Modifying Provider configuration

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

Configure a Provider

To configure an existing Provider:

1. In the RAS Console, navigate to Farm > Site > Providers. .
2. In the Providers tab, s elect a Provider and click Tasks > Properties. The Properties dialog opens.

Enable or disable a Provider in Site

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

Properties: configure Provider connection settings

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

Hypervisor Provider:

• Type: Provider type.
• Subtype: Hypervisor version. If the hypervisor version that you are using is not listed, select Other.
• Host: The Provider host IP address.
• Port: Port number on which the 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 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 Provider Agent: Select this option if you have a dedicated RAS Provider Agent installed on a different server. Enter the server FQDN or IP address in the Agent address field.

Cloud-based Provider:

• Type: Cloud-based Provider type (e.g. Microsoft Azure).
• Name: Provider name.
• Description: An optional description.
• Credentials: Credentials for the account used for installing RAS Guest Agent.
• Dedicated Provider Agent: Select this option if you have a dedicated RAS Provider Agent installed on a different server. Enter the server FQDN or IP address in the Agent address field.

For description of the remaining properties of Microsoft Azure, please see Add Microsoft Azure as a 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 Provider:

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

Cloud-based Provider:

• See Add Microsoft Azure as a Provider or Adding AWS as a Provider.

Agent settings: configure RAS Provider Agent

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

• Preferred Connection Broker: Select a preferred Connection Broker to which this 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 Connection Broker.
• 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.
• Manage RDP transport protocol: Selects the transport protocol that will be used for connections between Parallels Client and a server. To do this, select this option and click the Configure button.
• Allow file transfer command (Web 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.

Advanced

The Advanced tab allows you to configure a provider to automatically change the type of the used managed disk to Standard HDD for VMs that are not currently in use. When a VM is started, the managed disk is automatically changed to the original type. This feature allows you to reduce the cost of maintaining VMs.

To enable disk storage cost optimization:

1. Right-click a provider in the list and choose Properties.
2. In the provider properties window, select the Advanced tab.
3. Select the Enable disk storage cost optimization option.
4. Select the desired option in the Set timeout before enabling storage cost optimization drop-down list.

MAC addresses

This tab is only displayed for Microsoft Hyper-V Failover Cluster as the 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 Provider of type Microsoft Hyper-V Failover Cluster is added to a farm. In older Parallels RAS versions, the functionality is disabled for existing Providers, but is enabled by default when a new Provider is added.