This section explains everything you need to know to start using Parallels Desktop Enterprise Edition as quickly as possible.
You can read about each individual step in the respective chapters of this section, but the overall outline is:
Register your license using your Parallels Business Account. Read more here.
Your license must be registered to a Parallels Business Account before it may be used to activate Parallels Desktop. Registration is critical to:
Protect the ownership of your license.
Unlock features that make the lives of IT administrators easier.
Access Premium Support and get visibility into your open tickets;
Download the latest version of the Parallels Desktop installation image;
Install Parallels Desktop Enterprise Edition, following one of the ways outlined in this chapter;
Create and configure a virtual machine golden image, complete with all the required software and settings, and upload it to an accessible location that allows direct file links;
Deploy Parallels Desktop for Mac using one of the methods described in the respective chapter;
Make use of the main advantage of Parallels Desktop Enterprise Edition, the Parallels Management Portal, as outlined in this section of the guide.
Note: If you are planning to choose Singe Sign-On (SSO) as your main activation method, check out this section of the guide. Enterprise Edition enables you to combine SSO and license key activations across the same setup as you see fit.
Should you experience any unexpected difficulties setting up Parallels Desktop Enterprise Edition, contact our support team.
Once your Parallels Desktop for Mac Enterprise License is registered in your Parallels Business Account, you can proceed to set up and configure your Parallels Management Portal where you can dynamically change user group policies and monitor virtual machines. Access it by clicking the following button:
Learn more about the Parallels Management Portal in this section of the guide.
When you purchase a Parallels Desktop Enterprise Edition license, you must register it with a Parallels Business Account to be able to activate Parallels Desktop for Mac installations.
To create a Parallels Business Account, go to this page and select the I am a new user option. Once you log into your customer dashboard, follow the procedure described in of our Licensing Guide.
The information about your Parallels Desktop Enterprise Edition license and setup will appear in your dashboard, and you can proceed with the deployment process.
In large organizations with multiple Macs, there may be groups of Parallels Desktop users with very different needs in terms of capabilities and restrictions, from a software engineer who develops for multiple platforms and needs a dozen virtual machines to test every possible scenario to a back-office staff who would benefit the most from Single Application Mode.
Note: From a system administrator's point of view, dividing the user base into groups is useful for the application of specific policies and/or provision of tailored Golden Images.
The best way to maintain flexible arrangements is by dividing users into groups, each of which would require a sublicense. To create a sublicense, follow these steps:
Warning: If you plan on activating your end users' copies of Parallels Desktop for Mac with license keys on a per-device basis, we strongly recommend against sending out your primary license key to your end-users directly. We recommend employing the Invite Users function which generates unique keys for each invitation email, or creating and sharing additional sublicense keys.
Go to Parallels My Account and select Dashboard in the top-right corner;
In your Parallels Desktop Enterprise Edition card, click on the Subscription Details line;
Scroll down to the License Keys card and click Create License Key in its top-right corner;
Click on the key name at the top and change it to reflect the name of the group;
If you want your users to activate their copies of Parallels Desktop for Mac using license keys, you could send them invitations to activate, which will contain automatically generated individual activation keys (derived from the respective sublicense keys). To do that, use the Invite Users button on the product card in Parallels My Account.
If your organization uses an identity provider (e.g., Microsoft Azure/Entra ID or Okta), and you want your users to activate their copies of Parallels Desktop for Mac using Single Sign-On, refer to this section of the guide.
Note: With Enterprise Edition, you can maintain a mix of per-device (sublicense key) and per-user (SSO) activations across the same overall setup. Any users not included in the mapped SSO groups will be activated using the quota from the primary license key seats pool. Golden Images will be assigned, and policies will be applied accordingly.
Irrespective of their activation method, dividing users into groups will let you benefit from things like custom policies and restrictions.
There are three main ways to install Parallels Desktop: fully manually, manually via email invitations, and as part of a mass deployment procedure.
As an organization, you can choose what type of license activation you want to use: a per-device one where you activate each individual installation with a product key, a per-user one that requires signing in with SSO, or a mix of the two which Enterprise Edition also allows.
To learn more, we suggest that you read .
Download the installation image from here;
Use a license key from the My Account admin dashboard to activate.
Note: We strongly recommend to use secondary sublicense keys for this type of installation and not sharing your primary license key with end users.
You can invite users to install Parallels Desktop directly by sending out invitation emails. Do the following:
In your My Account dashboard, go to the Parallels Desktop Enterprise Edition card and click on Invite Users;
Choose one of the license keys/subkeys available for the product and click Next;
Fill out the fields in the invitation window:
Choose the language of inviation;
Set the expiration (between 3 days and 1 month);
Add individual email addresses to the group using the Add button, or use the Select File button to add a CSV list instead;
Click Send Invitations.
As a result of this procedure, your users will receive an email that looks like this:
To learn about the mass deployment procedure using MDM solutions, refer to this section of the guide.
Assign a certain number of Parallels Desktop installations available with this license key, select the key type, and click Save. To learn more about the differences between Dynamic and Reserved keys, see in our Licensing Guide, specifically the section.
