This topic addresses a possible issue when the root administrator is not available or the domain is changed. In such events, the system becomes inaccessible. If you encounter this issue, you can quickly add a root administrator by executing the following command on the server hosting the primary RAS Connection Broker:

2XRedundancy -c -AddRootAccount user [domain]

Please note that an open Parallels RAS console will not be notified about the new account since this is an emergency recovery. You need to log out and then log in again to see the new account in the Administration area.

This chapter describes common Parallels RAS management tasks, including Farm status monitoring, license management, backup management, and others.

When you add a server component (Connection Broker, Gateway, RD Session Host, Provider, etc.) to a RAS Farm you have to specify its FQDN or IP address. It is normally up to you whether to use FQDN or IP address. On the other hand, the server IP address can change in the future. If that happens, you will have to reconfigure the corresponding component in the RAS Farm. On the other hand, the server FQDN usually stays the same, so if you used it instead of the IP address, no RAS configuration changes will be necessary. For this reason, Parallels RAS gives you an option to always resolve IP addresses to FQDNs for all server components in a Farm.

To always use name resolution, do the following:

1. In the RAS Console, click Tools > Options on the main menu (that's the menu at the top of the RAS Console window).

2. In the Options dialog, select the Always attempt to resolve to fully qualified domain name (FQDN) when adding hosts option.

3. Click OK.

When you now try to add a component to a Farm and enter its IP address instead of a name, it will be automatically resolved to FQDN. If the FQDN cannot be determined, you will see an error message and will be asked if you would like to use the IP address instead.

The examples below demonstrate how the automatic name resolution works for different components.

Adding a RAS Connection Broker

1. On the Connection Brokers tab, click Tasks > Add.

2. In the Server field, enter the server IP address.

3. Click Next.

4. In the dialog that opens, observe that the IP address has been resolved to FQDN and the Server field contains the FQDN.

Adding a RAS Secure Gateway

1. On the Gateways tab, click Tasks > Add.

2. In the Server field, enter the server IP address.

3. Click Resolve. This will copy the IP address to the IP(s) field and will enable the Next button.

4. Click Next.

5. In the Installing RAS Secure Gateway dialog, observer that the server IP address is replaced with the FQDN.

Adding an RD Session Host

1. On the RD Session Hosts tab, click Tasks > Add.

2. On the first page of the wizard, enter the server IP address and click the plus-sign icon.

3. Observe that the server is added to the list, but the IP address is substituted with the FQDN that was automatically resolved.

Add a provider

1. In Farm > Site > Providers tab, click Tasks > Add.

2. Select the provider you want ot add.

3. In the Address field, enter the IP address of a Provider.

4. Enter the remaining properties and click Next.

5. Observe that the Provider address is replaced with the FQDN.

To view the Site information, select the Information category in the RAS Console.

The Site Information tab displays information about available servers, Connection Brokers, Secure Gateways (see Viewing Gateway summary and metrics), and sessions on the local computer. To view information about running applications, select the Show application information option (at the bottom of the page).

The Local Information tab shows the status of RAS components running on the local server.

To view and configure common Site settings in the RAS Console, navigate to Farm > <Site> > Settings.

Auditing

The Auditing tab allows you to configure application auditing. When enabled, application auditing monitors processes running in the Site and records this information in the audit file. To view the information, click the View Audit button (at the bottom of the page). The information is also displayed on the Information > Site page and in RAS Reports.

To enable or disable application auditing, use the Auditing drop-down list (at the bottom of the page). The Clear Audit File button clears the current audit.

The Filtering the following processes list allows you to specify processes that will be excluded from the audit. Use the Tasks drop-down list to add or delete a process. You can also use the Task menu to import and export a process list from/to a CSV file. The Task > Properties menu item allows you to edit a process name. The Default menu item resets the list to contain the default set of standard processes.

Global logging

The Global logging tab allows you to specify the log level for Parallels RAS components. Logs are used by Parallels RAS support engineers to analyze possible issues with a Parallels RAS installation. To specify the log level, select one or more servers in the list and click the Configure Logging item. In the dialog that opens, select one of the following:

• Standard — This is the standard log level that records only the most important events. Unless you are asked by Parallels RAS support to use one of the log levels described below, you should always use this one.

• Extended — This logging involves more information than the standard logging, but it slows down the system because of the additional information that it needs to collect.

• Verbose — Verbose logging involves even more information than the extended logging and can slow down your system significantly.

Please note that to avoid degraded performance, extended and verbose logging should only be enabled for a limited time period (enough to collect the necessary information for analysis). You can set this time period using Reset to the standard level after option. The default value is 12 hours. In specific cases, a Parallels support engineer will advise you whether this time period should be set to a different value. Once this time period is over, the log level will be reset back to standard.

To retrieve a ZIP archive containing the collected log files, click the Retrieve item and then specify a location where you want the file to be saved. The Clear item clears all logs.

You can also set the log level for an individual server by navigating to the page where servers of that type are listed (e.g. RD Session hosts, Gateways, etc) and clicking Tasks (or right-click) > Troubleshooting > Logging. The context menu that opens has the same Configure, Retrieve, and Clear options as described above. The Log Level column in the server list indicates the currently set level.

URL redirection

The URL redirection tab allows you to create redirection rules that specify URLs which will be redirected when the Allow Client URL/Mail redirection option is enabled for an RD Session Host, virtual machine, or Remote PC (Agent Settings tab in the corresponding server properties). You can also deny redirection of specific URLs. A URL either will be opened on the client side if redirection is allowed or on the remote session host if redirection is denied.

Note the following about redirection rules:

• Redirection rules apply from top to bottom.

• Only the first rule that match the URL applies.

• A URL will be redirected if any part of it matches a rule. For example, https://www.parallels.com, www.parallels.com, remoteapplicationserver, and www.parallels.com/remoteapplication are all valid rules for redirecting https://www.parallels.com/remoteapplicationserver.

To add a redirection rule:

1. Configure Parallels Client on your client devices to allow URL redirection.

2. For certain applications, you need to enable URL redirection on your RD Session Host, , or Remote PC (see the Agent Settings tab in the corresponding server properties).

3. (RD Session Hosts only) For certain applications, you need to enable the Replace registered applications option on the server where the application is published. To do this, go to Farm > RD Session hosts > right-click on your RD Session host > Properties > Agent Settings > Configure.

4. In the RAS Console, navigate to Farm > Settings.

5. Select the URL redirection tab.

6. Click Tasks > Add (or click the [+] icon).

7. In the URL field, specify the URL that must be redirected.

8. In the Action drop-down list, select Redirect or Do not redirect.

9. Click OK.

10. Click Apply.

Notifications

See System event notifications.

Client settings

See Specifying client settings.

Features

See FSLogix Profile Container and Enable Windows Virtual Desktop and add a provider.

Application packages

See Using MSIX application packages.

When you need to perform standard Windows computer management tasks, you can do it without leaving the RAS Console. The tasks include Remote Desktop Connection, Computer Management, Service Management, Event Viewer, PowerShell, Reboot, and others. To perform these tasks, use the Tools menu, which is accessible from the Site menu and individual Parallels RAS infrastructure servers and session hosts.

Requirements for using computer management tools

Some of the tools require an appropriate target host configuration before you can use them in the RAS Console. Please read the following requirements and make sure they are met.

To use Remote Desktop, remote connections must be enabled on a target host. You can verify that by using the standard Windows Remote Desktop Connection application and see if you can connect to a remote server.

PowerShell related tools require PowerShell remoting enabled on a target server. To enable PowerShell remoting, run the Enable-PSRemoting cmdlet on a target computer in PowerShell window with administrator privileges. Please note the following:

• The cmdlet configures a computer to receive PowerShell remote commands.

• The cmdlet starts the WinRM (Windows Remote Management) service, among other tasks. To see if the WinRM service is running, use the Test-WSMan cmdlet.

• When you execute the cmdlet, it will ask you to confirm every task that it wants to perform. To execute the command silently, use the -Force option.

• If you receive an error saying that "WinRM firewall exception will not work since one of the network connection types on this machine is set to Public", you can try to execute the cmdlet with the -SkipNetworkProfileCheck option, or you can change the network connection type on this host to Domain or Private.

To use PowerShell to manage a remote host, you also need to add the host to the TrustedHosts list on the computer where you have the RAS Console installed. To view the current TrustedHosts list, execute the following command in PowerShell window: