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Add a hypervisor provider

This section describes how to add a hypervisor-based Provider. For the information on how to add a cloud-based Provider, see Add a cloud Provider.

To add a Provider:

In the RAS Console, navigate to Farm > Site > Providers.
On the Providers tab, click Tasks > Add and select the provider you want to add.
The Add Virtualization Provider wizard opens.
In the Name field, specify the name for the provider.
In the Description field, type an optional description.
In the Address field, specify the host's FQDN or IP address. For SC//HyperCore, you can specify IP addresses for several nodes.
Specify a user name and password to log in to the host.
Click the Manage Credentials button to specify the accounts that will be used to deploy RAS agents.
Click the Advanced Settings link to open the Advanced Provider Settings dialog. The dialog allows you choose the following options:
- Use dedicated Provider Agent: Select this option if you will install (or have installed) the RAS Provider Agent yourself. Clear the option if you will use the built-in RAS Provider Agent.
- Agent address: This option becomes enabled if you select the option above it. Specify the FQDN or IP address of the host where the RAS Provider Agent is (or will be) installed. This can be either a physical box or virtual machine.
- Preferred Connection Broker: Select a RAS Connection Broker to be the preferred agent for this Provider. For more info, see Enabling high availability for VDI.
Click Next.
The wizard will now try to connect to the RAS Provider Agent. If you specified Use dedicated Provider Agent option in the previous (optional) step, but haven't installed the agent yet, click Install and follow the instructions to push install the agent on the specified host.
Please note that for the remote installation to work, the following requirements must be met:
- The firewall must be configured on the host to allow push installation. Standard SMB ports (139 and 445) need to be open. See also Port reference for the list of ports used by Parallels RAS.
- SMB access. The administrative share (\\server\c$) must be accessible. Simple file sharing must be enabled.
- Your Parallels RAS administrator account must have permissions to perform a remote installation on the host. If it doesn't, you'll be asked to enter credentials of an account that does.
- The target host should be joined to an AD domain.
If push installation cannot be performed for any reason, you can install the agent manually using the installer. See Installing RAS Provider Agent using the installer.
If you've selected Microsoft Hyper-V Failover Cluster as the Provider type, the page opens where you can disable MAC address management for hosts. Note that you should only do it if you are using Microsoft System Center Virtual Machine Manager (SCVMM) or other solution to manage MAC addresses. See the explanation below.
MAC address management is required when using Microsoft Hyper-V Failover Cluster as a Provider. This is to avoid duplicate MAC addresses, which may occur when a host is migrated to a different node in the cluster and the MAC address is released and reused on the original node. If that happens, such a host can no longer be managed in a Farm. Parallels RAS uses a pool of static MAC addresses at the Provider level to automatically generate and assign MAC addresses to hosts. This way, when a host is migrated to a different node in the cluster, its MAC address will not be reused for a different VM and no duplicate MAC addresses will occur. The pool has 10,000 reserved MAC addresses in the range displayed in the Starting MAC address and Ending MAC address fields on the wizard page.
As was said above, if you are already managing MAC addresses using SCVMM or other solution, clear the Enable MAC address management option.
Click Next.
If you've selected VMware vCenter as the Provider, another page opens (the page will not open for any other host type). On this page, you can specify a vCenter resource pool. This allows you to enumerate VMs by selecting a cluster (root resource pool) or an individual resource pool within a cluster. To choose a resource pool, select the Use specific resource pool option and then click the [...] button next to the Resource Pool field. In the dialog that opens, select a desired resource pool. Note that if you leave the Use specific resource pool option cleared, all VMs from the entire vCenter cluster will be retrieved (max number is 35,000). Click OK when done.
Click Finish to close the wizard.

Add a hypervisor provider

This section describes how to add a hypervisor-based Provider. For the information on how to add a cloud-based Provider, see Add a cloud Provider.

To add a Provider:

In the RAS Console, navigate to Farm > Site > Providers.
On the Providers tab, click Tasks > Add and select the provider you want to add.
The Add Virtualization Provider wizard opens.
In the Name field, specify the name for the provider.
In the Description field, type an optional description.
In the Address field, specify the host's FQDN or IP address. For SC//HyperCore, you can specify IP addresses for several nodes.
Specify a user name and password to log in to the host.
Click the Manage Credentials button to specify the accounts that will be used to deploy RAS agents.
Click the Advanced Settings link to open the Advanced Provider Settings dialog. The dialog allows you choose the following options:
- Use dedicated Provider Agent: Select this option if you will install (or have installed) the RAS Provider Agent yourself. Clear the option if you will use the built-in RAS Provider Agent.
- Agent address: This option becomes enabled if you select the option above it. Specify the FQDN or IP address of the host where the RAS Provider Agent is (or will be) installed. This can be either a physical box or virtual machine.
- Preferred Connection Broker: Select a RAS Connection Broker to be the preferred agent for this Provider. For more info, see Enabling high availability for VDI.
Click Next.
The wizard will now try to connect to the RAS Provider Agent. If you specified Use dedicated Provider Agent option in the previous (optional) step, but haven't installed the agent yet, click Install and follow the instructions to push install the agent on the specified host.
Please note that for the remote installation to work, the following requirements must be met:
- The firewall must be configured on the host to allow push installation. Standard SMB ports (139 and 445) need to be open. See also Port reference for the list of ports used by Parallels RAS.
- SMB access. The administrative share (\\server\c$) must be accessible. Simple file sharing must be enabled.
- Your Parallels RAS administrator account must have permissions to perform a remote installation on the host. If it doesn't, you'll be asked to enter credentials of an account that does.
- The target host should be joined to an AD domain.
If push installation cannot be performed for any reason, you can install the agent manually using the installer. See Installing RAS Provider Agent using the installer.
If you've selected Microsoft Hyper-V Failover Cluster as the Provider type, the page opens where you can disable MAC address management for hosts. Note that you should only do it if you are using Microsoft System Center Virtual Machine Manager (SCVMM) or other solution to manage MAC addresses. See the explanation below.
MAC address management is required when using Microsoft Hyper-V Failover Cluster as a Provider. This is to avoid duplicate MAC addresses, which may occur when a host is migrated to a different node in the cluster and the MAC address is released and reused on the original node. If that happens, such a host can no longer be managed in a Farm. Parallels RAS uses a pool of static MAC addresses at the Provider level to automatically generate and assign MAC addresses to hosts. This way, when a host is migrated to a different node in the cluster, its MAC address will not be reused for a different VM and no duplicate MAC addresses will occur. The pool has 10,000 reserved MAC addresses in the range displayed in the Starting MAC address and Ending MAC address fields on the wizard page.
As was said above, if you are already managing MAC addresses using SCVMM or other solution, clear the Enable MAC address management option.
Click Next.
If you've selected VMware vCenter as the Provider, another page opens (the page will not open for any other host type). On this page, you can specify a vCenter resource pool. This allows you to enumerate VMs by selecting a cluster (root resource pool) or an individual resource pool within a cluster. To choose a resource pool, select the Use specific resource pool option and then click the [...] button next to the Resource Pool field. In the dialog that opens, select a desired resource pool. Note that if you leave the Use specific resource pool option cleared, all VMs from the entire vCenter cluster will be retrieved (max number is 35,000). Click OK when done.
Click Finish to close the wizard.