Add a VDI Host

Searching for VDI hosts

To search for available VDI hosts on your network:

1. In the RAS console, navigate to Farm / <site> / VDI.
2. On the Virtual Desktop hosts tab page, click Tasks > Discover VDI hosts.
3. A dialog opens displaying the discovered VDI hosts (you may have to wait until the discovery completes). If no VDI hosts are found, you can add a host manually (see Manually Adding a VDI Host below).
4. You can select the Show all hosts option to display all available hosts, including the hosts that don't meet the minimum system requirements. To refresh the list, click Refresh.
5. Click OK to add the VDI host to the Parallels RAS farm.

Manually adding a VDI host

To add a VDI host manually:

1. On the Virtual Desktop host tab page, click Tasks > Add to launch the Add VDI Host wizard.
2. In the VDI Host type field, select the hypervisor type.
3. In the VDI host address field, specify the host's FQDN or IP address.
4. Specify a user name and password to log in to the server.
5. Type an optional description for the host.
6. Click Next.
7. On the next page, specify the following (optional) properties:
   • Use dedicated VDI Host Agent: Select this option if you will install (or have installed) the RAS VDI Agent yourself. This includes the virtual appliance scenario. Clear the option if you will use the built-in RAS VDI Agent.
   • Agent address: This option becomes enabled if you select the option above it. Specify the FQDN or IP address of the server where the RAS VDI Agent is (or will be) installed. This can be either a virtual appliance (if you use one) or a Windows Server host (physical box or virtual machine).
   • Preferred Publishing Agent: Select a RAS Publishing Agent to be the preferred agent for this VDI host. For the built-in RAS VDI Agent, the selection defaults to Automatically. Internally, the system selects the least loaded RAS Publishing Agent.
8. Click Next.
9. The wizard will now try to connect to the RAS VDI Agent. If you specified Use dedicated VDI Host Agent and Agent address options in the previous (optional) step, and if the agent is not installed, you will need to to install it. Click Install and follow the instructions to push install the agent on the specified host. Please note that for the push installation to work, the following requirements must be met:
   • The firewall must be configured on the server to allow push installation. Standard SMB ports (139 and 445) need to be open. See also Port Reference for the list of ports used by Parallels RAS.
   • SMB access. The administrative share (\\server\c$) must be accessible. Simple file sharing must be enabled.
   • Your Parallels RAS administrator account must have permissions to perform a remote installation on the server. If it doesn't, you'll be asked to enter credentials of an account that does.
   • The target server should be joined to an AD domain. If it's not, the push installation may not work and you will have to install the agent manually. For instructions, see Installing RAS VDI Agent Manually.
10. Click Finish to close the wizard.