New Feature Guide TSE 7.0 Propalms Ltd. Published February 2013 Overview This document covers the new features, enhancements and changes introduced in TSE v7. 1. New TSE Desktop Client for Windows The new TSE Desktop Client (TSE-DC) offers users a browser-less way to access, manage and configure TSE published applications. The TSE- DC removes browser dependency but offers a user experience and capability similar to that of the TSE Launchpad web portal. TSE-DC is included with the standard v7 TSE Client installation and requires Microsoft.NET 4.0 client profile framework installed on the client machine. TSE v7 client installation will verify if.net 4.0 is available on the client machine, if not it will prompt for approval and also install.net 4.0 client profile framework. The installation package for.net 4.0 is downloadable from the TSE Launchpad portal Download client page and can be installed manually. Alternately the TSE v7 client will prompt the user for a download from MS download site if it does not detect.net v4 client profile framework installed. This needs internet connection.
Desktop Client: Login Window Launchpad URL: This holds the URL to connect to Propalms TSE Web server or DMZ SPR. If SSL is enabled for TSE WEB or accessing DMZ SPR that has SSL enabled, type https://webserverordmzserver/launchpad. If /Launchpad is not added in the URL the client will automatically append it when sending the request. Note: Domain field can be left blank if not sure of the exact domain name. TSE- DC will also offer an option to display a custom logo on the desktop client window, hence making it easier to localize the desktop client as a corporate or company app. To get a custom icon shown on Desktop client, use the TSE Customization page in TSE Console- Options-System, to upload the required icon. Keep the icon size to a max of 60x60 pixels and in png format. Custom Icon
Desktop Client: Applications After login the Applications tab displays the applications available to the logged in user. There are different views available to meet end users requirement, namely- Large icon, Small icon, Detail and List view. Note: Desktop client does not currently show folder grouping of apps as shown in Launchpad Web portal. Desktop Client: Connections tab This tab shows all TSE connections (active, disconnected and remote) info for current user including the ability to disconnect and reconnect to TSE sessions.
Desktop Client: Launch Settings A sub-section of settings that initially was only configurable through TSE Connection Settings in TSE Management Console, can now be set on the client side from the Desktop Client - Launch Settings tab. It can also be set through the Launchpad web portal Client settings page. TSE Admin can control and allow users to choose these specific parameters by setting the corresponding parameters in TSE Console- Connection Settings template to User Choice. If the TSE Admin does not set it to User Choice the user settings are ignored and the ones set in TSE Console Connection Settings are enforced. The Launch settings for current user are saved locally on each client machine as part of users Windows profile. They do not get saved centrally on the server side, so a user has to configure the launch settings if logging from a different client machine or logged in as a different Windows user. Display settings are some common display settings that end users may configure to their requirement. The Use Multi-Monitor setting allows all available client side monitors to be used by the launched application. Resource Redirection can be used to re-direct required drives and printers when needed. They should be disabled by default to avoid unnecessary redirection of client side resources on the server. Logon Settings are some TSE specific settings that end user can configure. Use Server Internal address to connect - This setting when enabled forces the TSE client to launch applications using TSE App servers private IP address. This is useful in the event when a TSE App server is configured with public and private address both. By default TSE client connects to the public IP address if available. If there are local LAN and remote users, LAN users can enable this setting and connect directly using private IP of the server instead of public. Enable Single Sign On - When enabled TSE v7 client will cache the Windows logon information and use it to authenticate against TSE. This should be used in AD environment where client machine is part of the same domain as TSE Servers. This will eliminate an extra AD login for end users when connecting and launching apps with TSE. Note: This setting will only work if TSE Admin has enabled AD SSO in TSE Console Options Users page. Connect Using SPR - This should be enabled if TSE App launch needs to go over TSE Single Port Relay (SPR) server. Commonly needed when connecting and launching apps over the internet. Note that SPR server has to be configured in advance before enabling this setting on the client side, else the connections will fail. Connect Using DMZ SPR - Works same as the SPR setting. Here the connection is forced over a TSE DMZ SPR server. SPR and DMZ-SPR settings cannot be enabled simultaneously.
Desktop Client: Options This options tab holds settings for TSE HyperPrint client side and other client options. HyperPrint Settings allows a user to manage their print settings for the TSE HyperPrint feature. Other Settings provides some miscellaneous user options for the client. Create Launchpad shortcut - Drops a desktop shortcut for TSE Launchpad WEB Portal on users desktop. Do not delete shortcuts on Exit - TSE Application desktop and start menu shortcuts remain even if TSE client has been closed or exited. Open Desktop Client on Start-up - Auto starts the TSE Desktop client on Windows logon. Auto Fill User Information from config file - If TSE client config file (PCMConfig.xml) exists on the client machine, TSE Desktop client will fill the Launchpad URL, User and Domain information from the config file. Auto Refresh Application shortcuts - This when enabled forces the TSE Client to carry out a refresh of TSE Application list and shortcuts. Default Auto refresh time interval is set to 30 minutes. This can be changed by user by modifying a reg value. Minimum interval allowed is 15 minutes, anything less than 15 minutes will be ignored and no refresh will happen. Client Settings on TSE Launchpad page The new client settings that are available in the TSE Desktop client are also configurable from the TSE Launchpad web page.
2. Enhanced TSE installation package with Auto Pre-requisite Install The TSE installation experience has been improved to make the install on Windows 2008, 2008 R2 and 2012 a smooth and easy procedure. The new installation will auto install the required Windows components for TSE like IIS, ASP, ASP.NET, COM+, DTC and RDS as part of the TSE installation routine. This will make installing and configuring a TSE server a hassle free install. Administrators won t have to worry about getting the required Windows pre-requisites installed before starting the TSE installation. The prerequisite auto install will also work for all subsequent servers added in TSE team, either using the Join Team option or the ADD Server option from TSE Management Console. In short, administrators can take a freshly installed Windows server and run the v7 TSE installer to make it a fully functional TSE WEB with Windows IIS, TSE APP with RDS and TSE Load Balancer server with a single installation. Note: It is highly recommended that the Server being installed should have internet connectivity. The.NET 2/3.5 install on Windows 2012 downloads files from the MS download site. This may take some time based on the internet connection. If for some reason the.net install fails, the TSE Dashboard page in TSE Console may not function. This can be easily fixed by manually installing.net 2/3.5 on the server. To resolve this, install the.net framework manually on the Windows 2012 server through Server Manager- Add Roles- Features option. You may need to specify the source path for the.net framework install files, available on the 2012 server install media in the \Sources\Sxs folder. Once.Net 2.0 is installed, run the RegNetConsole script available in the Console directory of TSE WEB server \Inetpub\wwwroot\Console folder. Run the script from an Admin Command prompt and then do an iisreset.this will register the required.net version with the TSE Console Web directory in IIS. The new TSE installer will check for prerequisites and prompt for installation as part of the TSE install routine. a. DTC and Network COM+ installation
b. IIS, ASP, ASP.NET will be installed during the TSE WEB Role installation. c. If not installed, Remote Desktop Service Session Host Role will be installed with default settings. d. New install dialog that shows progress of the Windows component being installed and TSE Roles. Note that only the RDS Session host feature will be installed as part of the Windows pre-requisite install for TSE App role. Admin can add other RDS feature if required at a later time.
3. Windows Server 2012 and Windows 8 support TSE v7 Server is fully compatible and functional on Windows Server 2012. All TSE features are supported on Windows Server 2012 along with backwards compatibility for previous Windows Server versions including Windows 2003, 2008 and 2008 R2. Active Directory 2012 is supported and also SQL 2012 running on Windows 2012. TSE v7 installation supports auto install of Windows prerequisites (IIS, RDS, COM, DTC,.NET) on Windows 2012,making it easier to build TSE v7-2012 server and add it to an existing team of 2008,2008 R2 and 2003 servers for evaluation and migration purpose. Windows 8 as a client OS is supported for TSE v7 client and all client side features are supported. IE10 browser which is default on Windows 8 is supported as well for TSEv7 Launchpad and Console portal. 4. TSE Notification feature TSE v7 introduces the TSE Notification feature that allows TSE Administrators to enable Email Notification Alerts based on certain TSE System Events. An email notification will be sent to the specified Email accounts, notifying the occurrence of certain TSE System Events. TSE Notifications can be enabled and configured in TSE Management Console, under Options TSE Notifications page. Notifications are part of the TSE WEB server configuration. If there is more than one TSE WEB server in the team, only one TSE WEB server is responsible for sending TSE notifications. In the event of a Web server going down, another TSE WEB server takes up the Notifications job. If there is only one TSE WEB configured in the team, notifications will not be sent if the only TSE WEB server goes offline. TSE checks for its system/components status every 5 minute. In case a TSE system or component state changes and reverts back to its original state between the 5 minute intervals, it can go undetected by the TSE Notification System. This is likely when TSE Services are restarted which usually only takes less than a minute. Update SMTP settings Configure the SMTP account for sending email notifications. By default a TSE notification account is configured. Only the MailTo field is left blank. Please specify the required email accounts that should get the email notifications. More than one email IDs can be added separated by semi-colons. Note: If using TSE pre-configured SMTP settings, do not try to enter any password for SMTP Server Password field, leave it blank. We recommend configuring your own SMTP settings as using the default TSENotifcation Gmail SMTP may get blocked or need additional authorization by Google when used from different geographical locations.
Use the Reset SMTP Settings option incase you need to revert to the default TSE SMTP settings. Do not enter the SMTP password, leave it blank. Verify the entered SMTP settings by clicking the Test SMTP Settings button. Success message or appropriate error will be shown. Update Notification Events Enable the desired Events for which notifications should be generated. Notification emails are only sent once per event. However, if there is a new event that comes up, an email for previous events whose status has still not changed will be re-sent or combined with the latest one. Example: TSE server A goes offline generating a notification email for server A. Say 5 minutes later Server B goes offline while Server A is still offline. A new notification email will be sent combining the alerts for Server A and B being offline. Notification Events Product License key nears Expiry:
This event is raised when a TSE product Evaluation license is due for expiry or TSE product Base Key license has not been activated. For TSE evaluation license notification alerts are sent daily when 5 or less than 5 days remain for license expiry. For TSE Base Key activation, notification alerts are sent daily when 10 or less than 10 days remain before the Base Key activation limit expires. TSE Role for Server goes down: This event is raised when any TSE Role (App, Web, LB, SPR or DMZ-SPR) goes down or Red in the TSE Console Manage- Servers page. TSE Server goes offline: Event is raised if a TSE Server running status goes offline in TSE Management Console. This is common when a TSE server is rebooted or TSE Services being restarted. Active license count over 90 percent: This event gets raised when the Available User license count falls to 10 % of the Total User License Available. This alert is helpful in situation where TSE system is running to full capacity of its user licenses and may need some TSE User license addition. Database communication failure: This event is raised when an online TSE Server in the team fails to connect with the SQL server hosting the Propalms Database. TSE Scheduled task failure: This event is raised when one of the in-built scheduled TSE Tasks (Domain Synch, Backup DB Synch, and Reboot Server) fails to complete. Job completion failure: This event is raised when a TSE Job like, Adding application, Server, removing or Adding Apps fails. App Server reaches Max Session Limit: This event is raised when a TSE App server reaches the Max Session limit set for it by TSE Administrator. Server goes False on Monitor LoadBalancer Page: Notification is raised when a TSE App server goes FALSE on the Monitor- LoadBalancer Page Sample mail:
5. Import Export TSE Team configuration. TSE v7 has the provision to export its TSE Team Objects and Settings (Applications, Connection Settings, Groups/OUs, and Lockdown Policies) in a XML format. This XML can then be used to import to either create or restore a TSE team with the same Objects and Settings. This will help in easy duplication of Application list, Connection Settings, Lockdown settings and Group/OU across multiple TSE teams. Group/OUs are tied to the Active directory. Hence they should only be imported if the TSE team belongs to the same AD as the original TSE team. Note: only custom created Connection Settings and Lockdown Policies in TSE are exported. In-built connection settings like LAN, Windows Desktop are not exported. Same is for Lockdown policies. The option to export and import team configuration is made available under the TSE Console- Options Administrator, Actions menu. Exporting configuration Click on Export Team Configuration to start exporting TSE configuration, Select the items you wish to export and hit the Export button. Once Export is completed a status page with the Export action report will be shown. The exported items are saved in a single XML file with the name TSETeamConfig.xml.This file is created and saved in the TSE Depot directory of TSE WEB server on which TSE Console site it being run. (\Inetpub\wwwroot\Depot\TseTeamConfig.xml). Repeating the export action at a later time will overwrite the contents of the same XML file. TSE Admin can choose to export one or more items later to have the most recent list of TSE objects and settings saved.
Importing Configuration Click on the Import Team Configuration action item to start importing TSE object in existing TSE team. Note that before starting the Import operation, the TSEteamConfig.xml from which items need to be imported should be present in the Depot directory of TSE WEB server on which TSE Console site is being run. (\Inetpub\wwwroot\Depot\TseTeamConfig.xml). Select the items to import from xml and hit Import. On Successful import of items When importing Application items, only application configuration information is imported. Icons for the imported application don t get imported. The application icons will have to be re-created using the Update icon option in TSE Console Manage- Applications page. Note that once the tseconfig.xml has been used to import items to a specific team, trying to re-import from the same config file to the same TSE team will fail. This is by design to prevent duplication of items with same name and ID. This is done by setting a re-use tag in the TSEteamConfig.xml file after it has been successful used to import items.
In case there is a need to re-import items when the previously imported items, application list and settings have been deleted in the TSE team Open the TseTeamConfig.xml in any text editor application and set the following tag lines <nm-updated>1</nm-updated> value from 1 to 0. Once the tag values are set to Zero, the objects in the xml file can be re-imported. 6. Manage Network Printers In TSE v7, TSE admin can create a list of Network printers that are available on the network where TSE is installed and assign these network printers to AD groups, OUs and client groups in TSE. This eliminates the headache for admins to create custom login scripts that map network print queues to a user s terminal server profile at logon. Network printers can be assigned based on AD Group and OU membership and also client groups based on IP address, hostname and other criteria. Wherever possible, it is recommended to have all printing done through Network printers mapped directly to users TSE App session running on TSE App server. It eliminates re-direction of client side printers on server, saving server resources, print driver management efforts and network bandwidth as all print jobs go directly to the network print queue instead of TSE client machine. In TSE Console Manage, a new option Network Printers is available. From here network printers can be added, removed and assigned to Groups, OUs and Client Groups that already exist in TSE. Note: In Add network printers, only printers that are shared on the network and have the necessary permissions to access it are discoverable by the TSE Add Network printer s page. Select the desired printers to be added and click ADD
Once added, use the Add Group, OU, Client group action item to assign these printers to specific Groups, OUs and Client groups. If the end user launching TSE App belongs to more than one AD Group or OU, network printers from all Group/OU membership for the user will be created in TSE session. 7. Server Lockdown Policy AD Group/OU assignment Propalms Server lockdown policy in previous TSE releases could only be linked to TSE App servers. Any one Propalms lockdown policy could be set per App server. In v7 Propalms lockdown policies can now be linked directly to an AD Group or AD OU added in TSE. This allows better control and allocation of lockdown based on end user AD membership. If a TSE user is a member of multiple AD groups or OUs which have different Lockdown settings TSE calculates a cumulative, most restricted lockdown settings for the TSE user. The most restrictive setting is calculated and enforced on the TSE User app session. Note: that TSE lockdown policy does not overwrite or block AD Group Policies. Link Lockdown policies to Groups and OUs, using the Update lockdown Policy, Action menu on the Manage - Groups and OUs page in TSE Console. Clicking on the TSE Groups/OU in TSE Console Manage- Groups/OU page now shows the applications, printers and lockdown policies assigned to the specific Group/OU.
8. TSE Connection settings re-organized and User Choice Added In TSE v7, Connection settings template has been re-organized for better management and usability. Connection parameters pertaining to different aspects of TSE and RDP have been grouped together. Also connection parameters that are of specific interest to end users are grouped together as client settings. These settings are now also configurable by TSE users through the TSE Desktop Client or TSE Launchpad Client settings page. In TSE Connection Settings, there is a new option User Choice added in drop down for settings that can be set by a TSE end user/client. TSE admin should keep the required setting to User Choice if the TSE admin wants the client choice for the specific setting to take effect. This is particularly helpful for printer and local drive redirection as keeping them ON always forces re-direction of client side resources even if the user does not intend to use them for the particular session. This will save server resources, faster app launch time and avoid potential problems with printer and drive redirection. Note: When launching apps from non-windows TSE client (Linux, Mac others) or previous version of TSE Windows client (PCM v5,v6,v6.5) parameters set as User choice in TSE v7 Console - Connection Settings, will be treated as Enabled.
9. TSE Seamless application launch integration with RDP Seamless MS introduced support for Seamless via RemoteApp in Windows 2008 server and has made some significant performance improvements with it in 2008 R2 & Server 2012. In TSE v7, TSE Seamless leverages the native seamless available on Windows 2008 & above to give better performance and usability of applications in seamless mode. It utilizes native RDP enhancements like RemoteFx and True MultiMonitor support. By default this new enhancement is enabled in TSE Seamless feature. If needed, TSE Admin can switch to native TSE Seamless feature by disabling the RDP Seamless option in TSE Connection Settings. Note: On Windows 2003 TSE Seamless is used as default. 10. Application Server Host Drive When publishing applications on TSE for load balancing, it is required that the application install directory and path be the same on all the TSE App servers for it to work. There is a common problem of publishing x32 applications on TSE x32 and x64 App servers, where the install path for x32 apps on x64 server is \program files(x86)\... whereas on x32 server it is \Program Files\... In TSE v7, publishing the same app on x32 and x64 is possible without worrying about %program files(x86)% directory for x64 servers. The application is loaded from the correct program files directory based on the server being x32 or x64. In some instances, Applications are installed on different drives or the default system drive letter is different. To accommodate such scenarios, TSE Admin can use the new Application Host Drive option in v7. There are 3 options available: a. Default: It launches the app from the exact path specified in the Application path field b. System Drive: Here TSE during actual app launch will retrieve the default system drive of the target app server and accordingly change the application launch path. c. Find Run time: Here TSE scans all local drives of App server for the application path and once found, launches the application.
11. Enhanced TSE Console Monitor LoadBalancer page The TSE Monitor Load-Balancer page has been enhanced for better viewing and displays additional information pertaining to Load Balancing:. Shows the Current active Master Load-Balancer in TSE team Shows the TSE Load-Balancing scheme in use Shows the total TSE Session count on each TSE App Server 12. Connection Type info on Monitor Connections page Monitor Connections page shows if the connection is over SPR, DMZ SPR or TSE App server. Session Type: TSE - Direct App launch on App server. SPR - App launch over TSE SPR server.
DMZ SPR - App launch over TSE DMZ SPR server. 13. New User Settings in Console-Options-User page Auto Refresh Client - The Auto Refresh client setting in TSE client will work only if TSE Admin enables this setting in TSE Console User settings. If set to disable (default), client side Auto refresh setting will have no effect. AD Single Sign On - TSE Admin can enable or disable the client side AD Single Sign On feature by this setting. Client Upgrade Notification When disabled this will hide client upgrade notifications to end user when a newer client is available for download. This setting can be used when TSE Admin does not want end user to be notified of a client upgrade available. 14. Revamped TSE Console and Launchpad portals TSE Management Console and Launchpad have been given a makeover with new color scheme, clearer and bigger fonts, giving it a contemporary look and feel. The Action item menus on the LHS of the pages have been made collapsible to better utilize the screen area. Simply mouse-over the arrow icon to expand the Action Menu
Action menu in expanded mode - Menu will auto collapse once the mouse is outside the Action Menu region.
TSE Launchpad Portal v7 Client Settings on the Launchpad portal allows users to set their Launch and User preferences. 15. New App launch user experience In TSE v7 the app launch user experience has been improved. Users now see a consistent launch experience with the launch dialog showing a progress animation, name and icon of the application being launched. The animation progress logo changes depending on whether it is direct App launch or over SPR/DMZ-SPR.
App launch connecting directly to App server. App launch connecting over TSE SPR or DMZ-SPR 16. End-User Notifications A number of end user notifications have been added to the TSE Client to show the current activity or status change by TSE client. a. HyperPrint settings saved successfully b. Reconnecting to a previous session c. Trying to connect with secondary Web/Relay server d. New Applications added
17. TSE Portal and Desktop Client Customization With v7, the Propalms logo, Banner text and footer images for TSE Launchpad and Console Portals can be changed. This allows some level of customization and re-branding of TSE portal and the new TSE Desktop client. Customize TSE Option is available in TSE Console > Options > System > Action Menu. Browse to upload the required images, for Console, Launchpad and Home About page in TSE Console. Note: The upload of new images requires that the IUSR account under which IIS Anonymous authentication works should have write access to the TSE Console, Launchpad and Depot directory. We recommend removing the write access once the required images have been uploaded successfully. If there is more than one TSE WEB server, upload the custom images on each TSE WEB server by running the TSE WEB Console from that respective server. 18. What s New in TSE 7 Homepage Hyperlinks A new page What s new in v7 is added in TSE Console > Home section. This page highlights and provides direct hyperlink to the new features and changes in TSE v7. This will help existing TSE customers to quickly identify the areas in TSE Console where these features are available and configure them too. 19. Support for MS RDS Gateway TSE published applications can be launched over MS TS Gateway server. TS Gateway server information can be configured in TSE Console > Options > TS Gateway page and TS Gateway feature should be enabled in the relevant TSE Connection Settings for the application. TS Gateway works for TSE Launch and also the Native launch (clientless).
20. Seamless App Launch with TSE Native Client If using the Windows TSE Native client (On Launchpad Download client page, use the Native Client option), TSE Apps published on Windows 2008 and above can be launched in Seamless mode. The minimum RDP client version required is RDC 6.1 for this to work.. Propalms Ltd is a global provider of application delivery and secure remote access solutions for Terminal Services and Virtual Desktop Infrastructures. Delivering to Enterprises of all sizes we offer reliable, scalable and affordable solutions that simply work. Our belief is that application delivery solutions should be flexible, dynamic and above all, simple to use. 2013 Propalms Ltd. All Rights Reserved. Microsoft, Windows are registered trademarks of Microsoft Corporation in the United States and other countries. All other trademarks and registered trademarks are the property of their respective owners.