To publish a local application, follow the below procedure:

1. In the RAS Console, select the Publishing category and then click the Add icon below the Published Resources tree (or right-click inside the Published Resources box and click Add in the context menu). This will launch the publishing wizard.

1. On the Select Item Type wizard page, select Application and click Next.

2. On the Select Server Type page, select Local Device and click Next.

3. On the Application page, specify the application settings as follows:

   • Name. Choose and type a name for the application.

   • Description. Type an optional description.

   • Start automatically when user logs on. Select this option if you want to start an application as soon as a user logs on. This option works on desktop versions of Parallels Client only.

   • Change Icon. Change the application icon (optional).

   • Target. Specify the application executable path and file name.

   • Start in. If the Target field is valid, this field will be populated automatically. You can specify your own path if needed.

   • Parameters. If the application accepts startup parameters, you can specify them in this field.

   • Run. Select the application window state (normal window, minimized, maximized).

4. Click Next.

5. (Optional) On the Alternate access by URL page, specify the URL to the web version of the application. Parallels RAS will launch the web version if it cannot access the locally installed application.

6. Click Next.

7. On the next page, specify the initial status of the resource. Choose from Enabled (end users can launch the resource), Disabled (the resource will not appear in Parallels Client).

8. When done, click Finish to publish the application.

Resources that can be published in Parallels RAS include:

• Installed applications

• Containerized applications

• Packaged applications

• Desktops

• Documents

• Web applications

• Network folders

This chapter describes how to publish resources hosted on servers managed by Parallels RAS and management tasks that you can perform on resources that have been already published. The publishing functionality described here is accessed from the Publishing category in the RAS Console.

A web application is like any other application that you can publish using the standard application publishing functionality. However, to simplify publishing of straight URL links to web applications, a separate publishing item type is available that allows you to accomplish this task with minimal number of steps.

To publish a web application:

1. In the RAS Console, select the Publishing category and then click the Add icon below the Published Resources tree (or right-click inside the Published Resources box and click Add in the context menu). This will launch the publishing wizard.

1. On the Select Item Type wizard page, select Web Application and click Next.

2. On the Server Type page, select the server type from which to publish and click Next.

1. On the Publish From page, select the server(s) to publish from. Note that if you have just one server or selected Local Device on the previous step, the Publish From page will not appear.

2. On the Web Application wizard page that opens, specify the web application name, description, window state, and the URL. Select the Force to use Internet Explorer option if needed. To browse for a specific application icon, click Change Icon.

3. (Local device publishing only) You can check that the application can be accessed by clicking the Test button and start an application as soon as a user logs in by selecting the Start automatically when user logs on option.

4. (VDI only) Select the Persistent option to make a guest VM persistent. For more info, see Persistent guest VMs.

5. (Remote PC only) Click the [...] button in the Remote PC Settings section to select a Remote PC from which the application should be published. In the box that opens, double-click a PC to select it.

6. On the next page, specify the initial status of the resource. Choose from Enabled (end users can launch the resource), Disabled (the resource will not appear in Parallels Client), In maintenance (the resource will appear in Parallels Client but users will not be able to launch it). When a resource is in maintenance and a user tries to launch it, they will see a message. To customize the message, click the Configure button. For more info, see Site defaults (Publishing).

7. When done, click Finish to publish the application.

When published, the web application will appear in the Publishing > Published Resources list, just like any other application.

To publish a remote desktop:

1. In the RAS Console, select the Publishing category and click the Add icon below the Published Resources tree. This will launch the publishing wizard.

1. In the first step of the wizard, select Desktop and click Next.

2. In the Desktop Type step, select the server type from which to publish and click Next.

1. Select one or more servers which desktops you want to publish. You can select all available hosts, host pool(s), or individual hosts. Please note that if you have just one available server, this page will not be displayed.

2. Click Next.

3. Enter a desktop name, an optional description, and change the icon if needed.

4. (RD Session Host only) Configure the following settings:

   • Select the Connect to administrative session option if you want users to connect to the administrative session.

   • Select Exclude from session prelaunch if needed. For details, see Understanding session prelaunch.

   • Select the Start automatically when user logs on option if you want to open a desktop as soon as a user logs on.

5. (VDI only) Select the Enable static assignment to guest VM option to mark a guest VM as persistent the first time a user connects to it.

6. (Remote PC only) Click the [...] button in the Remote PC Settings section to select a Remote PC from which the application should be published. In the box that opens, double-click a PC to select it.

7. Specify the desired screen resolution using the Desktop Size drop-down list. To set a custom width and height of the screen, select Custom in the Size drop-down list and specify the desired values in the fields provided.

8. In the Multi-Monitor drop-down list, select whether the multi-monitor support should be enabled, disabled, or whether the client settings should be used.

9. On the next page, specify the initial status of the resource. Choose from Enabled (end users can launch the resource), Disabled (the resource will not appear in Parallels Client), In maintenance (the resource will appear in Parallels Client but users will not be able to launch it). When a resource is in maintenance and a user tries to launch it, they will see a message. To customize the message, click the Configure button. For more info, see Site defaults (Publishing).

10. When done, click Finish to publish the desktop.

You can publish a filesystem folder via UNC path to open in Windows explorer. To minimize the number of configuration steps, a special publishing item is available that allows you to publish a network folder from an RD Session Host.

To publish a network folder:

1. In the RAS Console, select the Publishing category and then click the Add icon below the Published Resources tree (or right-click inside the Published Resources box and click Add in the context menu). This will launch the publishing wizard.

1. On the Select Item Type wizard page, select Folder on the file system and click Next.

2. On the Select Server Type page, select the server type from which to publish and click Next.

1. On the Publish From page, select the server(s) to publish from. Note that if you have just one server or selected Local Device on the previous step, the Publish From page will not appear.

2. On the UNC Folder wizard page, specify the usual application properties.

3. In the UNC path field, enter the UNC path of the folder you wish to publish. Click the [...] button to browse for a folder (it may take some time for the Browse for Folder dialog to open).

4. (VDI only) Select the Persistent option to make a guest VM persistent. For more info, see Persistent guest VMs.

5. (Remote PC only) Click the [...] button in the Remote PC Settings section to select a Remote PC from which the application should be published. In the box that opens, double-click a PC to select it.

6. On the next page, specify the initial status of the resource. Choose from Enabled (end users can launch the resource), Disabled (the resource will not appear in Parallels Client), In maintenance (the resource will appear in Parallels Client but users will not be able to launch it). When a resource is in maintenance and a user tries to launch it, they will see a message. To customize the message, click the Configure button. For more info, see Site defaults (Publishing).

7. Click Finish to publish the folder and close the wizard.

When published, the network folder will appear in the Publishing > Published Resources list, just like any other application. If you select it and then click the Application tab, the application settings will be as follows:

• The Target property will always be set to PublishedExplorer.exe. This binary is created automatically (via agents pushing) and is simply a copy of the standard explorer.exe executable.

• The Parameters property specifies the network folder that we want to publish. The folder path can be in any format that the explorer.exe can handle.

Please note that although you have all standard application property tabs enabled for this publishing item, at least the following items should be ignored, as they are completely irrelevant:

• Publish From

• File Extensions

To publish an application from an MSIX application package:

1. Add a package to a session host as described in Using MSIX application packages.

2. Complete steps 1-2 as described in Publishing an application.

3. On the Select Server Type page, select RD Session Host, Virtual Guest, or Azure Virtual Desktop and click Next.

4. On the Select Application Type page, select Application Packages.

5. Perform steps 5-7 as described in Publishing an application.

6. The Installed Applications page will open listing available applications. Select an application you wish to publish and click Next.

7. Perform steps 10-11 as described in Publishing an application.

8. The Summary page will open. It contains information about the application you selected for publishing. Click Next.

9. Click Finish.

The Default Settings dialog allows you to view and modify Site default settings for publishing. Published resources can inherit the following groups of settings from Site defaults:

• Shortcuts

• License

• Display

• Maintenance

To open the Default Settings dialog, navigate to Farm > Site. Click the Tasks menu and choose Site defaults > Published resources. The dialog consists of tabs, which are described below.

Shortcuts

In this tab specify whether and how the published resource shortcuts should be created on the user's computer. The following options are available:

• Create shortcut on Desktop. If selected, a shortcut will be created on the user's desktop.

• Create shortcut in Start folder. If selected, a shortcut will be added to the Start folder. You can specify the target subfolder name and path in the field provided. The default (and only) %Groups% variable will add additional subfolders as they appear on the host server where the published resource is hosted. For example, if the resource is located in "Myapps > Games" on the host server, the same folder structure will be added to the path. Note that you cannot use any custom variables.

• Create shortcut in Auto Start folder. If selected, the published resource will start automatically on computer startup.

License

The License tab contains the following options:

• Disable session sharing. If this option is enabled, it allows you to isolate a given published application to one session. If the same application is launched more than once, the instances of the application will share the same sessions. A different application, however, will start in its own session.

• Allow users to start only one instance of the application. If this option is enabled, a user can only launch a single instance of the published resource.

• Concurrent Licenses. Use this option to specify the maximum number of concurrent instances the published resource can run. For example, if the license of the application allows you to only run 10 instances of the application, set the Concurrent licenses option to 10, so once this limit is reached, other users cannot initiate other instances.

• If limit is exceeded. Specifies which action should Parallels RAS take in case any of the licensing limits configured above are exceeded.

Display

The Display tab contains the following options:

• Wait until all RAS Universal Printers are redirected before showing the application. Enable this option to wait for printers to be redirected before the application is loaded. You can also specify the maximum wait time (in seconds) for the Universal Printers to be redirected. Please note that redirecting a printer may take some time. To avoid confusion, a progress bar is shown to the user while the printers are being redirected.

• Color Depth, Resolution, Width, Height. These options specify the desired display settings for the application.

• Start the application as maximized when using mobile clients. This option applies only to Parallels Client running on mobile devices. When the option is selected, the application will start on a mobile device in the maximized state. This gives users the best experience while working with a remote application. This option gives the RAS administrator an easy way to always maximize an application without taking any additional steps.

Maintenance

The Maintenance tab allows you to specify a message that users will see when trying to launch a published resource in maintenance. When a resource is in maintenance, it will still appear in Parallels Client, but will be grayed out (in User Portal, it will say so in the resource name). If a user tries to open the resource, they will see the message that you specify here. If you modified a message, but want to return the default one, select a message in the desired language and click Tasks > Reset to default. To reset messages in all languages, click Tasks > Reset all to default.

You can replicate the Site settings described above to other sites in your Parallels RAS Farm. To do so, select the Replicate settings option in a desired tab. All settings contained in the tab will be replicated.

The Quick Keypad category in the Parallels RAS Console allows you to define custom keys to perform common actions in published applications running on mobile devices. Custom keys appear above the standard keyboard in iOS and Android and can be tapped just like any other key on the virtual keyboard.

This feature is designed for users who run published applications on a phone or a tablet. When a particular software requires repeated selection of certain menu or toolbar items, using custom keys can significantly improve user experience. For example, let's say a user has some data entry task which requires them to press File > New and File > Save menu items over and over again. If you define two custom keys to perform these actions, the user will see them above the standard keyboard in iOS or Android, so instead of tapping the application's native menu items (which can be cumbersome), they can tap these keys, which is much easier and quicker.

To define custom keys, select the Quick Keypad category in the Parallels RAS Console. The Quick Keypads view in the right pane allows you to create a Quick Keypad template. A template is created for a specific application (or a group of applications with the identical UI design) and contains shortcuts to perform common actions in an application. Once a template is created, you assign it to a published application or a group of applications, so each application (or a group) has its own Quick Keypad.

To create a Quick Keypad template:

1. Click the Tasks drop-down list and choose New Quick Keypad (or click the [+] icon).

2. Specify a Quick Keypad template name (e.g. "Office apps").

3. You can organize a Quick Keypad using a multi-level menu system. If you want to do this, click the New menu item and specify the menu item name. You can add sub-menu items too. To move a menu item across the tree, simply drag and drop it to the desired tree node.

4. When you have your basic menu structure defined, you can add shortcuts (or you can do it any order you like).

5. To add a shortcut, click the New shortcut item.

6. In the Label field, enter the name (e.g. "New").

7. Click the Shortcut field and press a shortcut on the keyboard as you would in the target application. For example, the standard shortcut to create a new document in many applications is Ctrl+N, so to input this shortcut, you would press and hold Ctrl and then press N. The shortcut will appear in the field as "Ctrl+N". You can input up to three shortcuts in this field.

8. To add another shortcut to the template, click the New shortcut item again. Repeat until all desired shortcuts are defined.

9. Click OK to close the dialog. The new template will appear in the Quick Keypads list.

To modify the template, right-click it and choose Properties.

You now need to assign the template that you created to an application (or multiple applications). To do so:

1. Right-click a template and choose Assign to Application (you can also use the Tasks drop-down list or click the "link" icon).

2. In the Assign Quick Keypad Template dialog, select one or more applications to which the template should be assigned.

3. Click OK when done.

When a remote user runs an application on their mobile device and opens a virtual keyboard, they will see the extra keys corresponding to shortcuts that you defined for a Quick Keypad template. Tapping a key will perform the corresponding action (e.g. Ctrl-N, which will open a new document).

Exporting and importing a Quick Keypad template

To easily move a Quick Keypad template from one Parallels RAS Farm to another, use the Import and Export functionality. To export a template, right-click a template and choose Export. Specify the file name and location and click Save. To import a template, right-click on an empty space in the Quick Keypads list and choose Import. You can also perform these actions using the Tasks drop-down list.

Configuring a published document

When publishing a document using a wizard, you have to specify the document settings. These options can be modified after the document has been published.

To modify a published document, select it in the Published Resources tree in the Publishing category and then use the tabs in the right pane to configure the published document settings.

Sites — configuring from which sites a published document is available

By default, a published document is available through all available sites. To restrict access to a specific Site or a Site group, click the Sites tab in the right pane. Select the sites from which the document should be available.

Publish from — configuring from which servers a document is published

Click the Publish From tab and select the servers from which the document should be published. Please note that a server must have the application installed that can open this particular document type.

Application — configuring server-specific document settings

By default, the settings configured in the Target (application path), Start In, and Parameters fields apply to all servers a document is published from. If a document exists in a different folder on one (or more) of the servers, you can specify the above settings for a specific server or servers individually.

To do so:

1. Click the Application tab and.

2. Select a server in the Server(s) list.

3. Specify the Target, Start In, and Parameters (optional) properties. The values that you specify will apply to the selected server only. Repeat the steps for other servers if needed.

4. Click the Verify Target(s) button to verify the document path on all servers from which this application is published. The results are displayed in the Target Verifier dialog where you can see whether the target is correct or not for each server.

Filtering

Routing

Shortcuts — configuring shortcut options for a published document

Click the Shortcuts tab to enable the creation of shortcuts on the user desktops, shortcuts in the Start folder and shortcut in the Auto Start folder. When the Auto Start shortcut is enabled, the application will start when the user's computer is started.

File extension — configuring file extension associations

To modify file extension association for a particular published document, click the File Extensions tab. To add a new extension to the list, click Tasks > Add and specify the extension. To modify the extension parameters, highlight the extension and click Tasks > Properties.

Licensing — configuring licensing options for published documents

Click the Licensing tab to configure any of the below licensing options:

Select the Inherit default settings option to use the defaults. To specify your own settings, clear the option and set the following options:

• Disable session sharing. If this option is enabled, it allows you to isolate a given published application to one session. If the same application is launched more than once, the instances of the application will share the same sessions. A different application, however, will start in its own session.

• Allow users to start only one instance of the application. If this option is enabled, a user can only launch a single instance of the application.

• Concurrent Licenses. Use this option to specify the maximum number of concurrent instances the application can run. E.g. if the license of the application allows you to only run 10 instances of the application, set the Concurrent licenses option to 10 so once such limit is reached, other users cannot initiate other instances.

• If limit is exceeded. From this drop-down list you can specify what action should the Parallels RAS take in case any of the above licensing configured limits has been exceeded.

Display — configuring display settings for a published document

Click the Display tab to configure the color depth of the published document, resolution, width and height. If these options are left at their default values, the client-specified options will take over.

Overview

Preferred routing is a useful feature when Parallels RAS users with different geo located deployments are connecting to the same Parallels RAS Farm/Site. A common access layer usage (RAS Secure Gateway, HALB, or a third-party load balancer) is not optimal if a resource is located in a different data center in the same RAS Farm/Site. The solution is to configure a preferred access layer server for a specific published resource, in which case any user would connect to a default Secure Gateway, but would be redirected using proximity rules set by the administrator. Typically, using the Secure Gateway closest to the session host provides improved user experience, reduced internal network traffic and associated costs along with providing better use of resources.

Here's how preferred routing works:

1. Parallels Client establishes a connection with a Secure Gateway using a standard authentication.

2. Through the RAS Connection Broker, the resource's preferred route (if configured) is identified.

3. Parallels Client receives the preferred public address to launch the resource.

4. Parallels Client then tries to launch the resource through the redirected address and falls back to the original Gateway if it fails.

Configure preferred routing

To configure preferred routing for a published resource:

1. In the RAS Console, select the Publishing category.

2. Select an existing published resource and then select the Routing tab.

3. Select the Enable preferred routing option.

4. Click Tasks > Add. The Add preferred route dialog opens. Read on.

In the Add preferred route dialog:

1. Type a name for this route and an optional description.

2. From the Type drop-down list, select one of the following:

   • HALB Virtual Server: Select a RAS HALB virtual server from the list below the Type field. Note that for a RAS HALB virtual server to appear in the list, the HALB server must have a public address specified, as far as you cannot add HALB server here.

   • Secure Gateway: Same as for HALB virtual server (described above), the Public address field must have a value for the Gateway to appear in the list. See the Public address field when you create or configure a RAS Secure Gateway.

   • Custom: A third-party load balancer will be used. Select this option, then click Tasks > Add and specify the server properties in the list below the field. The properties include Name, Description, Public address, Port, and SSL port. You can add as many servers as required and then select one of them to be used for a given published resource.

When configuring preferred routing, please also consider the following:

• If routing fails, an automatic fallback to the originating address is carried out.

• If routing is enabled in the RAS Console, but not configured, the administrator will see an error message and will have to either configure or disable it.

• It is recommended to use Folders (configured for administrative purpose) in case routing needs to be configured on many resources. Routes are not inherited from parent folder if the routing is enabled on the child object, i.e. only one set of routes is used.

• Same user credentials will be used when redirecting the RDP traffic to the same RAS Site. Users will not be asked to re-enter credentials.

• If you had existing session tunneled in a particular Secure Gateway and using session sharing, the same session workflow path will be used (if a published resource is also available on the same session host) irrespective of configured routing.

• Routing is supported in SAML environments.

• Supported clients are Windows, macOS, Linux, Android, iOS, Web.

Specifying public address when inviting users

Deleting or disabling Gateway or HALBs

If an administrator tries to delete a Gateway or HALB when they are being used as preferred routing, the information about objects using it will be shown on the screen, so no accidental deletion takes place.

Folders are used to organize published resources and to facilitate filtering options.

There are two types of folders that you can create in the Published Resources tree in the Parallels RAS Console:

• Folders for administrative purposes. Folders of this type are intended for Parallels RAS administrators (users of the Parallels RAS Console). They are used to logically organize published resources in the Parallels RAS Console but they do not appear in the Parallels Client launchpad on user devices. These folders are used to help administrators manage published resources more efficiently.

• Regular folders. These folders are similar to administrative folders described above but they do appear in the launchpad on user devices. You normally use these folders to group published resources by type (e.g. office applications, specific business applications, utilities, etc.).

Creating a folder

To create a new folder:

1. In the RAS Console, select the Publishing category.

2. Right-click anywhere in the Published Resources tree and choose New Folder (or click the [+] New Folder icon at the bottom).

3. In the Folder dialog, specify a folder name and an optional description.

4. To make it a folder for administrative purposes, select the Use for administrative purposes option. To publish a regular folder, clear the option. See above for the explanation of the two folder types.

5. When creating a regular folder, you can change its icon by clicking the Change icon button. Administrative folders use a built-in icon that cannot be changed. Icons appear in the Publishing category in the Parallels RAS Console and in the Parallels Client launchpad (regular folders only).

6. On the next page, specify the initial status of the resource (the folder). Choose from the following options:

   • Enabled: End users can see the folder and will be able to launch published resources that it contains.

   • Disabled: The folder will not appear in Parallels Client.

   • In maintenance: The folder will appear in Parallels Client but users will not be able to launch resources that it contains. If the folder has subfolders, they inherit the status of the parent folder, which means that none of the resources contains in any of the folders in the hierarchy will be accessible to users. When a folder is in maintenance and a user tries to launch a resource from it, they will see a message. To customize the message, click the Configure button. For more info, see .

7. Click Finish to create the folder.

Managing folders

To modify an existing folder:

1. Select a desired folder in the Published Resources tree.

2. The Information tab in the right pane displays the folder information (read-only).

3. On the Folder tab, you can see and modify the folder name and description. You can also select or clear the Use for administrative purposes option to change the folder type (see above for an explanation). To change the folder icon, click the Change icon button. Note that the button is disabled if the Use for administrative purposes option is selected.

Adding published resources to a folder

To add a published resource to a folder, first add it to the root location and then drag it to the desired folder.

Delegating permissions to custom administrators

If you have custom administrators in your Farm, you can delegate permissions to them to manage a folder. This is specifically useful when a power administrator needs to grant permissions to a custom admin. To grant folder rights:

1. Right-click anywhere in the Published Resources pane.

2. In the context menu, select Delegate Permissions.

To publish an application, follow the below procedure:

1. In the RAS Console, select the Publishing category and then click the Add icon below the Published Resources tree (or right-click inside the Published Resources box and click Add in the context menu). This will launch the publishing wizard.

1. On the Select Item Type wizard page, select Application and click Next.

2. On the Select Server Type page, select the server type from which to publish and click Next.

1. On the Select Application Type page, select one of the following available options:

• Single Application. Choose this option to fully configure the application settings yourself such as the executable path etc.

• Installed Application. Choose this option to publish an application that is already installed on the server, therefore all of the application settings are automatically configured.

• Predefined Application. Choose this option to publish a commonly used Windows application such as Windows Explorer.

• Application Packages. Choose this option to publish an application from an MSIX application package. The process of publishing applications from MSIX application packages is described in .

1. Click Next.

2. On the Publish From page, specify from which host the application should be published. You have the following options:

   • (RDSH) All Hosts in Site. If selected, the application will be published from all servers that are available on the Site.

   • (RDSH) RD Sessions Host Host Pools. Select this option and then select individual host pools to publish the application from.

   • (RDSH) Individual Hosts. Select this option and select individual servers to publish the application from.

   • (VDI) Host pools. Select the host pool to publish the application from.

   • (AVD) Host pools. Select the host pool to publish the application from.

   The page will be skipped if the application type that you are installing is Predefined Application.

3. Click Next.

4. Depending on the application type that you selected on the Select Application Type page, the next wizard page will be one of the following:

   • If you selected Single Application, the Application page will open where you have to specify the application settings manually (more about this option later in this section).

   • If you selected Installed Applications, the Installed Applications page will open listing available applications (the applications are grouped by functionality). Select an application you wish to install and click Next. Follow the instructions to complete the wizard.

   • If you selected Predefined Application, the Select Predefined Applications page will open listing available applications. Select an application you wish to publish and click Finish.

5. If you selected Single Application on the Select Application Type wizard page, the Application page will open. Specify the application settings as follows:

   Note that if you populate the Target field first using the "browse" button ([...]), the application Name, Description, and icon will be chosen automatically. You can override this selection if you wish.

   • Name. Choose and type a name for the application.

   • Description. Type an optional description.

   • Run. Select the application window state (normal window, minimized, maximized).

   • Exclude from session prelaunch. For details, see see .

   • Start automatically when user logs on. Select this option if you want to start an application as soon as a user logs on. This option works on desktop versions of Parallels Client only.

   • Change Icon. Change the application icon (optional).

   • Server(s). Allows you to specify the rest of the server parameters individually for each server the application was published from. Select a server from the drop-down list box and specify the parameters. Repeat for other servers in the list.

   • Target. Specify the application executable path and file name.

   • Start in. If the Target field is valid, this field will be populated automatically. You can specify your own path if needed.

   • Parameters. If the application accepts startup parameters, you can specify them in this field.

6. (VDI only) Select the Enable static assignment to guest VM option to mark a guest VM as persistent the first time a user connects to it.

7. (Remote PC only) Click the [...] button in the Remote PC Settings section to select a Remote PC from which the application should be published. In the box that opens, double-click a PC to select it.

8. On the next page, specify the initial status of the resource. Choose from Enabled (end users can launch the resource), Disabled (the resource will not appear in Parallels Client), In maintenance (the resource will appear in Parallels Client but users will not be able to launch it). When a resource is in maintenance and a user tries to launch it, they will see a message. To customize the message, click the Configure button. For more info, see .

9. When done, click Finish to publish the application.

Publishing an App-V application

Microsoft Application Virtualization (or App-V) is an application streaming solution from Microsoft. Beginning with Parallels RAS v16.5, a support for App-V application publishing is available in the Parallels RAS console.

At the time of this writing, the App-V support implements scenarios where application provisioning is performed by means of App-V components:

• Applications are sequenced by the administrator according to Microsoft guidelines.

• Applications are stored on a network share created by the administrator (SMB, HTTPs).

• App-V Management and Publishing servers are used to publish applications for a specific AD groups that must by synced manually by the administrator with RAS publishing groups used for App-V application publishing.

• App-V client is installed and configured manually by the administrator.

The process of deploying and publishing an App-V application is as follows:

1. Package an applications using the App-V Sequencer.

2. Deploy the application to an RD Session Host using the App-V Management Console, Microsoft SCCM, etc.

3. Provision the application.

4. Verify that users can launch the application from the RD Session Host.

5. Publish the application from RAS Console (see below for instructions).

6. Launch the application from a Parallels Client.

To publish an App-V application:

1. In the Parallels RAS Console, select the Publishing category.

2. Click the [+] Add icon at the bottom of the right pane. The publishing wizard opens.

3. On the Select Item Type page, select the App-V application option.

4. Click Next.

5. Select the server type from which to publish an application and click Next.

6. Select a server or a group to publish from and click Next.

7. On the Installed Applications page, select one or more App-V applications and click Next.

8. Review the summary and complete the wizard.

Once an App-V application is published, it can be launched from a Parallels Client.

Configuring a published application

When publishing an application using a wizard, you specify multiple application parameters, such as name, executable path, etc. You can modify these options after the application is published.

To modify published application settings:

1. In the RAS Console, select the Publishing category and then select a desired application in the Published Resources tree.

2. Use the tabs in the right pane to change the application settings as described in the following subsections.

Information — review application properties

The Information tab displays application properties.

Publish from — configure from which servers the application is published

You can specify RD Session Hosts host pools from which an application is published on the Publish From tab.

Application — configure application and hosting server settings

The Application tab displays application- and server-specific settings.

You can modify the basic application settings (name, description, window mode) as needed. Other settings include:

• Run. Select the application window state (normal window, minimized, maximized).

• Status: Choose from Enabled, Disabled, In maintenance. When a resource is disabled or in maintenance, it is unavailable to users. A disabled resource will not appear in Parallels Client in the available resources list. A resource that is in maintenance will appear, but will be grayed out (in User Portal it will say so in the resource name). If a user tries to open the resource, a message is displayed. You can customize this message in .

  Note that when you set the status of a published folder, all subfolders (if any) and resources that it contains will inherit the parent folder's status.

• Start automatically when user logs on: Select this option to start an application as soon as a user logs in. This option works on desktop versions of Parallels Client only.

• Exclude from session prelaunch: For details about using this option, see .

• Change Icon. Change the application icon.

• Target. Specify the application executable path and file name.

• Start in. If the Target field is valid, this field will be populated automatically. You can specify your own path if needed.

• Parameters. If the application accepts startup parameters, you can specify them in this field.

The Server settings section contains server-specific options that you can configure. If an application was published from multiple servers, the Host(s) drop-down list can be used to select individual servers and set Target, Start in, and Parameters values for a particular server. As an example, you should do this when different servers have the application installed in different folders, so that the Target and Start in field values would be valid on each server.

If an application is published from an MSIX package, the Server settings section is replaced with the Application information section. The options here are the same except for the Change Application button that allows you to select a different application for publishing.

To save the currently displayed server settings as default, click the Save as Default Settings button. To apply the saved default settings to a server, click the Use Default Settings button. These two buttons give you the flexibility of using custom settings or defaults in different server configuration scenarios. Please note that when you save settings as default, Parallels RAS will check if this Site has applications with per-server settings and will display a message asking if you would like those servers to use the new default settings. If you say, "No", the servers will keep their unique settings. The defaults will still be saved.

To verify that the specified Target and Start In values are correct for all servers, click the Verify Target(s) button. The Target Verifier dialog opens listing each server and the verification status in the Progress column. If the application is installed at a different path on one of the servers, the Progress column will indicate an error. In such a case, close the Target Verifier dialog and then select the server in the Server(s) drop-down list. Specify new values in the Target, Start In, and (if necessary) Parameters fields specific for that server. Click Apply to save your changes.

The Target Verifier dialog can also be used to verify the targets for all published applications at once. To do so, right-click Published Resources (the root node of the Published Resources tree) and then click Verify Target(s) in the context menu. This time, the Target Verifier dialog will contain all published applications and their verification status.

Filtering

Routing

Shortcuts — configuring shortcut options for a published application

File extension — configuring file extension associations

To modify file extension association for a particular published application, click the File Extensions tab.

To add, remove, or modify an entry, select the Associate File Extensions option. To add a new extension to the list, click Add in the Tasks drop-down list (or click the + icon) and specify the desired extension.

To modify an existing association, highlight the extension and click Properties in the Tasks drop-down list (or double-click the Parameters column) and type the parameter.

License — configuring licensing options for published applications

Click the Licensing tab to configure the following licensing options:

• Disable session sharing: If this option is enabled, it allows you to isolate a given published application to one session. If the same application is launched more than once, the instances of the application will share the same sessions. A different application, however, will start in its own session.

• Allow users to start only one instance of the application: If this option is enabled, a user can only launch a single instance of the application.

• Concurrent Licenses. Use this option to specify the maximum number of concurrent instances the application can run. E.g. if the license of the application allows you to only run 10 instances of the application, set the Concurrent licenses option to 10 so once such limit is reached, other users cannot initiate other instances.

• If limit is exceeded: From this drop-down list you can specify what action should the Parallels RAS take in case any of the above licensing configured limits are exceeded.

Display — configuring display settings for a published application

On the Display tab, you can configure the following options:

• Wait until all RAS Universal Printers are redirected before showing the application: Enable this option to wait for printers to be redirected before the application is loaded. You can also specify the maximum wait time (in seconds) for the Universal Printers to be redirected. Please note that redirecting a printer may take some time. To avoid confusion, a progress bar is shown to the user while the printers are being redirected.

• Color Depth, Resolution, Width, Height: Select the desired display settings for the application.

• Start the application as maximized when using mobile clients: This option applies only to Parallels Client running on mobile devices. When the option is selected, the application will start on a mobile device in the maximized state. This gives users the best experience while working with a remote application. This option gives the RAS administrator an easy way to always maximize an application without taking any additional steps.

• Start in fullscreen mode for Wyse ThinOS: If selected, the application will start in fullscreen mode in Wyse ThinOS. In some cases, the bottom part of an application may be covered by the taskbar, not allowing to see the entire application window. When this option is used, the taskbar will be hidden and the entire application window will be visible.

Quick keypad

When a user opens a remote application or desktop, a session must first be launched. Launching a session can take time, which will result in the user waiting for the application to start. To improve user experience, a session can be launched ahead of time, before the user actually opens an application. When a session is prelaunched, it will all happen in the background, so the user will not see any windows or message boxes on the screen. When the user starts an application, it will open using the prelaunched session, so it will start very quickly.

For the information about how to configure session prelaunch, see .

When you configure session prelaunch, the following options are available:

• Off. No session prelaunch is used.

• Basic. A session is prelaunched as soon as the user gets the application listing. The assumption is, the user will open an application within the next few minutes. The session will stay active for 10 minutes. If the user doesn't open an application during that time, the client will disconnect from the session.

• Machine Learning. When the application listing is acquired, a session is prelaunched based on user habits. With this option enabled, Parallels Client will record and analyze the user habits of launching applications on a given day of the week. A session is started a few minutes before the user usually opens an application.

You can configure rules when session prelaunch must not be used. The following options are available:

• Specify dates on which the prelaunch must not be used.

• Exclude a published resource from the session prelaunch decision making. If a resource is excluded from the analysis, it is never considered by Parallels Client when making a decision whether to prelaunch a session. For example, when you have a server on which you never want to prelaunch sessions, you can flag all published resources hosted by that server as to be excluded from session prelaunch. To exclude a published resource from session prelaunch, in the RAS Console, navigate to Published Resources, select a resource and then select the Exclude from session prelaunch option.

Filtering rules is a feature that allows you to control who can access a particular published resource. Each rule consists of one or several criteria for matching against user connections. In turn, each criteria consists of one or several specific objects that can be matched.

You can match the following objects:

• User, a group the user belongs to, or the computer the user connects from.

• Secure Gateway the user connects to.

• Client device name.

• Client device operating system.

• Theme.

• IP address.

• Hardware ID. The format of a hardware ID depends on the operating system of the client.

Notice the following about the rules:

• Criteria are connected by the AND operator. For example, if a rule has a criteria that matches certain IP addresses and a criteria that matches client device operating systems, the rule will be applied when a user connection matches one of the IP addresses AND one of the client operating systems.

• Objects are connected by the OR operator. For example, if you only create a criteria for matching client device operating systems, the rule will be applied if one of the operating systems matches the client connection.

• The rules are compared to a user connection starting from the top. Because of this, the priority of a rule depends on its place in the rule list. Parallels RAS will apply the first rule that matches the user connection.

• The default rule is used when no other rule is matched. You can set it to either Allow if no other rule matches or Deny if no other rule matches, but no criteria is available for this rule.

To create a new rule:

1. In the RAS Console, navigate to Publishing.

2. Select the Filtering tab.

3. Click the Tasks drop-down menu and choose Add (or click the [+] icon)

4. Specify criteria for the rule. You will find the following controls:

   • Allow if and Deny if: specifies whether the resource must be accessible when a user connection matches all the criteria. Click on the link to switch between the two options.

   • (+): adds a new criteria. If you want to match a Secure Gateway, a client device name, a client device operating system, a Theme, an IP address or a hardware ID, click (+). In the context menu that appears, select the type of an object that you want to match and add the specific objects in the dialog that appears. The new criteria appears on the next line.

   • (X): Deletes a specific object from matching. For example, you want to delete IP address 198.51.100.1 from matching, click (X) next to it. This control appears when at least one object is added. If all objects in a criteria are deleted, the criteria is removed.

   • is and is not: specifies whether the resource must be accessible when a user connection matches the criteria. Click on the link to switch between the two options. This control appears when at least one object is added.

   • configure: edits the list of objects to be matched. Click this link to add or delete new objects. Note that for the first criteria (User or group) this link is called everyone. It will change to configure once you specify objects for this criteria.

To view published resources, select the Publishing category in the Parallels RAS Console. In the middle pane, expand the Published Resources node (if it's collapsed) to see the resources.

Right-click a resource to open a context menu. The menu has the following options:

• Add: Starts the publishing wizard, which you can use to publish a resource.

• New Folder: Allows you to add a folder to the Published Resources tree. Folders are described in the section.

• Find: Allows you to search the list for a resource by name.

• Duplicate: Duplicates a selected resource. You can publish multiple resources of the same type, but configure them differently according to your needs.

• Delete: Deletes a published resource from the Parallels RAS Farm. This only removes the published resource item from the Farm. The actual application is not affected. To avoid accidental deletions, a dialog box is displayed asking for your confirmation.

• Status: Choose from Enabled, Disabled, In maintenance. When a resource is disabled or in maintenance, it is unavailable to users. A disabled resource will not appear in Parallels Client in the available resources list. A resource that is in maintenance will appear, but will be grayed out (in User Portal it will say so in the resource name). If a user tries to open the resource, a message is displayed. You can customize this message in .

  Note that when you set the status of a published folder, all subfolders (if any) and resources that it contains will inherit the parent folder's status.

• Delegate Permissions: Opens the Delegate Permissions dialog where you can add users and grant them publishing permissions.

• Settings audit: Allows you to see recent changes to published resources and revert them. The changes that can be reverted include Create, Delete, and Update.

• Verify Target(s): Verifies that the target specified for the selected resource is valid. To see the target, select a resource and then click the Application tab.

• Convert Filters to Secure Identifiers: If filtering for a resource is specified using WinNT or LDAP, you can use this option to convert it to SID (Secure Identifier). For more information, see .

• Running Instances: Opens the Running Processes dialog. For more information about the dialog, please see . When the dialog is opened, a filter is applied to the process list to include only the processes for the selected published resource (a resource ID is used as a value). You can further filter the list to include only the process for a particular user (the Username column).

The action items at the bottom of the screen allow you to perform the following actions:

• Add: Same action as the Add menu item described above.

• New Folder: Same action as the New Folder menu item described above.

• Delete: Same as the Delete menu item described above.

• Move Up: Moves a selected published resource item up the list.

• Move Down: Moves a selected published resource item down the list.

• Disable: Same as the Disable menu item described above.

• Sort. Sorts resources alphabetically. For this action item to become enabled, you must select the Published Resources node (the topmost one) or a folder containing individual items.

• Find: Same as the Find menu item described above.

• Running Instances: Same as the Running Instances menu item described above.

• Effective Access: Allows you to view which published resources are available for a specific user. For complete details, see .

After making any changes to published resources, please don't forget to click the Apply button to commit them to the Parallels RAS Farm.

To publish a document, follow the below procedure:

1. In the RAS Console, select the Publishing category and then click the Add icon below the Published Resources tree (or right-click inside the Published Resources box and click Add in the context menu). This will launch the publishing wizard.

1. On the Select Item Type wizard page, select Document and click Next.

2. Select the server type from which to publish and click Next.

1. Specify the content type of the document you want to publish. You can select the content type from the predefined list or specify a custom content type in the Custom content types input field.

2. Click Next when ready.

3. On the Publish From page, page, select the server(s) to publish from. Note that if you have just one server or selected Local Device on the previous step, the Publish From page will not appear.

4. On the Application page, enter a name, an optional description, a Window state, and an icon if needed.

5. Use the [...] button next to the Target input field to browse for the document. All other fields will be automatically populated. To edit any of the auto populated fields, highlight them and enter the required details.

6. (Optional) In the Parameters input field, specify the parameters to pass to the application when it starts.

1. (VDI only) Select the Persistent option to make a guest VM persistent. For more info, see Persistent guest VMs.

2. (Remote PC only) Click the [...] button in the Remote PC Settings section to select a Remote PC from which the application should be published. In the box that opens, double-click a PC to select it.

3. On the next page, specify the initial status of the resource. Choose from Enabled (end users can launch the resource), Disabled (the resource will not appear in Parallels Client), In maintenance (the resource will appear in Parallels Client but users will not be able to launch it). When a resource is in maintenance and a user tries to launch it, they will see a message. To customize the message, click the Configure button. For more info, see .

4. Click Finish to publish the document.

To specify client settings for published resources, navigate to Farm > <Site> > Settings and select the Client Settings tab. On this page, you can specify how published application icons are displayed on the client side and some other options.

Select icon resolution

Published resources are displayed in Parallels Client as icons or as a list. You can specify which resolution should be used when the resources are displayed as icons. Select from the following options:

• Send standard resolution icons. Standard resolution icons.

• Send high resolution icons. High resolution icons. Please note that this option will use more network bandwidth.

Enable, disable or change the overlay icon

The other options on this tab is to enable, disable or update the overlay icon. An overlay icon is placed over a standard application icon to indicate that it's a remote application served by Parallels RAS. When you launch a remote application from Parallels Client, the application icon is displayed on the local desktop (e.g. on the taskbar in Windows or Dock in macOS). By using an overlay icon, you give the user the ability to tell at a glance which of their running applications are remote Parallels RAS applications and which are local (or any other kind).

Parallels RAS uses the Parallels logo as the overlay icon by default. However, the administrator may also change this to use the standard Microsoft RemoteApp overlay icon. When using Parallels logo as the overlay icon, an application icon on a local computer will look like the following sample icons:

As you can see, these are standard icons used by the Windows Calculator and Paint applications with the Parallels logo icon (red parallel lines in the right corner) displayed on top of them. When a user notices the overlay, they'll know right away that this is a remote application served by Parallels RAS, not a local Windows app.

Show password expiration reminder

You can automatically remind your Parallels RAS users to change their domain password when it nears the expiration date. To enable this functionality, select the Show password expiration reminder option. When it is enabled, a Parallels Client user whose password is about to expire will see a notification right after they connect to Parallels RAS. Note that the option is disabled by default.

Session reset

You can force user sessions to reset on user logoff by selecting the Force session reset on logoff from Parallels Client option. This is useful for resetting frozen user sessions.

Configuring a published desktop

When publishing a desktop using a wizard, you have to specify the desktop settings, such as display size, etc. You can modify these options after the desktop has been published.

To modify a published desktop, select it in the Published Resources tree in the Publishing category.

Sites — configuring from which sites a published desktop is available

By default, a published desktop is available through all of the available sites. To restrict access to a specific Site or a Site group, select a desktop in the Published Resources tree and then click the Sites tab in the right pane. Select the sites from which the desktop should be available.

Publish from — configuring from which RD Session Hosts a desktop is published

When configuring an RD Session Host desktop, you can specify from which servers it should be published. To do so, click the Publish From tab and select the desired servers.

Desktop — configuring desktop name, size and other properties

Depending on the desktop type, click the Desktop, Remote PC Desktop, or Virtual Desktop tab to configure the desktop name, description, icon, resolution, status, and other settings.

• Status: Choose from Enabled, Disabled, In maintenance. When a resource is disabled or in maintenance, it is unavailable to users. A disabled resource will not appear in Parallels Client in the available resources list. A resource that is in maintenance will appear, but will be grayed out (in User Portal it will say so in the resource name). If a user tries to open the resource, a message is displayed. You can customize this message in .

  Note that when you set the status of a published folder, all subfolders (if any) and resources that it contains will inherit the parent folder's status.

• Connect to administrative session: Select this option if you want users to connect to the administrative session. Note that a user connecting to a desktop with this option enabled must have administrative privileges; otherwise "Access is denied" error will be shown to the user.

• Start automatically when user logs on: Select this option if you want to open a desktop as soon as a user logs in. For the information about Exclude from session prelaunch option, see .

• Desktop Size: Select a desired desktop size from the drop-down list.

• Multi-Monitor: Select whether the multi-monitor should be enabled, disabled, or whether the client settings should be used.

Filtering

Routing

Shortcuts — configuring shortcut options for a published desktop

Filtering rules described in the allow you to configure who can access a particular published resource. If a Parallels RAS user cannot see one or more published resources in Parallels Client, you would normally have to check filtering settings for each resource to make sure that it is published for a given user. The Effective Access functionality simplifies this task by allowing you to view in one place which published resources are available for a user and which are not.

To open the Effective Access dialog, select the Publishing category in the Parallels RAS Console and then click the Effective Access item in the toolbar at the bottom of the window (if you don't see the item, maximize the console window). You can also open the dialog by right-clicking anywhere in the Published Resources pane and choosing Effective Access in the context menu.

The Effective Access dialog allows you to specify a user (and optionally additional criteria) and then view published resources this user is allowed to access. To choose a user, do one of the following:

• Type the user name in the User field, or click the [...] button next to it and use the Select User or Group dialog to select a user.

• Select a device owned by this user from the list of known devices. To do so, click the Select a Device button then select a device. Note that if a device has never been used to connect to this Parallels RAS Farm, it will not be included in the list. For more information, see the section. After selecting a device, click OK to return to the Effective Access dialog. All of the fields will be automatically populated using properties of the selected device.

Once you specify a user, enter the additional criteria if needed (all fields except User are optional):

• Client. Client name assigned to a device. This could be a computer name, FQDN, or a custom name that the user could have set in Parallels Client.

• IP Address. Client IP address.

• MAC. Client MAC address.

• Gateway. RAS Secure Gateway name through which the client connects to the Farm.

The Manage groups button allows you to preview how user access changes if the user is added to one or more groups. When you click the button:

1. The Manage Groups dialog opens listing groups to which the user already belongs.

2. Click the [+] button to add the user to one or more additional groups. Note that this will only be a simulation; the user will not be actually added to any additional group.

3. To remove a "simulated" group, select it in the lower pane and click the [-] button.

4. Click Close to return to the Effective Access dialog.

Finally, to view the effective access information for the specified user, click the View button. This opens the Effective Access - Summary dialog, which displays the following information:

• The left pane contains the complete list of resources published in the current Site. To view only the resources that the specified user can access, select the Show only allowed published resources option. If the user is not allowed to access a resource, the resource name is highlighted in red.

• The right pane contains information whether the user is allowed to access a resource selected in the left pane and whether filtering is enabled for the selected resource. Additional information may include filtering details and extended group membership.

By looking though the resource list, you can see which resources the user can or cannot access and take appropriate actions if necessary. If needed, you can export the effective access information to a CSV file. To do so, click the Export button and specify a file name. The CSV file has the following columns:

• Name. Application name.

• ID. Application ID.

• Accessible. Whether the application is accessible to the user (Yes or No).

• Rule. Filtering rule. If no rules are configured for the application, the column will have no value.