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 RAS VDI Agent

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

• 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 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. Click the Configure button to choose from the following options:
  1. 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.
  2. Support Windows Shell URL namespace objects — 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.
• Enable drag and drop: Allows you to set how the drag and drop functionality works in Parallels Clients. Click Configure and choose from "Disabled" (no drag and drop functionality), "Sever to client only" (drag and drop to a local application only), "Client to server only" (drag and drop to a remote application only), "Bidirectional" (drag and drop in both directions).

  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.

• Allow file transfer command (HTML5 and Chrome clients): Enables file transfer in a remote session. To enable file transfer, select this option and click the Configure button. For more information, see Configuring remote file transfer.
• Enable drive redirection cache: Improves user experience by making file browsing and navigation on redirected drives much faster. For details, see Drive redirection cache.

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.

MAC addresses

This tab is only displayed for Microsoft Hyper-V Failover Cluster as the VDI provider. It is used to enable or disable MAC address management for guest VMs. For more information, please see Add a hypervisor host (read the description of the step where the MAC address management is configured).

Please note that MAC address management is available in Parallels RAS since version 18. In new Parallels RAS 18 installations, this functionality is enabled by default when a VDI provider of type Microsoft Hyper-V Failover Cluster is added to a farm. In older Parallels RAS versions, the functionality is disabled for existing VDI providers, but is enabled by default when a new VDI provider is added.