Modifying VDI Provider Configuration

Read this section to learn how to modify the configuration of a VDI provider in Parallels RAS.

Configure a VDI provider

To configure an existing VDI provider:

1. In the RAS Console, navigate to Farm / <Site> / VDI.
2. Select the Providers tab in the right pane.
3. Select a VDI provider and click Tasks > Properties. The Properties dialog opens.

Note: Some of the properties described below may be unavailable on some servers. This depends on the VDI provider type.

Enable or disable a VDI provider in Site

By default a VDI provider is enabled. To enable or disable a VDI provider, use the Enable provider in site option on the Properties tab.

Properties: configure VDI provider connection settings

The Properties tab has different properties depending on whether it's a hypervisor-based or cloud-based provider.

Hypervisor VDI provider:

• Type: VDI Provider type.
• Subtype: Hypervisor version. If the hypervisor version that you are using is not listed, select Other.
• Host: The VDI provider host IP address.
• Port: Port number on which the VDI provider listens for incoming connections.
• Resource pool: This field is enabled for VMware vCenter only. If you've specified a vCenter resource pool while adding a VDI provider, the pool will be displayed here. The [...] button allows you to specify a different pool (or select one if the field is empty), but only if no guest VMs from the current pool have been created or used in Parallels RAS in any way. If Parallels RAS detects any current usage, you will see a warning message and will not be able to change it. If you still want to select a different resource pool, you'll have manually do a full clean up in the RAS Console, so that no usage of any kind exists.
• Description: An optional description.
• Dedicated VDI Agent: Select this option if you have a dedicated RAS VDI Agent installed on a different server. Enter the server FQDN or IP address in the Agent address field.

Cloud-based VDI provider:

• Type: Cloud-based VDI provider type (e.g. Microsoft Azure).
• Name: VDI provider name.
• Description: An optional description.
• For description of the remaining properties, please see Add Microsoft Azure as a VDI Provider.

Credentials: configure username and password

The Credentials tab has different properties depending on whether it's a hypervisor-based or cloud-based host.

Hypervisor VDI provider:

• Specify the username and password to log in to the VDI provider. Click the Check Credentials button to verify the credentials that you've entered.

Cloud-based VDI provider:

• For description of the Microsoft Azure properties, see Add Microsoft Azure as a VDI Provider.

Agent Settings: configure the RAS VDI Agent

RAS VDI Agent can be configured on the Agent Settings tab:

• Max connections: Specifies the maximum allowable number of connections.
• Publishing session timeout: Specifies 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 guest VMs.
• 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.

• 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 to 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.

• Preferred Publishing Agent: Select a preferred Publishing Agent to which this VDI provider should be assigned. 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 in HTML5 and Chrome clients. For more information, see Enabling or Disabling Remote File Transfer.

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. Select the RDP Printer Name Format option specifically for the configured server:

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

The other RDP Printing option available is Remove session number from printer name, which will do what it says.

Scheduler: configure VDI provider maintenance time window

The Scheduler tab page allows you to create a maintenance time window for the server. During this time, published resources hosted on the VDI provider will not be available to end users.

Note: When the scheduled maintenance is triggered, the server is disabled in Parallels RAS and its status on the VDI > Providers tab is displayed as "Disabled (Scheduler)". You can cancel the disabled state at any time without waiting for the maintenance time window to end. To do so, on the VDI > Providers tab, select the server, click Tasks (or right-click) and then choose Cancel disabled state (scheduler).

To configure maintenance time window click Tasks > Add and then set the following options:

• Start date
• Time
• Duration
• Repeat

The On disable option allows you to specify what should happen to current sessions when a scheduled task triggers.

Configure logging

To configure logging and retrieve or clear existing log files, right-click a VDI provider, choose Troubleshooting > Logging in the context menu, and then click one of the following, depending on what you would like to do: Configure, Retrieve VDA Agent logs, or Clear. For the information on how to perform these tasks, see the Logging section. Please also read the important information below.

Note that logging of VDI provider operations is performed on the RAS VDI Agent level. When you configure logging for a VDI provider, you are essentially configuring it for the RAS VDI Agent that services this VDI provider. This means that if you are using the built-in RAS VDI Agent, its logging configuration applies to all VDI providers that it services. Consider the following scenarios:

• When you retrieve log files for a specific VDI provider serviced by the built-in VDI Agent, the files will contain logs for all VDI providers serviced by the same agent.
• If you clear log files for a particular VDI provider, you should be careful because the logs will be cleared for all VDI providers if they are serviced by the same built-in VDI agent. The RAS Console will prompt you if you try to delete such a shared log.

If a VDI provider has a dedicated VDI Agent, which services this host only, none of the above applies.