Parallels DaaS Management Portal and Parallels Web Client can run in modern browsers such as Chrome, Edge, Safari, and Firefox. Note that this version supports desktop browsers only.

Desktops based on the Golden Image and all applications installed on it can be made available to users in the Applications category. This is called publishing resources.

To publish an application:

1. If you want to publish an application, make sure that it is installed on the Golden image. Desktops are always available for publishing.

2. Navigate to the Applications category. You will see the lists of available resources.

3. Toggle on the switch next to the resource you want to publish.

Next, you need to

Parallels DaaS is updated monthly. The updates typically include bug fixes, stability improvements, and various enhancements to improve the service.

For a detailed list of changes and improvements, visit our Knowledge Base: .

To add a user:

1. Go to the Users Management category.

2. Select the Users subcategory.

3. Click the New button. A dialog will open.

When you are invited to Parallels DaaS, you will receive an invitation email that contains a license key, a link to Parallels DaaS Management Portal sign-in page, and instructions on how to activate the license key in Parallels My Account.

To sign in:

1. Sign in to Parallels My Account (https://my.parallels.com/login).

2. On the Home page, click the Register a License Key button. You might be prompted to enter business information if you do not yet have a business account.

3. In the License Key field, specify the license key you received in the invitation email. Provide an optional description of the key in the Display name field.

4. Click Register.

5. Click Dashboard on the top of the page.

6. On the Parallels Cloud card, click Switch to Management Portal. You will be redirected to Parallels DaaS Management Portal.

7. Click Sign in as an owner.

Next, you need to

In Parallels DaaS, the Golden Image has two important uses:

• It is the system image that is used on all virtual machines. To change the configuration of the virtual machines, you need to edit the Golden Image accordingly.

• It is the repository of all applications that are available to users. For a user to access an application, it must be installed on the Golden Image.

To edit the Golden Image:

1. Go to the Golden Image category, and click the Edit button. Parallels DaaS will start a remote connection to the Golden Image. When you open the Golden Image for the first time, the connection will take about ten minutes. You can cancel the connection by clicking the Discard Changes button in the top right corner.

2. Modify the Golden Image. For example, you can install new applications or edit desktop settings. While you are connected to the Golden Image, you have access to .

3. Click the Save & Exit button in the top right corner to apply changes. Saving changes may take several minutes. You can safely close the tab during this operation. Once the operation is completed, the new applications will be visible when you try to add a new application from the Applications category.

Next, you need to .

Parallels Cloud is a platform that allows IT organizations and users to use various cloud-based solutions offered by Parallels.

Parallels DaaS is a Parallels-assembled and hosted cloud-based Desktop as a Service (DaaS) solution that provides a virtualization control plane for IT organizations to deploy their virtual workloads, desktops, and applications that can be accessed from any user from any device. It separates the control plane from the data plane, which provides superior security, scalability, and performance.

Parallels DaaS consists of two services:

• Parallels DaaS Management Portal for managing users and resources

• Parallels DaaS User Portal for accessing resources

This guide explains how to use Parallels DaaS Management Portal. We encourage you to send us feedback about your experience as described in the section.

To access Parallels DaaS, visit:

or

Parallels DaaS supports several types of licenses. You can purchase a license for a specific duration and number of users.

The user license is consumed dynamically when the end user signs in to Parallels DaaS User Portal to access the resources. The license seat is persistently assigned to the named user. This provides the user the ability to access the resources from any device.

The differences between various types of licenses are explained below.

License comparison

Subscription

This type of license allows customers to use Parallels DaaS to provide access to resources to their end users. The maximum number of end users allowed to access resources is based on the number of user seats specified in the license and available for the duration of the contract.

Parallels SPLA

The SPLA (Service Provider License Agreement) is designed for service providers and Independent Software Vendors (ISVs) offering Parallels DaaS to their customers. It allows you to pay for licenses based on the number of seats that you make available to your customers each billing period.

Trial

This type of license allows you to use Parallels DaaS for free for a short period of time.

This section explains everything you need to know to start using Parallels DaaS as quickly as possible.

To start using Parallels DaaS:

1. .

2. .

This section contains answers to frequently asked questions.

Administrators can easily adjust virtual machine (VM) configurations within Parallels Desktop-as-a-Service (DaaS) to align with their users' workload demands and organizational budget.

Selecting a VM Size

Parallels DaaS provides predefined VM sizes—Light, Medium, and Heavy—optimized for common usage scenarios:

• Light: Suitable for basic tasks such as data entry or running simple applications.

• Medium: Ideal for standard office applications, moderate browsing, and typical productivity tools.

Problem

When trying to run the prerequisites PowerShell script a ParserError error is shown on line 41.

Solution

All running virtual machines are displayed in the Virtual Machines category. You can use search and filtering to find specific virtual machines.

If you want to change the number of virtual machines that are deployed and available for users at at any time, see .

Problem

An account cannot be accessed.

Solution

Try the following solutions:

Make sure your password is correct

Parallels DaaS leverages your organization's identity, so the password should be identical to, for example, your Microsoft Office 365 credentials.

Verify your account status

Contact your account administrator to confirm there are no outstanding issues with your account.

Clear browser cache and cookies:

• Clear your browser's cache and cookies and try logging in again.

• Alternatively, try accessing your account using a different web browser.

Check the firewall and security software

• Ensure that your firewall, security software, or ad blockers are not blocking access to our service.

• Add our service URL to the list of trusted sites.

Check Two-Factor Authentication (2FA)

• If you have 2FA enabled, ensure you have access to your authentication device or app.

• If you are unable to access your 2FA, please contact your organization's support department for assistance.

Contact your organization’s support

• If you've tried all the above steps and still can't access your account, please contact your organization's support department.

• Provide as much detail as possible about the issue, including any error messages you received.

• Follow your organization’s standard procedure for IT support requests.

All active user sessions are displayed in the Sessions category. You can use search and filtering to find specific user sessions.

Problem

When initializing your Parallels DaaS environment for the first time after completing the connection wizard, the automated deployment fails with the following error:

Solution

We've identified that the Standard B1ms instance size that is used for Parallels DaaS Secure Gateway is not available for all regions and/or subscription types of Microsoft Azure. This might be applicable to free Microsoft Partner, free trial, and other sponsored subscription types. We're currently working on improvements that will allow you to select other instance sizes. If you encounter this issue, please reach out to our support team for more information.

Problem

In some cases, when you try to authenticate a user, an exception is shown:

{
    "Type": "Exception",
    "Title": "An error occurred.",
    "Status": 500,
    "Detail": "An error was encountered while handling the remote login."
    "Instance": "/signin-oidc",
    "Extensions": {}
}

Solution

1. Log in to the Microsoft Azure portal at .

2. Open the portal menu and select Microsoft Entra ID.

3. On the left pane, select App registrations.

4. Click All applications.

5. Click the application you created for Parallels DaaS.

6. Select Authentication in the left blade.

7. Select ID tokens (used for implicit and hybrid flows).

8. Click Save.

The Insights category allows you to inspect usage statistics.

Licenses

The Licenses category shows key metrics on license usage.

This category contains the following information:

• License usage: The percentage of the currently assigned licenses.

• Available: The number of available user seats.

• Total licenses: The total number of user seats.

• License expires: The number of days until the license expires and the expiration date.

• License type: One of the license types described in .

• License usage per month: The number of allocated seats per month.

• Allocated seats: Information about all added users and whether they have a seat allocated to them. You can deallocate a seat by right-clicking user and selecting Deallocate seat.

Problem

When executing the PowerShell script that automatically prepares your Microsoft Azure subscription for use with Parallels DaaS, you see the following error:

ERROR: trying to set app registration Graph API permissions
A parameter cannot be found that matches parameter name 'AsHashtable'.

Solution

Run the PowerShell script in PowerShell version 7.3 or laer. You can check the PowerShell version by running the $psversiontable command.

A copy of PowerShell 7.x can be downloaded from

Go to the Parallels DaaS management portal at https://daas.parallels.com/admin

Start the Golden Image

Within the Golden Image Start the Local Group Policy Editor (start -> run -> gpedit.msc) and browse to: Computer Configuration > Administrative Templates > Windows Components > Remote Desktop Services > Remote Desktop Session Host > Session Time Limits

Edit Set time limit for logoff of RemoteApp sessions

1. Enable the policy

2. Select the logoff delay (e.g. 15 minutes)

3. Click OK to confirm

4. Save and close your Golden image

Once saving has been completed and the new session hosts are deployed the new setting will be applied.

You can open this documentation from Parallels DaaS Management Portal by clicking the Help icon ( ) in the top-right corner of the screen.

The left pane of Parallels DaaS contains categories that allow you to manage different aspects of your environment. This section describes these categories.

Problem

When trying to open an application in Parallels DaaS User Portal, a user sees the following error:

User [user_name] does not have rdp endpoint for published item [item_id]

Solution

1. Log in to the Microsoft Azure portal at .

2. Open the portal menu and select Quotas.

3. On the left pane, select My quotas.

4. In the Adjustable

This is typically caused by missing rights in the Microsoft App registration in Microsoft Azure Entra ID. To resolve execute the following steps:

1. Browse to portal.azure.com

2. Go to Entra ID

3. Select Manage > App registrations in the left menu

4. Select All applications

5. Select the app created for Parallels DaaS

6. Select Manage > Api permissions in the left menu

7. Choose Add a permission > Microsoft Graph > application permissions

8. Add application.read.all

9. Click Add permissions to confirm

10. Click Grant admin consent and confirm

11. Retry the Parallels DaaS onboarding wizard

Desktops based on the Golden Image and all applications installed on it can be made available to users from the Applications category.

How to publish an application

To publish an application:

1. If you want to publish an application, make sure that it is installed on the Golden image. Desktops are always available for publishing.

Windows 10 and Windows 11 contain many applications, services, and background tasks that are not optimized for use in virtual desktop environments. You can improve the user experience and decrease virtual machine boot times, sign-in times, and application start-up times by running the Microsoft Virtual Desktop Optimization Toolkit (VDOT) on your Golden Image.

To start VDOT:

1. Sign in to Parallels DaaS Management Portal.

2. Select the Golden Image category.

Parallels DaaS automatically enables Single Sign-On (SSO) in multi-session environments at the host pool level during deployment. SSO allows users to log in once using their primary credentials (e.g., corporate Entra-ID) and gain seamless access to virtual desktops without repeated authentication prompts.

Follow these steps to enable Single Sign-On (SSO) for Parallels DaaS using Microsoft Graph.

1. Sign in to Azure

Use the following command to sign in to Azure with your tenant context and then set the desired subscription context:

Connect-AzAccount -Tenant "<your-tenant-id>" -UseDeviceAuthentication Set-AzContext -SubscriptionId "<your-subscription-id>" -Tenant "<your-tenant-id>"

When provisioning virtual machines (VMs) in Microsoft Azure—especially in the context of Parallels DaaS — it's important to understand Azure quotas, how they affect deployments, and how to manage them effectively in the Azure portal.

What Are Azure Quotas?

Azure enforces resource quotas to help manage capacity and prevent unexpected usage spikes. These quotas are essentially limits set per Azure subscription and region, and they control how many resources you can provision. The key types of quotas relevant to DaaS include:

Scaling Configuration

Parallels DaaS automatically manages the power state of virtual machines based on demand, helping you balance performance and cost. This is controlled by your organization’s business hours and expected user activity.

Dashboard provides summary information about the usage of Parallels DaaS.

It contains the following sections:

• Registered users: total number of users. For information on how to manage users, see section .

• Published resources: total number of resources (applications and a desktop, if published). For information on how to publish resources, see section .

If you have comments or suggestions, we encourage you to send us feedback.

Sending feedback from Parallels DaaS Management Portal

To send feedback from Parallels DaaS Management Portal:

1. Click the "person" icon in the top-right corner.

In the Parallels DaaS release scheduled for April 3rd the service will be migrated to new URL's. Most of this process will be transparent but the new URL's have to be whitelisted in Microsoft Azure to allow users to sign-in.

Problem

When you type commands in a PowerShell window inside the Golden Image or on a user desktop, the characters do not appear. A known issue in PSReadline by Microsoft causes this behavior.

Solution

A in PSReadline by Microsoft causes this behavior.

To solve this problem:

1. Close all PowerShell windows.

2. Run the following command in a Command Prompt window:

3. Confirm the action by pressing the Y button and wait for the installation to complete.

1. Reboot the machine.

If the problem persists, please reach out to our support department.

Workaround

If the solution above does not work, try copying commands to the PowerShell window, or use Windows Terminal.

The Azure Settings category shows information about your Azure subscription.

How to update the client secret

To change the client secret:

1. Sign in to portal.azure.com.

2. In the Microsoft Entra ID admin center, in App registrations, select All applications and then select your Parallels DaaS application.

3. Select Certificates & secrets > Client secrets > New client secret.

4. Add a description for your client secret.

5. Select an expiration date for the secret or specify a custom lifetime.

1. Click Add.

2. Record the client secret value. This secret value is never displayed again after you leave this page.

3. Sign in to the Parallels DaaS Management Portal.

4. In the Azure Settings category, click the Edit () button to the right of the Client secret value field. You will see a dialog that prompts you to sign in as the Owner.

How to disconnect an Azure subscription

You can disconnect your Microsoft Azure subscription in the Azure Settings category. This can be useful when you want to switch to a different subscription or need to reset Parallels DaaS.

To disconnect your Microsoft Azure subscription:

1. In the Azure Settings category, click the Disconnect button.

2. Enter delete-parallels-daas in the text field and click Disconnect.

3. (Optional) If the regular disconnect fails, you can initiate force disconnect. Note that after performing a force disconnect, you will need to delete all Azure resources manually. To initiate a force disconnect, click Learn more, read the instructions in the dialog, and click Force Disconnect.

Disconnecting a Microsoft Azure subscription takes approximately 15 minutes. Once the subscription is disconnected, you will not be able to use Parallels DaaS. To start using Parallels DaaS again, you will need to connect an Azure subscription again as described in .

This page outlines a common deployment of Parallels Desktop as a Service (DaaS) for medium sized environments with 20 - 100 users in a multi-session configuration. It includes licensing and infrastructure requirements. This setup is scalable to larger teams as needed.

We recommend pairing Parallels DaaS with the Microsoft E3 license for its strong feature set the E3 license includes the desktop versions of Microsoft Word, Excel, Powerpoint and Outlook as wel as 1TB of OneDrive storage space.

Licensing Requirements

Each user requires the following:

• Parallels DaaS License (Per named user)

• Microsoft E3 or F3 License Includes:

  • Microsoft Office Online (Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, OneNote)

  • Microsoft Teams (optional without Teams available)

Infrastructure Overview

Virtual machine (VM) sizing impacts cost and performance. Parallels DaaS automatically scales resources based on user demand. Typical VMs run ~200 hours/month using scaling.

Common VM Options

Persistent Desktop Experience (Optional)

For saving desktop items, user preferences, favorites, and files persistently across sessions, add:

• Azure Storage Account + Azure File Share Used to store roaming user profiles.

How to edit the Golden Image

To edit the Golden Image:

1. In the Golden Image > Overview category, click the Edit button. Parallels DaaS will start a remote connection to the Golden Image. When you open the Golden Image for the first time, the connection will take about ten minutes. You can cancel the connection by clicking the Discard Changes button in the top right corner.

2. Modify the Golden Image as required. While you are connected to the Golden Image, you have access to Session Toolbar that allows you to perform various actions inside the Golden Image, such as exchanging files with the local computer or using keyboard shortcuts. For detailed information about Session Toolbar, see the subsection below.

1. Click the Save & Exit button in the top right corner to apply changes. Saving changes may take several minutes. If you installed new applications to the Golden Image, you will need to publish them in the category. Users will see the changes next time they log in to their published desktops.

How to use Session Toolbar

When you are connected to the Golden Image, Session Toolbar appears on the right side of the screen. It gives you access to several popular functions:

• Enable/Disable fullscreen.

• Download a file from the Golden Image.

• Upload a file to the Golden Image.

• Keyboard shortcut menu.

Versioning

Parallels DaaS automatically creates a new version of the Golden Image each time it is saved.

To restore a previous version:

1. Navigate to Golden Image > Versions.

2. Right-click the desired version.

3. Confirm the warning prompt to proceed with the restoration.

Note: It's recommended to regularly delete older Golden Image versions to free up storage. These versions consume Azure storage space, which may incur additional costs.

While Golden Image versioning provides a convenient way to revert to an earlier state, it should not be relied upon as a primary backup solution. Always use a dedicated backup strategy for long-term image protection.

This page outlines a common deployment of Parallels Desktop as a Service (DaaS) for large environments with +100 users in a multi-session configuration. It includes licensing and infrastructure requirements. This setup is scalable to larger teams as needed.

We recommend pairing Parallels DaaS with the Microsoft E3 license for its strong feature set the E3 license includes the desktop versions of Microsoft Word, Excel, Powerpoint and Outlook as wel as 1TB of OneDrive storage space.

Licensing Requirements

Each user requires the following:

• Parallels DaaS License (Per named user)

• Microsoft E3 or F3 License Includes:

  • Microsoft Office Online (Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, OneNote)

  • Microsoft Teams (optional without Teams available)

Infrastructure Overview

Virtual machine (VM) sizing impacts cost and performance. Parallels DaaS automatically scales resources based on user demand. Typical VMs run ~200 hours/month using scaling.

Common VM Options

Persistent Desktop Experience (Optional)

For saving desktop items, user preferences, favorites, and files persistently across sessions, add:

• Azure Storage Account + Azure File Share Used to store roaming user profiles.

Before you begin

You need to have sufficient administrative priviledges and Quota available in Microsoft Azure to complete this task. Upon completion of these steps you'll be able to offer desktops and applications to you users.

You can enable multi-factor authentication (MFA) in Parallels DaaS using Microsoft Entra ID (Azure AD). When users sign up to Parallels DaaS User Portal, they will be prompted to complete MFA. For additional security, Parallels DaaS assigns users to virtual machines “just in time”, thus preventing unauthorized access.

To enable MFA in Microsoft Entra ID:

1. Navigate to the Microsoft Azure portal at .

Users and Administrators

There are three types of accounts in Parallels DaaS:

• Users: accounts that can be used to access the published resources using Parallels DaaS User Portal.

• Administrators: accounts that can be used to publish resources and add users in Parallels DaaS Management Portal.

• Owners: business owner accounts that must sign in via Parallels My Account. Have the same permissions as administrator accounts but can also manage Microsoft Azure subscriptions.

You can add users and administrators in the Users Management category.

How to add users and administrators

To add a user or an administrator:

1. In the Users Management category, do one of the following:

   • To add a user, select the Users subcategory.

   • To add an administrator, select the Administrators subcategory.

How to remove users and administrators

To remove a user or an administrator:

1. In the Users Management category, do one of the following:

   • To remove a user, select the Users subcategory.

   • To remove an administrator, select the Administrators subcategory.

Workspace

How to configure pool size

Pools are groups of virtual machines that are deployed and started before a user signs in, minimizing wait times for the user. In Parallels DaaS, all virtual machines belong to one pool. You can configure the maximum and minimum number of virtual machines available in the pool.

To configure the minimum and maximum number of virtual machines in the pool:

1. In the Users Management category, go to the Workspace subcategory.

2. In the Minimum pool size field, specify the number of virtual machines that must always be available in the pool.

3. In the Maximum pool size field, specify the maximum number of virtual machines that can be available in the pool at any given time.

Consider the following example:

If you set Minimum pool size to 5, 5 machines will be created and started before users sign in to the system. When the first user signs in, he gets access to the first machine from the pool, and a new one is added.

It is recommended to keep the pool size small to reduce costs, but big enough so that there are always enough virtual machines for new users.

How to pause a pool

You can configure Parallels DaaS to pause a pool when its virtual machines are not in use, which can reduce costs.

When you pause a pool the following happens:

• Virtual machines that are not used for the specified period of time are deleted

• New virtual machines are not created automatically, even if there are fewer virtual machines than specified in the Minimum pool size field

A pool resumes normal functioning when a user requests an app or a desktop or an administrator starts editing the Golden Image.

To pause a pool:

1. In the Users Management category, go to the Workspace subcategory.

2. In the Pause virtual machine pool drop-down menu, select the time period after which the pool is paused.

How to use user profiles

An FSLogix user profile is a collection of settings and application data associated with a specific user stored on a network location. It helps to minimize sign-in times and optimize file I/O between the host, client, and profile storage.

To enable FSLogix user profiles:

1. In the Users Management category, go to the Workspace subcategory.

2. Enable the Store user profiles (FSLogix) switch.

3. Do one of the following:

Step 1. Create a storage account

1. Login to Microsoft Azure.

2. Select the same directory and subscription which were used to connect to the Azure subscription.

3. Navigate to Storage account and click the Create button.

4. On the Basics tab, specify the following:

   • Subscription and Resource Group: select the subscription and the resource group that will be used for creating infrastructure resources.

   • Storage account name: specify the storage account name.
5. Click Next.

6. On the Advanced tab, keep all the fields with the default selection.

7. Click Next.

8. On the Networking tab, specify the following:

   • Network access: select Enable public access from selected virtual networks and IP addresses.

   • Virtual network subscription: select the subscription.

9. Keep all other tabs with the default values and click Review.

10. Review the information provided and click Create.

Step 2. Plan the file share capacity

1. Decide the maximum size of the profile in GB for a user. Save this number for later steps.

2. Estimate how many users will be using Parallels DaaS.

3. Calculate the share capacity by multiplying the maximum profile size by the number of users.

Step 3. Create a file share

1. Navigate to the storage account created in .

2. Go to the File Share category and click the + File Share button.

3. Specify the following:

Step 4. Save settings for future use

1. Navigate to the storage account created in

2. Save one of the access keys and storage account name.

3. Go to the File Share category and click the File Share button.

Parallels DaaS – Small Deployment (15–30 Users)

This page outlines a common deployment of Parallels Desktop as a Service (DaaS) for small environments with 15–30 users in a multi-session configuration. It includes licensing and infrastructure requirements. This setup is scalable to larger teams as needed.

Problem

When trying to open an application in Parallels DaaS User Portal a user sees the following error:

The sign-in method you’re trying to use isn’t allowed. Try a different sign-up method or contact your system administrator.

Solution

If you’re using multi-factor authentication to prevent unauthorized access to your systems, make sure its setup using conditional access as documented in this section. Per industry standards, Parallels strongly recommends using multi-factor authentication and fully supports this in Parallels DaaS.

In some cases, if a pre-existing per-user MFA setting is configured in Entra ID, per-user MFA does not support the required exclusions for Parallels DaaS. Therefore. it is necessary to disable the legacy per-user MFA setting for the affected users and configure MFA via conditional access if required.

To disable per-user MFA:

1. Sign in to .

2. In the Microsoft Entra ID admin center, under Manage, select Users

3. Select Per-User MFA from the header menu.

4. In the overview, select the affected user accounts and choose Disable.

Try to sign-in again with the affected account(s), if the problem persists, please reach out to our support department.