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Read this section to learn how manage RD Session Hosts components in Parallels RAS.
When you create RD Session Host host pools, you can assign a template to a host pool. This can be done when you create or modify a host pool, or it can be done from the Templates tab.
To assign a template to a host pool:
Go to Farm > Site > RD Session Hosts > Templates tab.
On the Templates tab, select a template.
Click Tasks > Assign to host pool.
Select the template version in the Version dialog.
A dialog opens listing existing RD Session Host host pools. Host pools that already have a template assigned are not shown in this list by default. To display them, select the Show host pools with assigned template option. The template that they are currently using is displayed in the Template column.
Select one or more host pools and click OK.
To remove a template from a host pool or host pool:
Select a template and click Tasks > Remove from host pool.
A dialog opens listing all host pools to which this template is assigned.
Select the host pools to remove the template from and click OK.
Note that if a host pool has hosts created from the template that you are removing, they will be removed as well. A message is displayed where you need to confirm the removal.
To complete the tasks described in this section, the following requirements must be met:
Requirements described in the "Requirements" subsection of Creating a VM template.
Network Discovery UDP port 137 must be enabled for a domain firewall profile in the guest OS. This can be done via domain group policies or manually in the guest OS.
Normally, you will push install the necessary agent software in a source VM right from the Parallels RAS console. However, you can also install the software manually by running the Parallels RAS installer in Windows in the VM. When doing so, use the Custom installation option and select the following agent components RAS Guest Agent and RAS RD Session Host Agent to be installed in the source VM.
To create an RD Session Host template:
Add one of the supported provides, as described in Add a Provider.
Go to Farm > Site > RD Session Hosts > Templates tab.
In the Tasks drop-down menu, click Add (or click the [+] icon).
In the dialog that opens, select a host from which you would like to create a template and click OK.
The Create Parallels Template Wizard opens. Each wizard page is described below in the order they appear on the screen.
Verify that the Agent is installed and install it manually if needed as described in Step 1: Check and install the Agent. This step only appears if an on-premises Provider is used.
Configure the template as described in Step 2: Configure the template.
This section describes how to configure and manage an existing RD Session Host.
You can enable and configure automatic updates for all RD Session Host Agents in a host pool.
To schedule Agent auto-upgrade:
Go to Farm > Site > RD Session Hosts > Host pools > Properties > Auto-upgrade tab.
Clear the Inherit default settings options if you want to modify them for this host pool.
Select the Enable auto-upgrade maintenance window option. During the maintenance window, all hosts in the host pool will try to download Agent upgrades. The upgrades will be downloaded and installed as soon as all users log out of their hosts. New logons from users are prohibited (drain mode). If the users don't log off during a maintenance window, the upgrades won't be installed until the next window.
Specify the start date and time, duration, and recurrence settings for this event. To make this a one-time event, select Never in the Recur drop-down list.
(Optional) If you want to forcefully log off all users and download the upgrades at the end of a maintenance window, select the Force logoff of current sessions at the end of the maintenance window duration option.
(Optional) Configure a message that will be sent to users before or during a maintenance window. Click the Configure messages button and specify the message title, body, and the time period when it should be sent.
To cancel Agent auto-update:
Go to Farm > Site > RD Session Hosts > Host pools.
Select Tasks > Cancel auto-upgrade maintenance window.
To create an RD Session Host host pool:
In the RAS console, navigate to Farm > <Site> > RD Session HostsHost pools.
Click Tasks > Add (or click the [+] icon).
Select Enable Host pool in site to enable the host pool. Specify the name and the description for the new host pool.
Click Next.
On the Provisioning page, select whether this host pool will contain template-based or standalone hosts:
Template: (Template-based RD Session Hosts only) Hosts will be created dynamically from a template. You will need to create or select an existing template in the next step or later. Choosing Template as the provisioning type ensures a homogeneous host pool, which is recommended to provide consistent user experience across the host pool. For more information about creating template-based RD Session Hosts, see section Add a template-based RD Session Host.
Standalone: (Template-based and standalone RD Session Hosts) Select one or more hosts that already exist. You'll be able to do it in the next step or you can do it later. Prior to adding hosts to host pools, ensure that hosts are domain joined and have network access to the domain environment. Note that the Standalone provisioning is considered "unmanaged" as it lacks some of the functionality, such as Autoscaling.
Click Next.
Depending on the selection made on the Provisioning page (above), do one of the following
Standalone: Select one or more hosts from the list to be included in the host pool (you can also add hosts to the pool later).
Template: Select a template from the list or click Create new to create a new template and specify the template settings. Versions: If you selected an existing template, select one of its versions. Enable autoscale: (Multi-session hosts) Enable and configure autoscale.
Click Next.
(Templates only) On the Provisioning page, specify the following options:
Template name: Choose and type a template name.
Host name: A pattern to use when naming new hosts.
Number of hosts deployed on wizard completion: The number of hosts to deploy once the template is created. Please keep in mind that this will take some time because the hosts will be created one at a time.
Host state after the preparation: Select the power state that should be applied to a host after it is prepared. Choose from Powered on, Powered off, or Suspended. Note that when the power state is set to Power off or Suspended, the number of running (fully ready and waiting for incoming connections) hosts is controlled by the Keep available buffer setting (see above). For example, let's say the Maximum hosts value is set at 200, the number of guest hosts deployed on wizard completion is 100, and the power state after preparation is Powered off. The result of such a configuration will be 100 clones deployed and powered off.
Maximum hosts: Specify the maximum number of hosts that can be created from this template.
(Only for templates created from AWS instances) Virtual networks: Select Availability Zones for the host pool. Choose from Use the subnet associated with the template and Use specific subnets available in the VPC. If you select Use specific subnets available in the VPC, then after clicking Next you can manaully select one or several Availability Zones.
Autoscale settings: Configure autoscale settings as described in Manage host pools (RD Session Hosts).
Click Next.
On the User profile page, you can select from Do not manage by RAS (user profiles will not be managed) or FSlogix. Microsoft FSLogix Profile Container allows to maintain user context in non-persistent environments, minimize sign-in times and provides native profile experience eliminating compatibility issues. For complete instructions, please see User profile.
Click Next.
On the Summary page, review the template summary information. You can click the Back button to correct some of the information if needed.
Finally, click Finish to create the host pool and close the wizard.
After you create a host pool and later publish resources from it, you can view the list of resources by right-clicking a host pool and choosing Show published resources (or click Tasks > Show Published Resources). For more information, see Viewing published resources hosted by RD Session Hosts.
To view the list of RD Session Hosts for the current Site:
In the RAS Console, navigate to Farm > <Site-name> > RD Session Hosts.
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:
Click the magnifying glass icon, which is located on a toolbar above the list.
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.
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.
If you type a filter string in more than one column, they will be combined using the logical AND operator.
To remove the filter and display the complete list, click the magnifying glass icon again.
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).
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:
In the RAS Console, select the Farm category and then select the Site node in the middle pane.
The available servers are displayed in the RD Session Hosts host pool in the right pane.
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.
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.
RD Session Host templates are designed specifically to give you the ability to replicate RD Session Hosts running in virtual machines. Hosts created from an RD Session Host template are treated by Parallels RAS almost like regular RD Session Hosts. The main difference is, you can create as many hosts from a single template as you require, thus automating RD Session Host provisioning according to your needs.
RD Session Host templates are supported on the following VDI platforms:
Microsoft Hyper-V
Microsoft Hyper-V Failover Cluster
VMware VCenter
VMware ESXi
SC//HyperCore
Nutanix AHV (AOS)
Microsoft Azure
Amazon Web Services
RD Session Host templates support Windows Server 2008 R2 up to Windows Server 2022 as a guest OS. Compared to regular RD Session Hosts, servers created from an RD Session Host template do not support earlier versions of Windows Server. The reason is, these servers run in VMs and require the RAS Guest Agent installed in them, so the guest OS requirements are limited by Windows Server versions supported by RAS Guest Agent.
Please note that the following standard RAS VDI features are not available when using RD Session Host templates:
Pool management
Persistent hosts
Session management
Publishing from a specific Template
Some other strictly RAS VDI specific features.
For the information on how to provision RD Session Hosts created from a template, see Manage host pools (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:
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.
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
Right-click a server and click Troubleshooting > Check agent in the context menu. The Agent Information dialog opens.
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.
When you publish resources in Parallels RAS, you need to specify one or more servers that host them. Host pools allow you to combine multiple RD Session Hosts and then publish the resources from the host pool instead of specifying individual servers.
The main benefits of using RD Session Host host pools are as follows:
They simplify the management of published resources.
They allow you to use RD Session Hosts created from a template. More on this later in this section.
Each RD Session Hosts must belong to a host pool. Parallels RAS comes with a built-in host pool named <Default> that you can use. Note that an RD Session Host can be a member of one host pool only. You cannot add the same server to multiple host pools.
To move an RD Session Host from one host pool to another:
In the RAS console, navigate to Farm > <Site> > RD Session Hosts.
Select an RD Session Host.
Click Tasks > Assign to host pool or right-click the RD Session Host and select Assign to host pool in the context menu.
In the Assign to Host pool dialog, select the host pool you need.
Note: The settings of the new host pool will apply to the RD Session Host.
The settings on the Autoscale tab of the host pool properties determine how RD Session Hosts are created from the specified template. The settings are described below.
Template: Specifies the template assigned to the host pool.
Enable autoscale: Enables autoscale.
Configure: Configures the autoscale settings:
Min number of hosts to be added to the host pool from the Template: Specifies the minimum number of servers that will be added to the host pool automatically when the template is assigned to the host pool. This number of servers will remain in the host pool irrespective of utilization.
Max number of hosts to be added to the host pool from the Template: This option allows you to set a limit on how many servers in total can be added to the host pool from the template. A template can be shared between host pools. By setting a limit for each host pool, you can ensure that the combined number of servers in each host pool will not exceed the template limit. Consider the following examples:
If the template is used by a single host pool, then this number can be up to the Maximum hosts setting of the template.
If two or more host pools share the same template, then the combined number from all host pools must be less or equal to the Maximum hosts settings of the template.
When you save a host pool, a validation will be performed against other host pools (if any) and you will see an error message if the numbers don't match. Note that when a server cannot be created on request due to an error, a "Template error" event is triggered and the administrator will receive an alert message.
Add new or power on existing hosts when workload is above (%): Specifies a workload threshold in percent. When the actual workload is above this value, a new server (or servers) will be created and added to the host pool (if not already available). The host pool workload percentage is calculated using the following formula:
Host pool Workload = (Current Sessions / Max Sessions) * 100
In the formula above:
Current Sessions is the total number of all sessions on all servers in the host pool. This includes static (standalone) servers and servers created from the template (host pools). Note that servers that are disabled, being drained, or have the agent status of ‘Not Verified’ are not included in the calculation.
Max Sessions is a setting that you specify on the Agent Settings tab (either inherited from Site defaults or overridden for this host pool) and the maximum number of sessions allowed for the host pool.
Consider the following examples:
RAS Host pool 1 — mixed server types (static and host pools), different agent status:
RDSH-1, Status: OK, Max Sessions 10, Current Sessions: 2, Type: Static
RDSH-2, Status: Disabled, Max Sessions 20, Current Sessions: 0, Type: Static
RDSH-3, Status: OK, Max sessions 10, Current Sessions: 4, Type: Host
RDSH-4, Status: Drain Mode, Max sessions 10, Current Sessions: 3, Type: Host
For the host pool above, the workload is calculated as (Current Sessions / Max Sessions) * 100 or ((2 + 4) / 20) * 100 = 30%
Note that servers RDSH-2 and RDSH-4 are not included in the workload because the former has the agent disabled and the latter is in drain mode.
RAS Host pool 2 — mixed server types (static and host pools), different agent status:
RDSH-1, Status: OK, Max Sessions 10, Current Sessions: 0, Type: Host
RDSH-2, Status: OK, Max Sessions 10, Current Sessions: 2, Type: Host
RDSH-3, Status: Not Verified, Max sessions 10, Current Sessions: 0, Type: Host
Host pool Workload = (Current Sessions / Max Sessions) * 100 or ((0 + 2) / 20) * 100 = 10%
Please note that a host pool will always make sure that it has at least one server available, even if the workload is zero percent.
Number of hosts to be added to the host pool per request: Specifies how many servers should be created when the workload goes above the threshold value. This setting works together with the Add servers from template when workload is above (%) setting described above. When a host pool sends a request to the template to create additional servers, the value specified here will determine the number of servers that will be created.
Drain and power off hosts from host pool when workload is below (%): Specifies a workload threshold in percent. When the actual workload is below this value and remains there for a period specified in the Workload remains below this level field, excessive hosts will be switched to drain mode or powered off. The period of time can be selected from the drop-down list or you can type your own integer value using "weeks", "days", "hours", "minutes", or "seconds" as a unit measure. The server(s) with the least number of sessions will be switched to drain mode. As soon as all users are logged off from a server, it is unassigned from the host pool. At that point, the server becomes available to other host pools on demand.
Remove hosts from host pool after drain and power off: Specifies if hosts should be removed from the host pool after being drained and powered off.
Tip: Servers are unassigned from the host pool only when all user sessions on that particular server are logged off. In case user sessions are still present, such as user sessions in idle, active or disconnected state, autoscaling does not log off user sessions and does not unassign the server from a host pool.
Note: Parallels recommends setting viable timeouts for idle time and disconnected sessions either in Windows Host pool Policies or in the Site Default Properties dialog to make the drain mode effective. GPOs can be used to forcibly log off a user session, however this should be used carefully as this may result in data loss.
RD Sessions Hosts assigned to a host pool have various settings that they can inherit from the host pool defaults. This makes it simpler to configure a single set of settings for all servers instead of configuring each server individually. A Site also has its own default settings (Site defaults). Moreover, an RD Session Host host pool can inherit these Site defaults. This gives you the following choices when inheriting default settings by an RD Session Host:
Configure Site defaults and make the host pool inherit these settings. The RD Session Hosts assigned to the host pool will therefore also inherit Site defaults. This is the default scenario for a new host pool. Site defaults can be configured by navigating to Farm > <Site> > RD Session hosts and clicking Tasks > Site defaults.
Configure default settings for a given host pool. This way you can have multiple host pools, each having its own host pool defaults (different from Site defaults). Therefore, the servers assigned to a host pool will inherit the host pool's defaults.
To configure default settings for a host pool, open the Host pool Properties dialog (Tasks > Properties), select a desired tab (except the General tab, which doesn't have any defaults) and select or clear the Inherit default settings option. If you clear the option, you can specify your own defaults. All servers that are (or will be) assigned to this host pool will inherit these settings. Note that inheritance works independently for each individual tab on the host pool properties dialog.
To view the list of RD Session Hosts based on a specific template:
Go to Farm > <Site> > RD Session Hosts > Templates.
Select a template and click Tasks > Show servers.
RD Session Hosts based on a template inherit the template settings. To view the settings, note on which template an RD Session Host is based and then view properties of that template, specifically the Settings and Security tabs. For more information, see . Note that you a template can inherit Site default settings or you can specify your own custom settings for it.
A guest RD Session Hosts based on a template must have RAS Guest Agent installed and the agent must match the Parallels RAS version. The agent is installed by default when an RD Session Host is created from a template. If the RD Session Host was created using the native hypervisor tools, it may not have the agent installed in it. In such a case, the RD Session Host will be able to serve only the remote desktop. To enable it to server applications or documents, you'll need to install the agent yourself.
To check if the RAS Guest Agent is installed and up to date:
Go to Farm > <Site> > RD Session Hosts > RD Session Hosts.
Continue as described in subsection "Checking the RAS Guest Agent status".
The RD Session Host template must also have the RAS RD Session Host Agent installed.
To check if the RAS RD Session Host Agent is installed and up to date:
Go to Farm > <Site> > RD Session Hosts > Templates.
Select a template in the list and then click Tasks > Troubleshooting > Check agent.
If something happens to a RD Session Hosts based on a template and it becomes unusable, you don't have to delete it and create a new one. Instead, you can recreate it keeping its name, MAC address, and other properties. This way none of the other Site settings, which may rely on a broken RD Session Host, will be affected. Another reason for recreating an RD Session Host is to apply changes made to the template (when you exit from maintenance without executing the Recreate command).
Please note that recreated RD Session Hosts can keep the the following properties:
MAC address is kept on ESXi, vCenter, Hyper-v, Hyper-v Failover Cluster, Nutanix AHV (AOS), and SC//HyperCore.
BIOS UUID is kept on ESXi and vCenter.
DRS groups are kept on vCenter.
Note: If an RD Session Host based on a template was already assigned to an RD Session Host host pool, it cannot be recreated.
To recreate one or more guest RD Session Host:
In the Parallels RAS Console, navigate to Farm > <Site> > RD Session Hosts > Templates.
To recreate all deployed RD Session Host, click the Tasks drop-down list and choose Recreate all servers.
To recreate a specific host (or multiple hosts), click Tasks > Show servers. This will open the dialog which will list RD Session Hosts. Select one or more RD Session Hosts and then click the Tasks > Recreate.
When you recreate a RD Session Host based on a template:
The procedure deletes the RD Session Host and creates a new one from the same template.
The new RD Session Host retains the same computer name as the one it replaces.
If an RD Session Host is running, all unsaved data in its memory will be lost. For this reason, an important data should be saved to an external storage.
For information on how default settings are configured for an RD Session Host, see .
See , subsection "Deleting a host".
See , subsection "Managing hosts that failed preparation". Notice than in case of RD Session Hosts, you have to go to Farm > <Site> > RD Session Hosts > RD Session Hosts and click Tasks > Site defaults to see Site Defaults.
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 .
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.
Note: The information in this section does not apply to RD Session Hosts based on a template. Hosts of that type don't have individual properties and are managed on the template level. For more information, see and .
To configure an RD Session Host:
In the RAS Console, navigate to Farm > <site> > RD Session Hosts.
Select a server and click Tasks > Properties.
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.
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:
Right-click an RD Session Host and then click Change Site in the context menu. The Change Site dialog opens.
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).
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 Using default settings.
To configure the agent, set the options as described below.
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".
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.
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 Site settings.
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.
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.
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.
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 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.
Enables file transfer in a remote session. To enable file transfer, select this option and click the Configure button. For more information, see Configuring remote file transfer.
Improves user experience by making file browsing and navigation on redirected drives much faster. For details, see Drive redirection cache.
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:
Command Line Parameter
Parameter Description
-s
Used to run the 2XRemoteExec command in ‘silent’ mode. Without this parameter, the command will display pop up messages from the application. If you include the parameter, the messages will not be displayed.
-t
Is used to specify the timeout until the application is started. Timeout must be a value between 5000ms and 30000ms. Note that the value inserted is in ‘ms’. If the timeout expires the command returns with an error. Please note that the application might still be started on the client.
-?
Shows a help list of the parameters that 2XRemoteExec uses.
"Path for Remote Application"
The Application that will be started on the client as prompted from the server.
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.
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 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 .
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.
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:
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.
Click the Add button.
Select the desired users. To include multiple users, separate them by a semicolon.
Click OK.
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.
Note: Computer Configuration > Administrative Templates > Windows Components > Remote Desktop Services > Remote Desktop Session Host > Connection > Allow users to connect remotely using remote desktop services must be set to Not configured, otherwise it takes precedence.
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.
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 .
Use this tab to configure user profile settings.
To use default settings, select the Inherit default settings option. See .
For complete instructions about configuring user profiles, see
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 .
Adding a package to an RD Session Host
See , subsection "Adding a package to a host".
Adding a package to a VDI pool
See , 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.
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.
Note: The User Profile Disks technology is no longer being actively developed by Microsoft. It's recommended to migrate profiles to . Please note that the User profile disk option is not available for VDI and Azure Virtual Desktop due to obsolescence.
: 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.
To configure User Profile Disks, specify the following settings:
When in the host "Properties" dialog, clear the Inherit default settings if you want to specify different settings for this host.
In the Technology section, select User profile disk.
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.
Click the Configure advanced User Profile Disks settings button to open the User Profile Advanced Settings dialog.
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).
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.