To serve published resources to users, an RD Session Host must have the Remote Desktop Services (RDS) role installed.

To add an RD Session Host to a Farm:

1. Navigate to Infrastructure > RD Session Hosts.

2. Right-click anywhere in the list and choose Add (you can also choose Add from the ellipsis menu or click the plus-sign icon).

3. Select a host (or multiple host) from the displayed list or click the Browse AD button and browse for a host.

4. Click Next.

5. On the next page, specify the following options:

   • Add firewall rules. Add firewall rules required by Parallels RAS in Windows running on the host. See Port Reference for details.

   • Install RDS Role. Install the RDS role on the host if it's not installed. You should always select this option.

   • Enable Desktop Experience. Enable the Desktop Experience feature in Windows running on the host. This option is enabled only if the Install RDS role option (above) is selected. The option applies to Windows Server 2008 R1/R2 and Windows 2012 R1/R2 on which the Desktop Experience feature is not enabled by default.

   • Restart server if required. Automatically restart the host if necessary. You can restart the host manually if you wish.

   • Add host(s) to host pool. Add the host (or hosts) to a host pool. Select the desired host pool in the list box located below this option or create a new host pool by typing a name and clicking Create. For the information on how to create a host pool, see RDSH host pools.

6. Click Next.

7. In order for end users to access published resources on the RD Session Host, they must be added to the Remote Desktop Users group in Windows running on the host. This can be done one of the following ways:

   • Adding each user or group directly on the host using standard Windows administrative tools.

   • Adding users or groups through Active Directory.

   • Using the wizard page described below, which is provided for your convenience.

   If you already added your users to the Remote Desktop Users group on the given host (or if for any reason you want to use one of the other methods listed above), you can simply click Next and skip this page.

   To add users to the Remote Desktop Users group using the wizard, click Browse and specify a user or a group.

8. On the next page, review the settings and click Create.

9. If the host doesn't have RAS RD Session Host Agent installed, you'll see a dialog asking for remote installation credentials. Type a username and password that can be used to remotely install the agent software on the host. Click Submit and follow the onscreen instructions.

10. When the installation is finished, click Done. Note that if the agent cannot be installed, you can still add a host to the Farm, but you will not be able to use it. You can always installed the agent later.

On successful installation, the host will appear in the RD Session Hosts list.

Additional information

To learn how to publish resources from an RD Session Host, see Publishing.

To learn how to configure and manage an RD Session Host:

• Configure an RD Session Host

• Manage an RD Session Host

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 Hosts are used to host published resources (applications, desktops, documents, etc.) in a RAS Farm.

To manage RD Session Hosts, navigate to Infrastructure > RD Session Hosts. The main list displays existing RD Session Hosts. To perform management functions (add, delete, show processes and sessions, etc), use the ellipsis menu, context menu (right-click) and in some cases action icons.

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.

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.

To perform RD Session Host management tasks:

1. Navigate to Infrastructure > RD Session Hosts.

2. Click a host to open the host properties view.

3. Use the navigation bar to switch between different views where you can view additional information and perform actions. These views are described below.

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.

The Overview screen displays the following information:

• The Information section displays the RD Session Host information similar to what is shown on the main RD Session Host list but in one convenient view.

• The Actions section lists actions that you can perform on a host (see below). Please note that you can also perform actions from the main RD Session Host list view by selecting a host and choosing an option from the ellipsis menu.

You can perform the following actions on an RD Session Host:

• Message all: Send a message to users connected to the host.

• Disconnect all: Disconnect all current users.

• Logoff all sessions: Log off all current sessions.

• Update agent: Update the RD Session Host Agent, if required.

• Disable agent: Temporarily disable the agent.

The Control sub-menu contains the following items:

• Enable logons: Enables logons from client sessions, but not from the console. This option performs the same action as the change logon /enable command.

• Disable logons: Disables subsequent logons from client sessions, but not from the console. Does not affect currently logged on users. This option performs the same action as change logon /disable command.

• Drain: Disables logons from new client sessions, but allows reconnections to existing sessions. Drain is kept even after reboot until the admin enables logons.

  Note that while a host is in drain mode, administrators may still log on to the physical console or remotely log on using the /admin or /console command-line option for MSTSC. This allows administrators to remotely maintain the RDS host via Tools > Remote Desktop.

• Drain until reboot: Disables logons from new client sessions until the computer is restarted, but allows reconnections to existing sessions. Drain is kept until the host is restarted. Same action as the change logon /drainuntilrestart command.

• Cancel pending reboot (scheduler): Cancel pending reboot.

• Cancel disabled state (scheduler): Cancel disabled state.

• Install RDS role: Allows to install the RDS role on the host.

• Reboot: Reboot the host.

• Shutdown: Shut down the host.

The Logs sub-menu contains the following items:

• Configure: Allows you to configure logging. For the explanation of log levels, please see below.

• Retrieve: Retrieves a ZIP archive containing the log files to the specified location.

• Clear: Clears all existing logs.

The available log levels are:

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

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

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

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

The remaining items include:

• Assign to host pool: Assigns the host to a host pool.

• Remove from host pool: Removes a host from a host pool.

• Refresh: Refreshes the host information displayed on the screen.

• Site Defaults: Opens the RDSH site defaults screen where you can view and configure site defaults.

• Delete: Deletes the host from the RAS Farm.

For troubleshooting information and tasks, select Troubleshooting in the navigation bar.

The data displayed in the Troubleshooting view is retrieved by the RAS Management Portal directly from the RD Session Host, not through the RAS Connection Broker. This view can show data important to troubleshoot issues with the RAS RD Session Host Agent even if the agent cannot be reached by the RAS Connection Broker or is currently registered with a different RAS Connection Broker.

The following data is displayed:

• Host: The RD Session Host name.

• Agent: Agent status (e.g. OK).

• Version: Agent version.

• RDS role: Whether RDS role is enabled on the RD Session Host.

• OS type: Operating system type installed on the host.

• Status: Displays a long version of the agent status. If the agent is OK, it will say so. If there's an issue, this field explains what is wrong with the agent. You can use this information to troubleshoot the issue.

You can also perform the following actions in the Troubleshooting view:

• Retrieve logs: Retrieve host logs as a single ZIP archive.

• Configure logs: Allows you specify a log level for Parallels RAS Components. Note that you should use Extended and Verbose logging for troubleshooting only. When selecting one of these levels, you can also set the time period after which the log level will go back to Standard.

• Clear logs: Clear all existing logs.

• Reboot agent: Reboot the RAS RD Session Host Agent.

• Uninstall agent: Uninstall the agent.

• Refresh: Refresh the agent information.

To view and manage active session on the RD Session Host, click Active Sessions in the navigation bar. To see the detailed session information, click the user name in the list. This opens the Session Info view. For a detailed description of session metrics, please see Session information.

To perform an action on a session (or multiple sessions), select it in the list and click the ellipsis menu. Choose from one of the following items:

• Show session info: Opens the Session Info view.

• Message: Send a message to the session owner.

• Disconnect: Disconnect the session.

• Log off: Log off the session.

• Show resources: Opens a view displaying running resources.

• Show running processes: Opens a view displaying running processes.

• Monitoring settings: Opens a dialog where you can configure monitoring settings to highlight values in session metrics for RD Session Hosts. The dialog lists available metrics and allows you to set Warning and Critical thresholds for a given metric. To set a threshold, select the checkbox in front of a metric name and specify the desired values. During the RAS Farm operation, when a threshold is reached, a session metric value is highlighted as follows: Warning threshold — orange; Critical threshold — red.

  To reset values for a given threshold, select it and choose Reset from the ellipsis menu (or right-click > Reset). You can also enable or disable threshold color coding for a metric. To do so, select a metric and choose Enable or Disable from the ellipsis menu.

• Refresh: Refreshes the list.

• Export: Exports the information to a CSV file.

To view running resources for an RD Session Host, click the Running Resources item in the navigation bar. To see the detailed resource information, click the resource name. This opens a view displaying the basic resource information (ID, name, target, etc) and the corresponding session information. For the detailed information about session metrics, please see Session information.

To perform an action on a resource, select it in the list and click the ellipsis menu. Choose from one of the following:

• Message: Send a message to the session owner.

• Disconnect: Disconnect the session.

• Log off: Log off the session.

• Show running processes: Opens a view displaying running processes.

• Show user session: Open a view displaying the information about the session.

• Show information: Opens a view displaying the resource information.

• Monitoring settings: See the description in Active Sessions.

• Refresh: Refreshes the list.

• Export: Save the list into a CSV file.

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.

To view running processes for an RD Session Host, click the Running Processes item in the navigation bar. This opens a view displaying all running processes.

To kill one or multiple processes, select them in the list and chose Kill processes from the ellipsis menu. To refresh the list, choose Refresh.

When you publish resources in Parallels RAS, you need to specify one or more hosts that host them. RDSH host pools allow you to combine multiple RD Session Hosts and then publish the resources from the host pool instead of specifying individual hosts.

The main benefits of using RD Session Host host pools are as follows:

• They simplify the management of published resources and are highly recommended in multi-host environments.

• They allow you to use RD Session Hosts created from a template by utilizing the VDI infrastructure. More on this later in this section.

Note that an RD Session Host can be a member of one host pool only. You cannot add the same host to multiple host pools.

Creating a host pool

To create an RDSH host pool:

1. Navigate to Infrastructure > RD Session Hosts > Host pools.

2. Choose New host pool from the ellipsis menu (or click the plus-sign icon).

3. Type a host pool name and press Enter.

4. Click the new host pool name in the list to open the host pool editing screen.

5. Click Properties in the middle pane and configure the host pool. Settings here are similar to settings of an individual RD Session Host. See Configure an RD Session Host.

Using host pool defaults

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 hosts instead of configuring each host 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.

• 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 hosts assigned to a host pool will inherit the host pool defaults.

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.