RAS Provider Agent information

In order to function in a RAS Farm, a Provider (hypervisor or cloud-based) needs RAS Provider Agent to be installed in the Farm. RAS Provider Agent acts as an interface between other RAS components and a Provider. RAS Provider Agent conducts all communications with a Provider through the provider's native API.

Parallels RAS has two types of RAS Provider Agents that can be installed in a Farm:

• Built-in: This RAS Provider Agent is built into the RAS Connection Broker and is installed automatically when you install Parallels RAS. The agent can handle multiple Providers and can also be configured for high availability.
• Dedicated: This RAS Provider Agent is installed manually. It can handle only a single Provider. If you want to use this agent type with more than one provider, you need to install a separate instance for each provider.

Both built-in and dedicated RAS Provider Agents are compatible with all types of Providers supported by Parallels RAS. Which agent you choose to install depends only on your requirements. When possible, it is always recommended to use the built-in Provider Agent for high availability and business continuity.

What to read next:

• If you are adding a Provider that will use the built-in RAS Provider Agent, you may skip to Add a Provider.
• If you want to install a dedicated RAS Provider Agent on a host of your choice, read the RAS Provider Agent installation options section, which follows this one.