SUNY New Paltz Terminal Services Guidebook Robert Trahan Last Revision 08/12/09 Contents Introduction...2 What's Included...2 How To Connect...3 Windows XP and Vista...3 Mac OS...3 Linux...4 How to use the Remote Desktop Client Software...5 Printing...6 File Storage/Storing your work...7 The Terminal Server Session...9 1
Introduction This document describes the SUNY New Paltz Terminal Services environment. Terminal Services is a means of providing a Microsoft Windows based desktop environment to multiple users over a network. This service is available to all current SUNY New Paltz Students, Faculty, or Staff with a NPCUID. Some accounts may need to have a password change, or be reset, in order to use all the features of this service. Software called a Remote Desktop Protocol (RDP) Client is required to connect. This software is included in Windows XP and Vista. A free download is available for Mac and Linux computers. In essence, this service makes academic software available to users of different operating systems from virtually any location (on or off campus) where a network connection is available. What's Included We would love to have as much flexibility and bells and whistles as possible available to anyone using this system. Unfortunately, as anyone who has used a computer for some time is aware, there are many things that you need to be mindful of. For this reason, the environment that is available is a result of a compromise. What is left is the primary software packages and many precautions. As of this writing, the following software is available: Microsoft Office 2007 Matlab R2009a Mathematica 6.0 SPSS 16.0 SPSS SmartViewer 15.0 Minitab 15 Open Office 3.1 ArcGIS 9.2 Anatesse 2 Whats NOT Available Web Browsing: Only on campus and web pages that are stored locally are available for viewing. Printing: The traditional method of printing is currently not supported. However, an alternative method is available. This method involves printing directly to a (PDF) file from any application on the terminal server. The PDF file that is created can then be retrieved and opened later on any computer that is connected to a printer. Please see the section on printing located in this document for more information. Execution Rights: Only the applications that are currently available in the Terminal Services environment are able to be run. For security and performance reasons, a user is not permitted to run any executable application that has not been previously installed. 2
How To Connect There are a few Remote Desktop Protocol (RDP) software packages available for most modern computer operating systems. Most Windows and Linux computers come pre installed with the needed software. Windows XP and Vista Earlier versions of Windows XP come with the RDP version 5 client. If you run Windows Update, it should have automatically installed the RDP version 6 client. Version 6 has additional features that may be convenient, but are not needed or currently used by the campus terminal servers. Connecting from a Windows Vista machine is similar to that of Windows XP except for some slight differences. Where to find the software on your Windows PC Windows XP Start > All Programs > Accessories > Remote Desktop Connection or Start > All Programs > Accessories > Communications > Remote Desktop Connection or Start >Run Then type mstsc.exe Windows Vista Windows Icon(Start) > All Programs > Accessories > Remote Desktop Connection or Windows Icon(Start) >All Programs > Accessories >Start >Run Then type mstsc.exe Please do not connect without FIRST entering a user name!! You can enter a user name by clicking Options >> Entering a user name BEFORE connecting will make sure that the system remembers you so that it can re connect you properly to a disconnected session. This is for your own sanity. Please see How to use the Remote Desktop Client Software for important and detailed instructions on connecting. Mac OS Microsoft has conveniently made a freely available RDP client for the Mac OS. It is available for download from Microsoft's web site. Do a search for remote desktop for mac. The link to the download should be one of the first results. Installation Have STUFFIT EXPANDER installed. Download RDC103EN.dmg or later. Open the file and copy Remote Desktop Connection to the applications folder Drag the application shortcut to your doc (optional) Using the Microsoft Remote Desktop for Mac Once installed, the appearance, options, and method of connecting is very similar to that of the Windows version. Please do not connect without FIRST entering a user name!! You can enter a user name by clicking Options >> Entering a user name BEFORE connecting will make sure that the system remembers you so that it can re connect you properly to a disconnected session. This is for your own sanity. Please see How to use the Remote Desktop Client Software for important and detailed instructions on connecting. 3
Linux There are several packages to consider when connecting from a Linux PC. Most Linux distributions come packaged with at least one. One popular command line component is rdesktop. There are several graphical front ends to rdesktop available. If you install a front end component, your distributions packager should install rdesktop for you as a dependency. rdesktop An example of a typical rdesktop command would resemble the following: rdesktop u n12345678 f r sound:local r disk:usbdisk=/media/disk termserv.newpaltz.edu This command tells rdesktop to: Connect with a user name of n12345678 ( u n12345678) Obviously, this would be your NPCUID Run in fullscreen mode: ( f) Alternatively, Use g to specify a geometry (ex, g 1024x768) Enable sound on the local computer: ( r sound:local) Make a local disk (usb flash drive) accessible from the terminal server: ( r disk:usbdisk=/media/disk) Connect to the following server: (termserv.newpaltz.edu) To Toggle out of the full screen mode, use Ctrl Alt Enter. To use a removable storage device (such as a USB flash drive), it will need to be connected BEFORE connecting with the rdesktop command. Your USB disk's device name may be something completely different than /media/disk. Many other options are available. Please see the rdesktop (man rdesktop) documentation for further information. Please do not connect without FIRST entering a user name!! Entering a user name BEFORE connecting will make sure that the system remembers you so that it can re connect you properly to a disconnected session. This is for your own sanity. GUI frontend One common graphical frontend to rdesktop is tsclient. The options that are available, and method of connection, is very similar to that of the Windows and Mac OS RDP client. The new version of tsclient (2.0) is different. You will need to create a Custom Command and then enter an rdesktop command similar to the one above. It will save this command for you for later connections. tsclient 0.15 on Fedora Linux 4
How to use the Remote Desktop Client Software Both Windows and Mac (as well some Linux software) will look similar to the client shown below. Using the Microsoft Remote Desktop Connection (RDP client) Version 6 Please do not connect without first entering a user name... 1) Click on Options... 2) For Computer: Type the following termserv.newpaltz.edu 3) For User name: Type your NPCUID Please do not leave the user name blank ; Doing so may prevent you from re connecting to your session if you are disconnected. Since there are now several terminal servers available, the user name is used to determine/remember which server you were previously using so that you can be returned to your session/work. You can now click Connect This will bring you to a screen on one of the terminal servers. This is where you will be asked to enter your password. Choosing "Allow me to save credentials" causes the user name and password to be saved on your computer for future connections. Only select this option if you are using a personal (not public) computer. Some Other Available Options: Display allows you to set the size/resolution of your connection. Consider not using the Full Screen option, especially on newer, larger monitors. The larger the remote desktop size, the slower the performance you may have. A setting of 1024x768 should work fine for most applications you would be running. Local Resources has settings for sound and the ability to connect the drives and devices of the computer that you are currently using. For example, to connect a USB flash drive so you can save to it from the terminal server; under Local devices and resources, click on More... You can now select Drives to make all of the drives attached to your computer available, or you can choose individual drives... your USB drive if it's connected. Drives that I connect to later will allow you to plug/unplug a USB drive from most computers while you are connected to the terminal server. Many settings that are made from within options take affect before you connect, not during your active log in session. 5
Printing Printing from within any application on the terminal server is possible but requires an additional step. This step involves sending your print job to a file instead of an actually printer. The file that is created is a PDF file. It can be opened for printing on any computer that has Adobe Acrobat (or similar) program installed. 1) From any program choose File, then Print 2) Choose Print to PDF Do not choose the Microsoft XPS Document Writer or SPSS PDF Converter. 3) Choose a location where you want the PDF file saved. Alternatively, Open Office provides Export as PDF as a means to save to PDF. As an example, this document was created in Open Office and exported to PDF. It can be saved and then later printed from any location with a printer. Note PDF files are primarily to be used for printing, publishing, and distributing; they can not be easily edited. Saving a master copy of your files in a format that can be edited is a good idea if you plan on continuing to work on them. PDF files can be saved to your N: drive or copied to the computer that you are connecting from in order to print from any computer with a PDF reader installed (Adobe Acrobat Reader). Methods of accessing your files on the terminal server are explained later in this document. 6
File Storage/Storing your work Files are not stored permanently on the system. When a user log's off of the terminal server, all of his/her files are removed. There are several ways users can save their files permanently. N: Drive This drive is the same one that is available on campus, in classrooms, as a location for people to permanently store their files. On the terminal server, this drive should automatically be available after log in from My Computer. In addition, you can access your N drive files remotely (off campus) by using NPDrive. Information about NPDrive can be found at the following address: http://acs.newpaltz.edu/npdrive/ Some accounts are currently not able to connect to the N drive directly from My Computer. Changing your NPCUID password sometimes helps this problem. Alternatively, any files stored on the N drive can be downloaded/uploaded using a web browser and the NPDrive. If the N drive does not connect when you log in to the terminal server, you will see a message on the welcome/information screen with a direct link to the NPDrive. The N drive (currently) has the ability to transcend disconnected sessions. That is to say, that it is available to your terminal server session, even when you are not connected to that session. This is great if you are performing calculations and need to save or open data to a permanent storage location when you are not present. It is not advisable to use the N drive as a place to perform calculations on files that are large (hundreds of megabytes). Doing so can cause a lot of network traffic involving these large files and can take a very long time to complete. My Documents Most programs will save files to the My Documents folder by default. When a user is logged in, the My Documents folder is created on their N: Drive (ie. N:\My Documents) and opening the Windows shortcut My Documents will bring you to this location. Obviously, this only occurs when you have successfully connected to the N drive during log in. If the N drive is not available, the system uses a local location for the My Documents folder. This local folder is deleted when you log off. Please keep this mind, and make sure that the files you are saving to My Documents are indeed located on the N drive. If, for some reason, you would like to prevent the terminal server from using the My Documents folder on your N drive, create a no_mydocuments folder on your N: Drive (N:\no_mydocuments). This will prevent redirecting My Documents to your network storage location. Local Storage It is possible to connect your computers disk drives to the remote terminal server environment for your usage. These drives will appear in My Computer on the remote terminal server. This allows you to save/retrieve files directly to/from your local hard drive or removable storage (USB drive). This feature is not enabled on the client software by default. You must enable it before trying to connect to the terminal server. On most RDP software packages for Windows and Mac, you can enable disk drives through the options menu: Options >Local Resources >Disk drives. On Linux, you can enable disk drives by using r with the rdesktop command. See rdesktop's documentation. For more information on how to connect your local storage devices, please read the section How to use the Remote Desktop Client Software Moving Files It is currently not possible to copy and paste or drag and drop files from your local machine to the terminal server window. You must use one of the methods above and copy and paste or move files by way of drive letters that appear within Terminal Services itself. You can, however, copy and paste text from an application window on your local machine to an application window on the terminal server. 7
Quota There is a limit to the amount of data one person can save on a server. Currently, the terminal server has the following quota limits: 700 MB: user will receive a warning 750 MB: user will be denied space. These limits are subject to change. This data is erased when a user is logged off, and the quota for that user is reset when he or she logs back in. The terminal server has a separate quota system than that of other types of storage locations; NPdrive (N: drive). Therefore, anything stored on the N: drive is not affected by the above quota limits. 8
The Terminal Server Session User Session A user session is created when a user first Logs in to the Terminal Server. The server sets aside memory and resources for that user in order to use the programs that are available. When a user is actively working on a Terminal Server, that user is said to be "connected to their user session". Disconnect A Disconnect occurs when a users leaves their user session running on the Terminal Server but they are not present, or actively working, at that session. Everything that user was working on is still running, and available, on that Terminal Server. A disconnect can occur in several ways. A user clicks on the "Start" icon, then chooses "Shutdown", and then "Disconnect" A user closes the session window (without choosing to log off). A user leaves the session window open but unattended. In this case, the session becomes disconnected after 30 minutes of inactivity. A network problem or loss of connection occurred. If any of the above circumstances has occurred, your session should still be available; waiting for you to reconnect. Simply log in, as you had done before, and you will continue where you left off. Log Off A log off occurs when a user session is removed from the Terminal Server. Everything that user was working on is closed. Any files that have not been saved to the N drive or their computer are removed. All the memory and resources that were being used by their user session is returned to the server for other sessions. When a user is done with their work, they should log off. Every user session has a maximum time limit and is forced to log off after 2 days of continuous usage. You are, however, allowed to start a new session immediately. This is to allow others to use the server. A log off occurs in several ways. When done with their session, a user clicks on the "Start" icon, then chooses "Log Off". A user leaves their session unattended (disconnected) for an extended period of time. The server will log off everyone if/when it restarts for *maintenance (with notice), or *crashes (NO notice). It is important to frequently save your work to a safe place. Connection Times Time that a user session window will remain open (without activity) until disconnect: 30 Minutes Time that a user session will remain disconnected on a server until log off: 1 day Time that a user session can remain active until forced log off: 2 days Usage Scenario: I want to run a command or process a job using Matlab or SPSS. This job will take many hours. Instead of sitting at my desk for hours, with the session window open, I can disconnect. When I get home later that evening, I can reconnect to my session from my home computer to check on the progress of this job. Everything will be where I had left it. The same programs will be open, the same files will still be there. Hopefully the job completed successfully. If the output was not being saved to a safe location (ie. N drive) I will save it now. The desktop of the Terminal Server is only meant to be used as a temporary file location. Anything saved here will be deleted during log off. If I wanted do anything else at this point, I could. However, if I was done working on my project, I would want to log off. Once again, I would make sure everything was saved, close any programs that I had opened, and then log off. A Log off will also close all the programs that were open (if they were frozen) and returns the memory and resources to the server to allow for other people to use. The next time I log in, a new session will be created and will remain until the next time I log off. 9
Server Maintenance A server occasionally has to shut down for maintenance. When this occurs, all user sessions are removed from that server. For this reason, please save your work, to a permanent location regularly. If this is something that is planned, and not an emergency, a 24 hour notice will be displayed. This will appear on the screen when you first Log in and at intervals leading up to the shutdown. Any active user sessions should receive pop up messages. If another Terminal Server is available, then any new user sessions will be created on that server As of January 19, 2009 there are several terminal servers. When you are logging in, you will be connected to whichever server has the least amount of usage at that time. If you are disconnected or dropped, you can reconnect to a disconnected session provided that you have entered your user name BEFORE trying to connect to termserv.newpaltz.edu. If you try to connect without first providing the user name, there is no guaranty that you will resume your previous session: A new session may be created on a new server and your previous session may remain running on a different server. Apple and the Apple logo are registered trade marks of Apple Computing Windows and the Windows logo are registered trade marks of Microsoft. Tux image copyright holders Larry Ewing, Simon Budig and Anja Gerwinski 10