Configuring a Remote PC

To view the properties of a Remote PC, highlight the computer in the navigation tree and click Tasks > Properties. This opens the Remote PC properties dialog.

Properties

By default, a PC is enabled in the Farm. When it is disabled, published applications and virtual desktops cannot be served from it. To enable or disable a PC in the Farm, select or clear the Enable Remote PC option.

If the IP or MAC address of a remote PC has changed, modify them using the Remote PC and MAC Address input fields.

The Change Direct Address option allows you to specify an IP address that Parallels Client can use to connect to the PC directly. This address is only used in the Direct Connection mode and it could be an internal or external IP address.

Note: The Wake On Lan option should be enabled in BIOS so the machine could be automatically turned on. If you are using a virtual machine, the option is usually supported by a hypervisor natively or via a 3rd party software. To test if the Wake On Lan option is turned on, close the Remote PC Properties dialog and then click the Test Wake on LAN button, which is located below the Remote PCs list.

Agent Settings

Each Remote PC in the Farm has a RAS Remote PC Agent installed to conduct communications between Parallels RAS and the PC.  The agent can be configured on the Agent Settings tab page.

• Port. Specify a different remote desktop connection port number if needed.
• Connection Timeout. Select the desired Remote PC connection timeout value.
• Publishing Session Timeout. Specify the amount of time each session remains connected in the background after the user has closed the published application. This option is used to avoid unnecessary reconnections with the PC.
• Allow Client URL/Mail Redirection. When a user tries to open a URL or an HTML Mailto link in a remote application, the link can be redirected to the client computer and open in a local default application (a web browser or email client) instead of an application on the remote host. This option allows you to enable or disable the redirection. You can choose from the following options:
  1. Enabled — select this option to enable the redirection and then select the Support Shell URL namespace objects option (bellow the drop-down box). This is the default redirection configuration that works in most common scenarios. The Shell URL namespace objects support means that Parallels RAS can intercept actions in published applications that use Shell namespace API to open links, which is a standard behavior in most applications. The ability to disable the support for Shell URL namespace objects is for compatibility with older versions of Parallels RAS. You may disable this option if you want the behavior of an older version of Parallels RAS (RAS v16.2 or earlier).
  2. Enabled (Replace Registered Application) — this option uses an alternative method of redirecting a link. It replaces the default web browser and mail client with "dummy" apps on the remote server side. By doing so, it can intercept an attempt to open a link and redirect it to the client computer. You may try this option if the default option above doesn't work with your published application.
  3. Disabled — this option disables URL/Mail redirection, so URL or Mailto links always open on the remote host.

  Please note that you can configure a list of URLs that should never be redirected, even if the redirection is enabled. This can be done on the Farm / Site / Settings / URL Redirection tab. See more in Site Settings.

• Preferred Publishing Agent. Select a Publishing Agent with which the Remote PC Agent should communicate. This can be helpful when Site components are installed in multiple physical locations communicating through WAN. You can decrease network traffic by specifying a more appropriate Publishing Agent.
• Allow file transfer command. Allows you to enable or disable the remote file transfer functionality. For more information, see Enabling or Disabling Remote File Transfer.
• Drag and drop. Allows you to select how the drag and drop functionality functions in Parallels Clients. You can select from "Disabled" (no drag and drop functionality at all), "Server to client only" (drag and drop to a local application, but not in the opposite direction), "Client to server only" (drag and drop to a remote application only), "Bidirectional" (default). Note that this option has changed since Parallels RAS 17.1. In the past, it was a checkbox that would enable or disable drag and drop that would only function in the "Client to server only" mode. When upgrading from an older version of Parallels RAS, and if the checkbox was enabled, the "Client to server only" option is selected by default. If the option was disabled, the "Disabled" option will be set. You can change it to any of the new available options if you wish.

  Note: At the time of this writing, the drag and drop functionality is only supported on Parallels Client for Windows and Parallels Client for Mac.

RDP Printer

The RDP Printer tab allows you to configure the renaming format of redirected printers.  The format may vary depending on which version and language of the server you are using.

Set your RDP Printer Name Format specifically for the configured server by choosing any of the below options from the RDP Printer Name Format drop down menu:

• Printername (from Computername) in Session no.
• Session no. (computername from) Printername
• Printername (redirected Session no)

The other RDP Printing options available in the RDP Printer tab are:

• Remove session number from printer name
• Remove client name from printer name

Configure logging

A Remote PC is monitored and logs are created containing relevant information. To configure logging and retrieve or clear existing log files, right-click a Remote PC, choose Troubleshooting > Logging in the context menu, and then click Configure, Retrieve, or Clear depending on what you want to do. For the information on how to perform these tasks, see the Logging section.