To configure an RD Session Host:

1. Navigate to Infrastructure > RD Session Host.

2. Click a host in the list to open the view displaying the host information.

3. In the navigation bar, click Properties (at the bottom). Configure the RD Session Host as described below.

RD Session Host properties are split into categories, which are displayed in the middle pane. Each category has its own set of properties. All categories, except General and Scanning, have one common link: Site Defaults or Host pool Defaults, which allows you to view default settings. If you want the properties in a particular category to inherit default settings, select the Inherit Defaults option. When you do this, the default settings will be inherited from one of the following:

• Host pool defaults if the host is assigned to an RD Session Host host pool. Pools are described in Grouping and Cloning RD Session Hosts.

• Site defaults if the host is not assigned to an RD Session Host host pool. Note that a host pool may also inherit Site defaults, but this can be overridden in the host pool properties dialog where you can specify custom settings for a host pool.

Click the Host pool Defaults or Site Defaults link (whichever applies) to open the host pool or Site default properties pane. To modify default settings (if needed), click Edit.

If you would like to configure user profiles for the host based on the FSLogix technology, select FSLogix in the Technology drop-drown list and specify the settings according to your needs. For the information about how to configure FSLogix Profile Container in Parallels RAS, see FSLogix Profile Container.

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

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

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

1. 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 Host Properties and Default Host Properties dialogs.

2. Click the plus-sign icon.

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

4. Click OK.

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 host.

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.

In the navigation bar, select General and specify the following:

• Enable Host in site: Enable or disable the host. A disabled host cannot serve published resources to users. When you disable a host, its name becomes grayed out in the main list.

• Host: Specifies the host name.

• Description: Specifies the host 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.

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

To use default settings, select the Inherit default settings option. See Using Site or Group defaults for details. To specify custom settings for a given host, clear the Inherit default settings option and specify agent properties as follows.

Application session lingering

Setting in this section apply only to sessions with no running applications.

• 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 host.

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

Other settings

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

• Max sessions. Specifies the maximum number of sessions.

• Allow Client URL/Mail redirection. When a user tries to open a URL or an HTML Mailto link in a remote application, the link can be redirected to the client computer and open in a local default application (a web browser or email client) instead of an application on the remote host. This option allows you to enable or disable the redirection. You can choose from the following options:

  1. Enabled — select this option to enable the redirection and then select the Support Windows Shell URL namespace objects option (bellow the drop-down box). This is the default redirection configuration that works in most common scenarios. The Shell URL namespace objects support means that Parallels RAS can intercept actions in published applications that use Shell namespace API to open links, which is a standard behavior in most applications. The ability to disable the 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).

  2. Enabled (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 host side. By doing so, it can intercept an attempt to open a link and redirect it to the client computer. You may try this option if the default option above doesn't work with your published application.

  3. Disabled — this option disables URL/Mail redirection, so URL or Mailto links always open on the remote host.

• Support Windows Shell URL namespace object:

• Drag and drop. Allows you to set how the drag and drop functionality works in Parallels Clients. You can select from "Disabled" (no drag and drop functionality at all), "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" (default). 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.

• Preferred Connection Broker. Select a Connection Broker to which the RD Session Host should connect. This is helpful when Site components are installed in multiple physical locations communicating through WAN. You can decrease network traffic by specifying a more appropriate Connection Broker.

• Allow 2XRemoteExec to send command to the client. Select this option to allow a process running on the host to instruct the client to deploy an application on the client side. See the Using RemoteExec subsection below for more information.

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

• Enable applications monitoring. Enable or disable monitoring of applications on the host. Disabling application monitoring stops the WMI monitoring to reduce CPU usage on the host 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 host will be absent from a report.

• Manage RDP transport protocol. Select the transport protocol that will be used for connections between Parallels Client and a host.

• Allow file transfer command (Web and Chrome clients). Enables file transfer in a remote session. Select a desired option in the drop-down list. For details, see Configuring remote file transfer below.

• File transfer location. A UNC path to a folder to be used as the default upload location. This path will also be used as the default source location when a user tries to download a file from a remote host. You can select from one of the locations predefined in the drop-down list or you can specify your own. Standard Windows environment variables, such %USERNAME%, %USERDOMAIN%, %USERPROFILE%, can be used. If the location is not found during an upload or download operation, the standard (default) download location will be used.

• Do not allow to change location. Prohibits the user to change the UNC path specified in the File transfer location field. If the option is enabled, the user cannot select a different location while trying to upload or download a file. If the option is cleared, the user can specify a different location.

• Enable drive redirection cache. Improves user experience by making file browsing and navigation on redirected drives much faster.

Using 2XRemoteExec

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

2XRemoteExec examples:

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

2XRemoteExec -?

This command runs Notepad on the client.

2XRemoteExec C:\Windows\System32\Notepad.exe

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.

2XRemoteExec C:\Windows\System32\Notepad.exe “C:\readme.txt”

Configuring remote file transfer

Parallels RAS provides end users with the ability to transfer files remotely to and from a remote host.

To make the remote file transfer functionality flexible, Parallels RAS allows you to configure it on the following three levels:

• RD Session Host, Provider, or Remote PC

• User Portal

• Client policy

File transfer settings that you configure on each level take precedence in the order listed above. For example, if you enable file transfer on a User Portal, but disable it on an RD Session Host, file transfer will be disabled for all users who connect to the given RD Session Host through the given User Portal. As another example, you can enable file transfer on an RD Session Host and then disable it for a particular Client policy (or a User Portal). This way you can control which clients can use file transfer and which cannot.

To configure remote file transfer:

1. In the Allow file transfer command drop-down list, select one of the following options:

   • Disabled: Remote file transfer is disabled.

   • Client to Server: Transfer files from client to server only.

   • Server to Client: Transfer files from server to client only.

   • Bidirectional: Transfer files in both directions.

2. In the File transfer location field, specify a UNC path to a folder to be used as the default upload location. This path will also be used as the default source location when a user tries to download a file from a remote server. Standard Windows environment variables, such %USERNAME%, %USERDOMAIN%, %USERPROFILE%, can be used. If the location is not found during an upload or download operation, the standard (default) download location will be used.

3. The Do not allow to change location option prohibits the user to change the UNC path specified in the File transfer location field. If the option is enabled, the user cannot select a different location while trying to upload or download a file. If the option is cleared, the user can specify a different location.

Printing

The Printing category allows you to configure the renaming format of redirected printers. The format may vary depending on which version and language of the host you are using.

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

The RDP printer name format drop-down list allows you to select a printer name format specifically for the configured host.

Select the Remove session number from printer option to exclude the corresponding information from the printer name.

Scanning

In the Scanning view, configure which imaging interfaces should be enabled on the host(s). Select from WIA, TWAIN, or both.