. If needed, you can use Tasks > Check Agent on the template itself.

To check if the RAS Guest Agent is installed in a guest VM and is up to date:

1. Select a guest VM in the list and then click Tasks > Check Agent .
2. The Guest VM Agent Information dialog opens displaying the information about the RAS Guest Agent.
3. If  the agent is not installed, click the Install button and follow the instructions. The agent will be push installed in Windows running inside the guest VM.

Deleting a guest VM

To delete a guest VM, select it and then click the Delete button on the right side of the window.

Important: You should delete a guest VM only from the Template Guest VMs dialog in the Parallels RAS Console. You should NOT try to delete a guest VM using the hypervisor's native client or web interface. If you do, it may delete not only the VM but its parent RAS Template as well (which will also invalidate all other guest VMs created as linked clones from this template). The reason for this is some native hypervisor clients treat linked clones as standalone VMs. Parallels RAS treats linked clones as clones, not as standalone VMs.

Managing guest VMs that failed preparation

If a guest VM encounters a problem during the preparation stage (for any reason), it remains on the server but cannot be used. You can identify such VMs in the Template Guest VMs List dialog (described above) by the "Failed to create" value in the Status column. Unless a VM like this is repaired, it will be automatically removed after the time period specified in the Auto remove guest VMs which failed preparation after field on the RAS Templates tab page. You can set any of the available time periods by selecting it from the drop-down list or you can type a desired value, such as "8 days" or "12 hours".

Recreating a guest VM

If something happens to a guest VM and it becomes unusable, you don't have to delete it and create a new one. Instead, you can recreate it keeping its name and MAC address (to guarantee that VM will get the same IP address from the DHCP server). This way none of the other site settings, which may rely on a broken guest VM, will be affected. Another reason for recreating a guest VM is to apply changes made to the RAS Template (when you exit from maintenance without executing the Recreate command). Please note that keeping the MAC address is supported on ESXi, vCenter, Hyper-v and Hyper-v Failover Cluster only.

Note: If a guest VM was created from an RD Session Host template and was already assigned to an RD Session Host group, it cannot be recreated.

To recreate one or more guest VMs:

1. In the Parallels RAS Console, navigate to Farm \ <site> \ VDI \ RAS Templates .
2. To recreate all deployed guest VMs, click the Tasks drop-down menu and choose Recreate All Guest VMs .
3. To recreate a specific guest VM (or multiple guest VMs), click Tasks > Show Guest VMs .
4. In the Template Guest VMs dialog, select one or more guest VMs and then click the Recreate button.

When you recreate a guest VM:

• The procedure deletes a VM and creates a new one from the same template.
• The new guest VM retains the same computer name as the one it replaces.
• If a guest VM is running, all unsaved data in its memory will be lost. For this reason, an important data should be saved to a disk.