Publishing Turbo.net Applications

Turbo (Turbo.net) is a web-based container platform that runs applications on a Windows desktop with no installation required. Parallels RAS provides you with the ability to publish applications hosted by Turbo.net and make them available to Parallels RAS users just like regular applications hosted by RD Session Hosts.

The ability to publish container-based applications allows Parallels RAS administrators to greatly reduce TtV (time to value) and minimize investment and development resources. The integration of the solution provided by Turbo gives you the following immediate benefits:

• Instant access to an online application repository with hundreds of applications available, including:
  • Most web browsers (Chrome, Firefox, Opera, etc).
  • Most application runtimes (JRE and others).
  • Most add-ons (Flash, etc).
  • Open source applications like LibreOffice, VLC Player, etc.
  • Administrative tools like WinSCP, Putty and so on.
• Instant provisioning of all these applications in any combination possible (i.e. a particular version of Google Chrome with a specific Java runtime and Flash) to all endpoints regardless of the platform and version (supports anything from Windows 7 to Windows Server 2016).

For more information about Turbo, visit https://www.turbo.net

Licensing and supported Turbo repositories

• Parallels RAS uses the free edition of Turbo.net, so no subscription is required.
• Parallels RAS supports application publishing from the public Turbo.net repository only. Private repositories are not supported at the time of this writing.

Enabling or disabling the Turbo.net support in Parallels RAS

Before you can publish applications from Turbo.net, you need to enable this functionality in Parallels RAS as follows:

1. In the Parallels RAS Console, select the Administration category and then click the Features tab in the right pane.
2. Select the Enable Turbo.net application publishing option. This will enable the Turbo.net functionality in the Farm and will install the Turbo runtime on every RD Session Host, so they can download and run container-based applications.

If later you decide to disable the Turbo.net support in Parallels RAS (by clearing the Enable Turbo.net application publishing option), you will see a message box saying that this action will uninstall Turbo runtime from each RD Session Host that has it installed. If later you enable the Turbo.net support again, the runtime will be reinstalled. If you've already published applications from Turbo.net, the message box will also ask you what should be done with them. The available options are:

• Disable. All published Turbo.net applications will be disabled.
• Delete. All published Turbo.net applications will be removed from Parallels RAS. If you enable the Turbo.net support later, you will have to publish these applications again.
• Keep unchanged. Applications will remain in Parallels RAS as active applications, but end users will not be able to use them. If later you enable the Turbo.net support, the applications will continue to work normally.

Publishing from Turbo.net

To publish a Turbo.net application:

1. In the Parallels RAS Console, select the Publishing category.
2. Click the [+] Add icon at the bottom of the right pane. The publishing wizard opens.
3. On the Select Item Type page, select the Turbo.net application option. If the option is disabled (grayed out), it means that the Turbo.net support is disabled in the Parallels RAS Farm. See above for the info on how to enable it.
4. Click Next.
5. On the Configure Turbo.net Repository page, specify an application you would like to publish. Choose from the following options:
   • Double-click a desired category in the application category list to see apps that it contains. Select an application and click Next.
   • Expand the drop-down list (on the right side) and select from one of the predefined applications. If the app you are looking for is not in the list, type a search condition in the same field and press Enter. The search string can be a full or partial application name, a publisher name, or anything else that can possibly be a part of the app description. Applications that match the search condition will appear in the list from which you can select the one you need.
6. After selecting an application, click Next.
7. On the Application page, specify the following options:
   • Name: A name under which the application will be listed in Parallels RAS.
   • Description: An optional description.
   • Run: Select the application window state (normal window, minimized, maximized).
   • Start automatically when user logs on: Select this option if you want to start the application as soon as a user logs on to Parallels RAS. This option works on desktop versions of Parallels Client only.
   • Change Icon: Specify a different application icon (optional).
   • Server(s): Allows you to specify Target, Start In, and Parameters settings individually for each RD Session Host through which this application will be published. Select an RD Session Host from the drop-down list and then specify the settings described below.
   • Target: Specifies the application executable path and file name. This shouldn't be normally changed for Turbo.net applications.
   • Start in: If the value in the Target field is valid, the Start In field is populated automatically. You can specify your own path if needed.
   • Parameters: If the application accepts startup parameters, you can specify them in this field.
8. Click Finish to publish the Turbo.net application. The application should appear in the Published Resources tree in the Publishing category just like any other published resource.

Specifying RD Sessions Hosts through which the Turbo.net application should be published

After you publish a Turbo.net application, you can specify RD Session Hosts through which it should be published. Here's how it works. Application containers reside in the public Turbo.net repository. When you initially publish a containerized Turbo.net application in Parallels RAS, you don't really download it to an RD Session Host. However, as soon as the first user tries to launch a newly published Turbo.net application in Parallels Client, the application container is downloaded to an RD Session Host and the application is started on it. The user then gets access to it just like any other published application.

To specify one or more RD Session Hosts through which the application should be published, select the application in the Published Resources tree, choose the Publishing From tab and select one of the following options:

• All Servers in Site. The application will be published through all available RD Session Hosts.
• Server Groups. This option allows you to specify server groups through which the application should be published.
• Individual Servers. Select this option to specify one or more individual servers.

How Turbo.net applications are launched in Parallels Client

When a user launches a Turbo.net application in Parallels Client, the RD Session Host handling the request will attempt to start the application. If this is the first time anybody launches this particular application on this server, the server first downloads the application container from Turbo.net. In such a case, the Parallels Client user will see a message box with a progress indicator while the RD Session Host prepares the application. Once the application is running on the server, the user will see its window and can begin using it. Apart from the progress indicator box, a Parallels Client user will not be able to tell whether a published application is a regular or a Turbo.net application.