Site defaults (VDI)

Site defaults are settings that are defined on a Site level and can be used by templates and guest VMs (both template-based and non-template based). By default, templates (described later in this chapter) inherit Site default settings, but you can override them if needed when you configure a template. Non-template based guest VMs also use Site default settings by default and you can also override them if needed when you configure these VMs.

To view and modify Site defaults, do the following:

1. Navigate to Farm > <Site> > VDI.
2. Select the Desktops tab in the right pane.
3. Click Tasks > Site defaults. This opens the Site Default Properties dialog, which is described below.

Note that any modifications you make to Site defaults are immediately applied to all guest VMs in the current Site that use them.

General

The General tab contains the following properties:

• Session readiness timeout: The maximum amount of time it should require to establish a session. If the specified timeout is reached, and the session is still not ready, the user will see an error message and will have to try to log in again.
• Protocol: Specifies a protocol that Parallels RAS uses to communicate with a guest VM.
• Auto remove guest VMs which failed preparation after: If a guest VM encounters a problem during the preparation stage (for any reason), it remains on the server but cannot be used. You can identify such VMs by the "Failed to create" value in the Guest VM state column ( Farm > <Site> > VDI > Desktops). Unless a VM like this is repaired, it will be automatically removed after the time period specified in this field. You can set any of the available time periods by selecting it from the drop-down list or you can type a desired value, such as "8 days" or "12 hours".
• Auto remove persistence if guest was not used for: The time period after which persistence should be automatically removed. You can also type any desired time period, such as "1 week 3 days".

  Note: Beginning with RAS 17, the default setting for this option is Never. Please keep that in mind.

Settings

The Settings tab contains the following:

• Logoff active session after: The amount of time a session remains logged in after the user closes a published application. The default timeout is 25 seconds. Note that this only works for applications, but not published desktops (when a user closes a desktop, the session is logged off). This timeout is used to avoid unnecessary logins when a user closes one application and then opens another.
• Actions: The two drop-down lists here specify an action to perform on session disconnect or logoff.

  Note for Nutanix Acropolis users: Nutanix Acropolis does not support the suspend operation for its VMs. If Suspend is selected in the Perform action field, no action will be applied to a Nutanix Acropolis VM when a session disconnect occurs (a corresponding error will be recorded in the VDI Agent log).

Security

On the Security tab, you can specify whether to automatically grant users Remote Desktop connection permissions on guest VMs. Here's how it works. Instead of manually adding each user to the Remote Desktop Users (or Administrators) group, you can enable this option to do it automatically. When a user logs on, he/she will be automatically added to the specified group and will therefore have the Remote Desktop connection (or full Administrator) permissions on the server. When the user logs off, they will be removed from the group (i.e. the group membership will only exist for the duration of the session).

The more important benefits of this feature are as follows:

• You don't have to permanently add your users to the Remote Desktop Users groups. This way, a user will never be able to establish a Remote Desktop session with a server outside of Parallels Client.
• By automatically adding a user to the Administrators group, you can give them rights to install applications and perform other administrative tasks. Once again, the user will only be able to do it from Parallels Client but never by connecting to the server using standard Remote Desktop tools.