This section describes how to configure and manage an existing RD Session Host.

You can assign an RD Session Host to a different Site in your Farm if needed. Please note that this functionality is only available if you have more than one Site in your Farm.

To change the Site assignment:

1. Right-click an RD Session Host and then click Change Site in the context menu. The Change Site dialog opens.

2. Select a Site in the list and click OK. The server will be moved to the RD Session Hosts list of the target Site (Farm > <new-site-name> > RD Session Hosts).

An RD Session Host must have RAS RD Session Host Agent installed in order to publish remote applications and desktop from it. In addition to this, Remote Desktop Services (formerly Terminal Services) must also be installed.

Normally when you add an RD Session Host to a Site, the RD Session Host Agent and Remote Desktop Services are installed by default. However, if you skipped the installation (or uninstalled the agent or RDS from the server), you can check their status and take appropriate actions if needed.

To check the status of RD Session Host Agent and RDS, do the following:

1. First, check the Status column in the RD Session Hosts list. The column should display "OK". If so, the Agent is installed and functioning properly. If not, read on.

2. In addition to the description, the Status column uses a color code to indicate the agent status as follows:

   • Red — not verified

   • Orange — needs update

   • Green — verified

3. Right-click a server and click Troubleshooting > Check agent in the context menu. The Agent Information dialog opens.

4. If the agent is not installed on the server, click the Install button and follow the instructions on the screen.

After the agent installation is complete, you may need to reboot the RD Session Host. You can do it right from the Parallels RAS Console by selecting the server and clicking Tasks > Control > Reboot.

The Application Packages tab allows you to manage MSIX application packages on RD Session Hosts and groups.

To use default settings, select the Inherit default settings option. See Using default settings.

Adding a package to an RD Session Host

See Using MSIX application packages, subsection "Adding a package to a host".

Adding a package to a VDI pool

See Using MSIX application packages, subsection "Adding a package to a VDI pool".

Managing applications installed from MSIX packages

The following actions are available from the Task drop-down list:

• Add: Add a new package to the RD Session Host.

• Retry Staging: Manually trigger re-staging of all added packages.

• Refresh: Refresh the list of the packages.

• Delete: Delete the selected package.

Use this tab to configure user profile settings.

To use default settings, select the Inherit default settings option. See Using default settings.

For complete instructions about configuring user profiles, see User profile.

Select or clear the Enable Server in site option to enable or disable the server. A disabled server cannot serve published applications and virtual desktops to clients.

Other elements on this tab are:

• Server: Specifies the server FQDN or IP address.

• Description: An optional server description.

• Change Direct Address: Select this option if you need to change the direct address that Parallels Client uses to establish a direct connection with the RD Session Host.

The Optimization tab allows you to specify settings that will be used to optimize the RD Session Host for best performance in a Parallels RAS environment. You can select Windows components, services, and other options that will be disabled, removed, or optimized to ensure a more efficient, streamlined, and improved delivery of virtual apps and desktops.

To use default settings, select the Inherit default settings option. See .

For the complete description, please see .

Each RD Session Host in a RAS Farm has an RAS RD Session Host Agent installed through which it communicates with other Parallels RAS components. Use the Agent Settings tab to configure the agent.

To use default settings, select the Inherit default settings option. See .

To configure the agent, set the options as described below.

Application session lingering

• Disconnect active session after: Specifies the amount of time each session remains connected in the background after the user has closed a remote application. This option is used to avoid unnecessary reconnections with the server.

• Logoff disconnected session after: This setting allows you to control how long it takes for a session to be logged off after it is marked as "disconnected".

Other settings

• Port: Specifies a different remote desktop connection port number if a non-default port is configured on the server.

• Max sessions: Specifies the maximum number of sessions.

• Preferred Connection Broker: Select a Connection Broker to which the RD Session Host should connect. This is 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 Client 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. To enable this functionality, select the option and click the Configure button. In the dialog that opens, select one of the following:

• 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.

• Support Windows Shell URL namespace objects: The Shell URL namespace objects support means that Parallels RAS can intercept actions in published applications that use the Shell namespace API to open links, which is a standard behavior in most applications. The ability to disable support for Shell URL namespace objects is for compatibility with older versions of Parallels RAS. You may disable this option if you want the behavior of an older version of Parallels RAS (RAS v16.2 or earlier).

  Please note that you can configure a list of URLs that should never be redirected, even if the redirection is enabled. This can be done on the Farm > Site > Settings > URL Redirection tab. See more in .

Enable Drag and drop

Allows you to set how the drag and drop functionality works in Parallels Clients. To enable drag and drop, select the option, click the Configure button and then select from the following:

• Server to client only: Drag and drop to a local application, but not in the opposite direction.

• Client to server only: Drag and drop to a remote application only.

• Bidirectional: Note that this option has changed since Parallels RAS 17.1. In the past, it was a checkbox that would enable or disable drag and drop which worked in the "Client to server only" mode. When upgrading from an older version of Parallels RAS, and if the checkbox was enabled, the "Client to server only" option is selected by default. If the option was disabled, the "Disabled" option will be set. You can change it to any of the new available options if you wish.

• 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.

Allow 2XRemoteExec to send command to the client

Select this option to allow a process running on the server to instruct the client to deploy an application on the client side. Read more about 2XRemoteExec in the Using RemoteExec subsection at the end of this topic.

Use RemoteApp if available

Enable this option to allow use of remote apps for shell-related issues when an app is not displayed correctly. This feature is supported on the Parallels Client for Windows only.

Manage RDP transport protocol

Select 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.

Enable application monitoring

Enable or disable monitoring of applications on the server. Disabling application monitoring stops the WMI monitoring to reduce CPU usage on the server and network usage while transferring the information to RAS Connection Broker. If the option is enabled, the collected information will appear in a corresponding RAS report. If the option is disabled, the information from this server will be absent from a report.

Allow file transfer command (Web and Chrome clients)

Enable drive redirection cache

Using 2XRemoteExec

2XRemoteExec is a feature that facilitates the servers ability to send commands to the client. This is done using the command line utility 2XRemoteExec.exe. Command line options include:

2XRemoteExec examples:

The following command displays a message box describing the parameters that can be used.

This command runs Notepad on the client.

In this example, the command opens the C:\readme.txt file in the Notepad on the client. No message is shown and 2XRemoteExec would wait for 6 seconds or until the application is started.

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.

To use default settings, select the Inherit default settings option. See Using default settings.

The RDP Printer Name Format drop-down list allows you to select a printer name format specifically for the configured server.

Select the Remove session number from printer name and the Remove client name from printer name options to exclude the corresponding information from the printer name.

This topic describes how to configure existing FSLogix Profile Containers to be managed by Parallels RAS. FSLogix Profile Container configuration defines how and where the profile is redirected. Normally, you configure profiles through registry settings and GPO. Parallels RAS gives you the ability to configure profiles from the Parallels RAS Console or RAS Management Portal without using external tools.

Before you begin

Before you configure FSLogix Profile Containers in Parallels RAS, make note of the following:

• You don't have to change the profiles themselves; existing profiles stay the same.

• You can keep using your existing FSLogix Profile Container locations, such as SMB network shares or Cloud Cache.

Preliminary steps

Perform the following preliminary steps:

1. Back up your existing profiles. It is highly unlikely that profile data can be lost or corrupted, but it is best practice to have a valid backup prior to any change in profile configuration.

2. Turn off the GPO configuration of FSLogix Profile Containers. This step is important because you cannot have both GPO and Parallels RAS management of FSLogix profiles enabled at the same time.

3. Before configuring FSLogix profiles for a host in a RAS Farm, make sure there are no user sessions running on the host. As a suggestion, you can make the transition in a maintenance window out of working hours.

Replicate GPO and FSLogix configuration

To configure existing FSLogix Profile Containers in Parallels RAS, you need to replicate your existing GPO to the FSLogix configuration in Parallels RAS. This can be done in the Parallels RAS Console or the Parallels RAS Management Portal.

To configure profiles in the RAS Console:

1. Follow the instruction from the FSLogix Profile Containers section and open the Disks tab.

2. In the Location of profile disks list box, specify existing SMB or Cloud Cache locations where you keep your FSLogix profiles. Also, specify the profile disk format, allocation type, and default size.

3. Configure the rest of FSLogix settings you may have on your servers, such as user exclusions, folder exclusions, and others.

To configure profiles in the RAS Management Portal:

1. Navigate to Infrastructure > RD Session Hosts.

2. Click a host in the list and then click Properties.

3. In the middle pane, click User Profile.

4. Specify the settings as described in steps above for the RAS Console.

Please note that at the time of this writing RAS Management Portal can only be used to configure RD Session Hosts to use FSLogix Profile Containers. For other host types, please use the desktop-based RAS Console.

Recommendations and testing

When performing steps in the previous section, do not configure multiple (or all) servers in a RAS Farm right away. Begin with a single server (e.g. an RD Session Host) and then test it with a single user connection. After that, configure some other servers and test the same user logging in to multiple servers consecutively to confirm the profile is loaded and personalization is retained irrespective of a session host. If all is good, configure other hosts, host pools, or Site defaults.

Your RAS users can now connect to Parallels RAS using pre-existing FSLogix Profile Containers, which are now managed centrally through Parallels RAS.

Supported FSLogix releases

Parallels RAS has been tested with FSLogix releases up to and including release 2210 hotfix 2.

Configure installation method

Before you configure FSLogix for a specific server or a template (described later in this guide), you need to configure the FSLogix installation method on the Site level as follows:

1. Navigate to Farm > Site > Settings and select the Features tab. Here you need to select a method that Parallels RAS will use to install FSLogix on individual hosts. You can select from one of the following:

   • Install manually: Select this option if you want to install FSLogix on every host yourself. If this option is selected, Parallels RAS will not attempt to install FSLogix on a host.

   • Install online: This option installs FSLogix on session hosts from the Internet. Select one of the supported FSLogix versions from the drop-down list or select Custom URL and specify a download URL. Click the Detect latest button to automatically obtain a URL of the latest FSLogix version.

   • Install from a network share: Select this option if you have the FSLogix installation files on a network share and specify its location.

   • Push from RAS Connection Broker: This option allows you to upload the FSLogix installation archive to the RAS Connection Broker server. When you enable FSLogix on a session host, it will be push installed on the host from the RAS Connection Broker server.

2. When done, click Apply in the RAS Console to apply your changes to Parallels RAS.

Upgrade FSLogix

The dialog described above can also be used to upgrade FSLogix to a newer version. To upgrade, do one of the following:

• Select Install online and choose from one of the provided FSLogix builds or specify a custom URL. The Detect latest button obtains a URL for the latest stable FSLogix build.

• Download a new version from the Microsoft website, place it on a network share or upload it to the RAS Connection Broker server and then select Install from a network share or Push from RAS Connection Broker, whichever applies.

If FSLogix is already installed on one or more hosts and a new version of FSLogix becomes available when you do one of the above, FSLogix will be upgraded on hosts that have it installed. Note that if you specify a version that is earlier than the version installed on a host, then FSLogix will be downgraded.

Configure Site defaults and hosts for FSLogix

To configure Site defaults or individual hosts for FSLogix, do one of the following:

• For Site defaults, navigate to Farm > Site and click Tasks > Site defaults > RD Session Hosts (or VDI to configure defaults for VDI, or one of the AVD options to configure site defaults for Azure Virtual Desktop).

• To configure individual hosts, navigate to Farm > Site > RD Session Hosts. Right-click a host and choose Properties.

• When you add an RD Session Host to a Farm, the FSLogix settings are specified on the User profile page.

In the Site defaults or Properties dialog, select the User profile tab and specify the following options:

1. If you are in the host Properties dialog (or in a wizard where you add a new host or template), clear the Inherit default settings option if you want to specify different settings for this host.

2. In the Technology section, select FSLogix.

3. The Deployment method field shows the currently set deployment method as configured on the Site level (see the description above). You can click the Change... link and select a different method. Note that this will modify the Site setting, which will change it for all hosts in the Site.

4. If you want to use Profile Containers, select the Use Profile Containers options. Click the Configure button to configure settings:

   • Users and Groups tab: Specify include and exclude user and group lists. By default, Everyone is added to the FSLogix profile include list. If you want some user profiles remain local, you can add those users to the exclude list. Users and group can exist in both lists but exclude takes priority.

   • Folders tab: Specify include and exclude lists for folders. You can select from common folders or you can specify your own. Please note that folders must reside in user profile path.

   • Disks tab: Specify the settings of the profile disk. Location type: Select a location type for profile disks (SMB Location or Cloud Cache) and then specify one or more locations. Location of profile disks: Location(s) of profile disks. These are the locations of VHD(X) files (the VHDLocations setting in the registry as specified in the FSLogix documentation). Profile disk format: Select from VHD or VHDX according to your requirements. VHDX is a newer format and has more features. Allocation type: Select Dynamic or Full. This setting is used in conjunction with the Default size setting (see below) to manage the size of a profile. Dynamic causes the profile container to use the minimum space on disk, regardless of the allocated Default size. As a user profile is filled with more data, the amount of data on disk will grow up to the size specified in Default size, but will never exceed it. Default size: Specifies the size of newly created VHD(X) in megabytes.

   • Advanced tab: This tab allows you to modify advanced FSLogix registry settings. To modify a setting, select it and click Tasks > Edit. By default, the settings are disabled. To enable a setting, select the checkbox in front of its name. A description for each setting is provided in the RAS console. For further information regarding FSLogix Profile Containers configurations, visit https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/fslogix/profile-container-configuration-reference.

5. If you want to use Office Containers, select the Use Office Containers options. Click the Configure button to configure settings:

   • Users and Groups tab: Same as above.

   • Disks tab: Same as above.

   • Advanced tab: Same as above.

6. Click the Configure general settings button to configure FSLogix settings for all types of containers:

   • App Services tab: This tab allows you to modify advanced FSLogix registry settings. For more information about these settings, see https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/fslogix/reference-configuration-settings?tabs=profiles#app-services-settings.

   • Cloud Cache tab: This tab allows you to modify Cloud Cache settings. For more information about these settings, see https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/fslogix/reference-configuration-settings?tabs=ccd#fslogix-settings-profile-odfc-cloud-cache-logging.

   • Logging tab: This tab allows you to modify logging settings for profile containers. For more information about these settings, see https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/fslogix/reference-configuration-settings?tabs=logging#fslogix-settings-profile-odfc-cloud-cache-logging.

Rebooting a host

When you enable FSLogix for a new host while running the wizard, no additional steps are necessary. On wizard completion, the host is rebooted and is added to the active load balancing. An existing host must be rebooted manually using the Tasks > Tools > Reboot menu option.

To configure User Profile Disks, specify the following settings:

1. When in the host "Properties" dialog, clear the Inherit default settings if you want to specify different settings for this host.

2. In the Technology section, select User profile disk.

3. In the drop-down list, select one of the following:

   • Do not change: Keep the current server settings (default).

   • Enabled: Enable the User Profile Disks functionality.

   • Disabled: Disable the functionality.

4. Click the Configure advanced User Profile Disks settings button to open the User Profile Advanced Settings dialog.

5. On the Disk tab, specify the following:

   • Disk location: If you selected Enabled in the previous step, specify a network location where the User Profile Disks should be created. Use the Microsoft Windows UNC format to specify a location (e.g. \\RAS\users\disks). Please note that the server must have full control permissions on the disk share.

   • Maximum size: Enter the maximum allowed disk size (in gigabytes).

6. On the Folders tab, specify the following:

   • Store all user settings and data on the user profile disk: All folders, except those specified in the exclusion list, will be stored on the user profile disk. To add or remove folders to/from the exclusion list, click the [+] or [-] buttons.

   • Store only the following folders on the user profile disk: Only folders specified in the inclusion lists will be stored on the user profile disk. There are two inclusion lists. The first one contains standard user profile folders (e.g. Desktop, Documents, Downloads, etc.) and allows you to select the folders that you want to include. The second list allows you to specify additional folders. Click the [+] or [-] buttons to add or remove folders.

Note that when you enable User Profile Disks, you need to restart the server for the changes to take effect.

The Desktop Access tab allows you to restrict remote desktop access to certain users.

To use default settings, select the Inherit default settings option. See .

By default, all users who have access to remote applications on an RD Session Host can also connect to the server via a standard RDP connection. If you want to restrict remote desktop access to certain users, do the following:

1. On the Desktop Access tab, select the Restrict direct desktop access to the following users option. If you have the Inherit default settings option selected, click the Edit Defaults link to see (and modify if needed) the default configuration. The rest of the steps apply to both the Server Properties and Default Server Properties dialogs.

2. Click the Add button.

3. Select the desired users. To include multiple users, separate them by a semicolon.

4. Click OK.

5. The selected users will appear in the list on the Desktop Access tab.

Users in this list will still be able to access remote applications using Parallels Client, but will be denied direct remote desktop access to this server.

Please note that members of the Administrator group will still be able to connect to the remote desktop even if they are included in this list.

Beginning with version 18, Parallels RAS includes built-in automated optimization capabilities for RD Session Hosts, VDI, and Azure Virtual Desktop workloads. Different preconfigured optimizations for multi-session (such as RD Session Hosts) or single-session (such as VDI) hosts are available for administrators to choose from manually or automatically to ensure a more efficient, streamlined and improved delivery of virtual apps and desktops.

Preconfigured optimizations were designed to be easily updated to support future releases of Microsoft Windows. Moreover, custom scripts may also be used within the tool to make use of already available optimizations to be deployed on Parallels RAS workload machines.

Over 130 image optimizations are available out-of-the-box and divided into the following main categories:

• UWP application packages (removal; available for VDI only)

• Windows Defender ATP (turn ON or OFF, disable real-time scan, exclude files, folder, processes, and extensions)

• Windows components (removal)

• Windows services (disable)

• Windows scheduled tasks (disable)

• Windows advanced options (Cortana, system restore, telemetry, custom layout)

• Network performance (disable task offload, ipv6, etc.)

• Registry (service startup timeout, disk I/O timeout, custom, etc.)

• Visual effects (best appearance, best performance, custom)

• Disk cleanup (delete user profiles, image cleanup, etc.)

• Custom scripts (.ps1, .exe, .cmd, and other extensions/formats)

For the complete list of optimization categories and components, please see .

Optimizations are applicable to RD Session Hosts, VDI desktops, Azure Virtual Desktop, and Remote PC pools (through VDI) based on:

• Windows Server 2012 R2 and later

• Windows 7 SP1

• Windows 10

• Windows 11

Configure optimization

Optimization can be configured for the following:

• RD Session Hosts

• VDI

• Azure Virtual Desktop

Optimization settings are configured for the above on the Site level (Site defaults) and can also be configured for individual components if the RAS administrator decides to use custom settings for a given component.

To configure optimizations on the Site level, navigate to Farm > Site, click the Tasks > Site defaults menu and choose one of the following:

• RD Session Host

• VDI

• AVD multi-session hosts

• AVD single-session hosts

In a Site defaults dialog that opens, select the Optimization tab. The user interface for configuring optimization is the same for all of the above.

To configure optimization:

1. If you are in the host Properties dialog or in a wizard, clear the Inherit default settings options if you want to modify them for this host.

2. Select the Enable optimization option.

3. Choose optimization type from the following:

   • Automatic: Predefined and preconfigured optimization will be used automatically.

   • Manual: Gives you full control over which optimization options to use and allows you to configure each one. This option also gives you an option to use a custom optimization script that will be executed on the host.

4. If you selected Manual in the previous step, configure optimization categories and components according to your requirements. See Configure optimization below.

5. Force optimization on all enabled categories: This is a special option that should only be used in situations when some parts of optimization failed to apply to a host for some unforeseen reason (e.g. the host went offline unexpectedly). When you select this option, then click OK and then Apply in the RAS Console, the entire optimization configuration will be applied to the host. This way you can make sure that changes that you made to optimization components last time, and that were not applied to the host, will be applied again. The state of the Force optimization on all enabled categories option (selected or cleared) is not saved because this is a one-time action, so the next time you open the dialog, the option will be cleared again. Note that in a standard scenario, when you make changes and then apply them to a host, you don't need to select this option, because normally you want to apply just the changes that you made, not the entire optimization configuration.

6. The Category list contains optimization categories that can be configured. To include a category in optimization, select the corresponding checkbox. Some categories contain multiple components, which can be configured individually, some have settings that can be customized. To configure category settings or components, highlight the category and click the gear icon (or click Tasks > Properties, or simply double-click a category). Depending on the category selected, you can do the following:

   • Configure category settings (choose from available options, select or clear individual settings, specify values, add or remove entries).

   • Add or remove underlying components to include or exclude them from optimization (use the plus- and minus-sign icons). When adding a component (where available), you can select from a predefined list or you can specify a custom component.

   • In some cases (specifically registry entries) you can double-click an entry and specify multiple values for it.

   • If you remove a predefined component, you can always get it back in the list by clicking Tasks > Reset to default. You can also use this menu to reset category settings to default values if they were modified.

   • The last optimization category in the list is Custom script. You can use it to execute an optimization script that you may have available. Read the Using custom script subsection below for details.

7. When done, click OK to close the dialog.

Using custom script

The Custom script optimization category is used to execute an optimization script on a target host. Before configuring this category, make sure that the script exists on target hosts and that the path and file name are the same on each host.

To configure the Custom script optimization:

1. Enable the Custom script category in the list (select the checkbox), then highlight it and click Tasks > Properties.

2. In the dialog that opens, specify the command to execute, arguments (if required), the initial directory, and credentials that will be used to execute the script.

3. Click OK.

When you apply the optimization to a host, the script will be executed as part of applying other optimization parameters.

Applying optimization

After you enable optimization for a host and then click Apply in the RAS Console, the following will happen the next time the host communicates with Parallels RAS:

1. The host status changes to Optimization pending and the host enters the drain mode. At this stage, you can stop optimization by selecting a host in the list and clicking Tasks > Stop optimization.

2. Once all users are logged off, the host status changes to Optimization in progress.

3. After all optimization settings are applied, the host will reboot.

4. After the reboot, the host returns to operation and its status changes to OK.

Optimization results are logged on a host at the following location: %ProgramData%\Parallels\RASLogs\ImageOptimizer.log. Open the file and search for entries similar to the following:

• [I 78/00000009/T10C4/P0FD4] 11-30-20 10:09:19 - Image Optimization completed with 98 successful and 0 unsuccessful optimizations.

Upgrade

When Parallels RAS is upgraded from an older version:

• The optimization feature is disabled.

• The inheritance is off.

To use optimization after the upgrade, the administrator needs to enable it manually either in Site defaults or in the host pool/host pool settings.

Inheritance

Additional information

Please note the following:

• Some optimizations may fail and generate warnings if they had been already applied.

• Some optimizations may fail and generate warnings depending on OS specifics. For example, removal of UWP apps may fail because apps are already absent.

User profile is a collection of settings and application data associated with a specific user. In a non-persistent remote environment, such as Parallels RAS, user profiles must be maintained to provide consistent user experience. This is achieved by storing user profile data in a network location to minimize sign in times and optimize file I/O between host, client, and the profile storage.

Parallels RAS supports the following technologies to manage user profiles:

• : [RD Session Hosts only] These are virtual hard disks that store user application data on a dedicated file share. This disk is mounted to the user session as soon as the user signs in to a session host. The disk is unmounted when the user logs out.

• : A remote profile solution for non-persistent environments. FSLogix Profile Container redirects the entire user profile to a remote location and maintains user context in non-persistent environments, minimizing sign-in times and providing native profile experience eliminating compatibility issues. FSLogix Profile Container is the preferred profile management solution as the successor of Roaming Profiles and User Profile Disks.

User profiles can be configured for the following:

• RD Session Hosts

• VDI

• Azure Virtual Desktop

User profile settings are configured for the above on the Site level (Site defaults) and can also be configured for individual components if the RAS administrator decides to use custom settings for a given component.

To configure user profile on the Site level, navigate to Farm > Site, click the Tasks > Site defaults menu and choose one of the following:

• RD Session Host

• VDI

• AVD multi-session hosts

• AVD single-session hosts

In a Site defaults dialog that opens, select the User profile tab. The user interface for configuring optimization is the same for all of the above.

The subsequent sections describe in detail how to configure the user profile functionality.

Make sure to configure the following antivirus exclusions for FSLogix Profile Container virtual hard drives. Make sure to check the following information with your security team.

Exclude files:

• %Programfiles%\FSLogix\Apps\frxdrv.sys

• %Programfiles%\FSLogix\Apps\frxdrvvt.sys

• %Programfiles%\FSLogix\Apps\frxccd.sys

• %TEMP%*.VHD

• %TEMP%*.VHDX

• %Windir%\TEMP*.VHD

• %Windir%\TEMP*.VHDX

• \\storageaccount.file.core.windows.net\share**.VHD

• \\storageaccount.file.core.windows.net\share**.VHDX

Exclude processes:

• %Programfiles%\FSLogix\Apps\frxccd.exe

• %Programfiles%\FSLogix\Apps\frxccds.exe

• %Programfiles%\FSLogix\Apps\frxsvc.exe

When configuring optimizations, you can specify files and processes to exclude in the Windows Defender ATP category. For more information, please see .

To configure an RD Session Host:

1. In the RAS Console, navigate to Farm > <site> > RD Session Hosts.

2. Select a server and click Tasks > Properties.

3. The server properties dialog opens where you can configure the RD Session Host properties.

The dialog is described in the subsections that follow this one.

An RD Session Host is monitored and logs are created containing relevant information. To configure logging and retrieve or clear existing log files, right-click a host, choose Troubleshooting > Logging in the context menu, and then click Configure, Retrieve, or Clear depending on what you want to do. For the information on how to perform these tasks, see the Logging section.

To view the list of RD Session Hosts for the current Site:

1. In the RAS Console, navigate to Farm > <Site-name> > RD Session Hosts.

2. The available RD Session Hosts are displayed on the RD Session Hosts tab in the right pane.

You can filter the RD Session Hosts list as follows:

1. Click the magnifying glass icon, which is located on a toolbar above the list.

2. An extra row is displayed at the top of the list where you can type a string in one or more columns that will be used to filter the list.

3. For example, if you want to search for a server by its name, enter the text in the Server column. You can type the entire server name or the first few characters until a match is found. The list will be filtered as you type and only the matching server(s) will be displayed.

4. If you type a filter string in more than one column, they will be combined using the logical AND operator.

5. To remove the filter and display the complete list, click the magnifying glass icon again.

6. If you click the magnifying glass icon one more time, you'll see that the filter that you specified earlier is still there. To remove it completely, simply delete the filter string(s) from the column(s).

Viewing RD Session Host summary

In addition to the RD Session Hosts editor described above, you can also see the summary about the available RD Session Hosts. To do so:

1. In the RAS Console, select the Farm category and then select the Site node in the middle pane.

2. The available servers are displayed in the RD Session Hosts host pool in the right pane.

3. To go to the RD Session Host editor (described above), right-click a server and choose Show in the Editor.

For additional info, see Sites in the RAS Console.

Available menu options

You can perform a number of tasks on the an RD Session Host using menus. To do so, click the Tasks drop-down list and choose a desired option, or right-click a host and choose an option from the context menu.

Please note that not all menu options are available for RD Session Hosts based on a template. If an option is not available for this host type, it will be either disabled or hidden. These include:

• Assign to host pool. Host pool assignment is performed automatically for template-based hosts.

• Delete. Deleting a host (which is a VM) can only be done on the template level (the Host List dialog).

• Properties. RD Session Hosts of this type don't have individual properties. Some essential properties are inherited from Default Server Properties (see View and Modify RD Session Host Properties > Agent Settings).

• Control (logon commands). Drain mode is managed automatically by the host pool to which a template-based host belongs.

The server properties dialog consists of tabs, each containing their own specific set of properties. All tabs, except General, have either Group Defaults or Site defaults link, which allows you to view and modify default settings. If you want the properties on a particular tab to inherit default settings, select the Inherit default settings option. When you do, the default settings will be inherited from one of the following:

• Group defaults. Groups are described in Grouping and cloning RD Session Host Servers.

• Site defaults. Note that a group may also inherit Site defaults, but this can be overridden in the group properties dialog where you can specify custom settings for a group.

To view or modify default settings, click the Group Defaults or Site defaults link. Note that each individual tab can inherit default settings independently from other tabs.

To specify custom settings for an RD Session Host, clear the Inherit default settings option and use the controls on a given tab to set the desired options.

This topic explains the Enable drive redirection cache option, which is available in a dialog where you configure RAS RD Session Host, VDI, Azure Virtual Desktop, or Remote PC agents. When the option is enabled, browsing folders on redirected drives becomes much faster thanks to the caching mechanism explained below.

Native RDP is not efficient for file and folder enumeration when using drive redirection, which results in slow and sluggish user experience. The Enable drive redirection cache option forces the session host to run the kernel-based driver (RasRdpFs). This optimizes how the communication is carried out compared to standard RDP and also adds caching of the folder structure on the session host (RDSH, VDI, or Azure Virtual Desktop). The driver starts as soon as the setting is pushed to the session host via Apply in the RAS Console. When this happens, all new sessions will have this functionality enabled. The existing sessions need to be reconnected to use this optimization.

Notes

• A session host must run a 64-bit operating system.

• The cache is per session and is paged into the driver memory.

• On log off or disconnect, the cache is purged.

• If the number of cached folders in the session exceeds the threshold, and the user accesses a new non-cached folder, then the oldest accessed folder is replaced in the cache.

• When the option is switched off, all currently active user sessions will lose the cache (the driver is stopped and the cache is purged). This happens transparently to the user, but file and folder enumeration become slow.

• When the option is switched on, all currently active user sessions will not automatically have the cache enabled. To use this functionality, the existing sessions will need to be reconnected.

Limitations

• The option is applicable only to sessions initiated by the following versions of Parallels Client:

  • Parallels Client for Windows versions 18 and later

  • Parallels Client for macOS versions 19 and later

• Similar to native RDP changes made on the client side (in a remote session), requires manual refresh (F5) in a redirected folder on the server side.