Launch Resources with Advanced Security (Get2xa)

The Get2xa command performs the same tasks as the LaunchApp command, but uses an advanced security mechanism to pass sensitive information between the web portal and the Parallels Client.

Advanced security is achieved as follows:

  1. A user clicks a published resource on a third-party web portal. This opens a URL that uses the Parallels Client URL scheme and includes the following information:

    • The web portal server name, port number, and session ID.

    • A path from which Parallels Client can download an XML file containing the Parallels RAS connection information, user credentials, and the ID of the published resource to launch.

      The XML file that the Parallels Client will be downloading is called a 2XA file, which is a historical name used in Parallels RAS to identify the specific file format. The 2XA file specifications (XML) are described later in this section.

  2. The URL opens Parallels Client in the background. The information contained in the URL is passed to Parallels Client.

  3. Parallels Client connects to the web server using the received information and downloads a 2XA file using the path that it received via the URL.

    Note that the 2XA file should be dynamically generated for every user and every published resource when a given user attempts to launch a resource in the web portal.

  4. Parallels Client parses the information contained in the XML file and uses it to create a connection, authenticate a user, and launch a resource.

Get2xa command options

The following table describes the Get2xa command options:

URL example

The following URL opens Parallels Client and passes to it the web server information, the web portal session ID, the path to the 2XA file, and the path to the original web portal web page.

prlclient:///?Command=Get2xa&Server=my.server.testing&Port=80&Session=adm2dpjq3jomvk45mzktuy45&Secure=YES&Path=%2fmywebportal%2fDashboardSource.aspx%3frApplicationID%3d2360%26rtype%3dget%26rcommand%3drun_secure_app%26rfarm%3d3&RequestPage=https://my.server.testing:80/mywebportal/Dashboard.aspx

The GET request from Parallels Client

When Parallels Client receives the information from the URL, it uses it to connect to the web server and download the 2XA file.

The following is an example of the GET request performed by Parallels Client:

GET %%Path%% HTTP/1.1
Host: %%Server%%:%%Port%%
User-Agent: RAS Client
Content-Type: application/x-www-form-urlencoded
Cookie: ASP.NET_SessionId=%%Session%%

2XA XML details

The following table describes the XML document structure used in the 2XA file (see also the XML example below):

XML Example

The XML document must begin with UTF-8 BOM (byte order mark), which consists of the following 3 bytes:

0xEF 0xBB 0xBF

Note that BOM is not a text. You need to use a script that can add these 3 bytes to the beginning of the file.

The following is a sample 2XA XML document:



   
      1
   
   
      phil@win-rjg64ubucvl
      win-rjg64ubucvl\phil
      SGVsbG9JdHNNZSE=
   
   
      80
      0
      192.168.12.73
   
   
      #1
....
      Hello%201%202%203
   

Note that another option to pass the password is to use the ClearPassword key instead of Base64ClearPassword, as shown below:

HelloItsMe!

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