To start publishing the applications, select ‘Publishing’ from the Navigation bar and click the ‘Add...’ button from the Publishing tools.

A new dialog ‘Select Type’ as shown in the figure below will ask you what you want to publish.

Application

One of the most useful features available on the 2X ApplicationServer program is the ability to publish individual (seamless) applications to your users. This means users will see only the applications you give them access to and not full terminal services desktop (when using terminal services only).

To publish an application, follow these steps:

Publish Single Application

NOTE: If only one server is listed in the Terminal Server list, the wizard will skip step 1 (Publish From) and continue with the Application Settings (step 2).

* ‘All Servers in Farm’ is the terminology used to indicate the whole list of Terminal Servers which can be configured from the Terminal Server tab in the Terminal Servers page.

Application Settings

First you may type the Name and Description related with application that you are going to publish, but Name and Description can be left blank and filled automatically when you choose the application from the target.

You also have the ability to specify the run mode when the published application is launched. The options are to launch the application in a normal window, in a full screen mode or minimized.

From this dialog you may also change the icon for the published application. Click ‘Change Icon...’ and select a new icon from the executable file itself or from other locations by clicking ‘Browse...’ in the Change Icon dialog box.

To create shortcuts of this particular application on the desktop on the client side, enable ‘Create shortcut on Desktop’ checkbox.

To create shortcuts of this particular application in the Start Menu Folder on the client side, enable ‘Create shortcut in Start Folder’ checkbox.

One can specify to create the shortcut under certain folders by using ‘\’ and the name of the folder.

E.g. To create the shortcut of ‘MSWORD’ in folder ‘2X Published Items\Office Apps’ one should specify ‘2X Published Items\Office Apps’.

One can also use the keyword %Groups% to place the shortcut according to the published groups.

Associate file Extensions

In the Application Advanced Settings one can also associate file extensions on the client side with the particular published application. One can select one or more extensions to be associated with this published application.

Add other File extensions

To add other non default file extensions, click the ‘Add...’ button and enter the file extensions separated by a semicolon as shown in the figure below.

E.g. doc2; txt; wdoc.

Disable Session Sharing

You can isolate every published application to one (1) session. Every application that is published will have its own session on the server. If the same application is launched twice then it will be deployed in the same isolated session.

Single Instance only

To publish an application and enforce a single instance of that particular application please enable “Allow users to start only one instance of the application”.

If you are trying to publish an application with a certain amount of licenses, you are able to choose the amount of licenses you want to publish, after that number has been exceeded, you can choose any of the following options:

î Warn user and do not start – this option will warn the user that the number of licenses has been exceeded and will not publish the application.

î Warn user and start – this option will warn the user that the number of licenses has been exceeded and will still publish the application.

î Notify administrator and start – this option will notify the administrator that the number of licenses has been exceeded and will still publish the application.

î Notify user, administrator and start – this option will notify both the user and the administrator that the number of licenses has been exceeded and will still publish the application.

î Notify user, administrator and do not start – this option will notify both the user and the and the administrator that the number of licenses has been exceeded and will not publish the application.

Server Settings

‘Target’ is the location of the executable or content file which resides on the Terminal Server. The target can include many types of items, such as a file, executable, word document, image, batch file, and other types of content.

‘Start in’ specifies the folder that contains the original item or some related files. Sometimes, programs need to use files from other locations. You might need to specify the folder where these fields are located so that the published application can find them.

‘Parameters’ specifies the parameters that you may pass to your published application.

In the Server Settings you have the ability to configure the above mentioned settings for each Terminal Server. It is common that an application could be installed in different locations on each Terminal Server. To configure each Terminal Server use the drop down list in the ‘Server(s)’ field.

When the selected server is not the local machine, you can browse for applications or content on the remote Terminal Server. This feature requires that the Terminal Server Agent is installed on the selected server. Please note that this feature requires that TCP port 30004 is not blocked by any Firewall.

First check the ‘Allow the following Users:’ checkbox and add the usernames/groups in the dialog ‘Select Users or Groups’ as shown in the figure below.

Check “Use LDAP mode when adding Users & Groups” to add users and groups in LDAP format instead of WinNT format. Administrators can use LDAP format to filter users found in groups within groups.

First check the ‘Allow the following Clients:’ and then select or type the Client (computer) name in the dialog ‘Select Client’ as shown in the figure below.

For Client names you can use the * character as a wildcard. For example if all your computer names start with CLIENT- simply type CLIENT-*.

First check the ‘Allow the following IPs:’, then click the ‘Add...’ button. You can select to filter a single IP or a range of IPs.

Publish Installed Applications

An application already installed on the server can be published and used by its clients. To publish installed applications with the wizard, click on ‘Publishing’ in the Navigation bar and click ‘Add...’. From the ‘Select Type’ dialog choose ‘Applications’ and then choose ‘Installed Applications’ (Publish installed applications)

Select which applications you would like to publish from the list of available applications already installed on the server and just click finish when you have selected all the applications to publish.

Publish Predefined Applications

To publish a predefined application with the wizard, click on ‘Publishing’ in the Navigation bar and click ‘Add...’. From the ‘Select Type’ dialog choose ‘Applications’ and then choose ‘Predefined Applications’ (Publish commonly used applications such as Windows Explorer).

Predefined Applications include applications which need some special parameters to be published over Terminal Services. Some special folders are a shell extension that usually resides off of the Control Panel. A globally unique ID (GUID) declares these shell extensions and represents the extension and points to the proper DLL to run it. In order to publish these types of applications or folders, one could use the Predefined applications pre-configured in the 2X Console which facilitates these tasks.

From the predefined applications one can publish with ease the Control Panel, certain Control Panel tools, the Printers and Faxes folder or even publish an explorer window.

Add Folder

To publish a Folder with the wizard, click on ‘Publishing’ in the Navigation bar and click ‘Add...’. From the ‘Select Type’ dialog choose ‘Folder’.

Folders are useful for organizing your published applications while facilitate the configuration of ‘Filtering’ options as you may configure the filtering options for an folder and the published applications in that group will have the same filtering settings by default.

One can also enter the description and modify the icon for each application group as shown in the above figure. Application Groups in the 2X Console will be also displayed as application groups on the client side and web.

After you click ‘Next’, one can also choose to create certain filtering rules (User, Client, IP address) for the created folder. Published application or desktops listed under this folder will inherit the filtering rules of this folder.

Publish a Terminal Server Desktop

Full Desktop acts like a terminal into an actual server where one can have a remote desktop connection.

To publish a Desktop with the wizard, click on ‘Publishing’ in the Navigation bar and click ‘Add...’. From the ‘Select Type’ dialog choose ‘Terminal Server Desktop’.

Click ‘Next’ and select which Terminal Server to choose from where you want to publish the desktop. You may choose to publish a desktop from ‘All server in Farm’ or from Server Groups. In this case the published desktop will be selected according to the best resources among the selected Terminal Servers. You may also choose to publish an individual desktop by selecting ‘Individual Servers’ and select the preferred server.

In this dialog you can type the Desktop Name and a Description for the published desktop. From this dialog you may also change the icon for the published desktop.

Windows 2003 Terminal Services gives the ability to connect to the console (session 0) which is the desktop of the actual server, rather than a terminal server session. With this functionality, you can log to a Windows Server 2003-based server that is running Terminal Services remotely and interact with session 0 as if you were sitting at the physical console of the computer.

One may select to enable this option by enabling ‘Connect to console’. This options works on MS Windows 2003 Terminal Server only.

One can also click ‘Advanced Settings...’ to create shortcuts on client’s desktop or start folder of the particular published desktop.

Desktop Size

Choose, from the drop down list, the resolution you would like to use. Choose ‘Custom’ to be able to enter your own resolution.

Publish Virtual Desktops

To publish a virtual desktop with the wizard, click on ‘Publishing’ in the Navigation bar and click ‘Add...’. From the ‘Select Type’ dialog choose ‘Virtual Desktop’ (Publish a Virtual Desktop).

NOTE: If only one server is listed in the Virtual Desktops Hosts list, the wizard will skip the ‘Publish From’ dialog and continue with the ‘Application Settings’ dialog.

In the ‘Publish From’ dialog as seen in the below figure you can choose from which Virtual Desktop Host/s you want to publish the virtual desktop. You can choose to publish the virtual desktop from ‘All Server in Farm’ *, from Server Groups or from Individual Hosts.

* ‘All Servers in Farm’ is the terminology used to indicate the whole list of Terminal Servers which can be configured from the Terminal Server tab in the Terminal Servers page.

Virtual Desktop

In this dialog you can type the Desktop Name and a Description for the published desktop. From this dialog you may also change the icon for the published desktop.

Properties

There are 3 different properties which can be used by the Virtual Desktop. ‘Connect to any guest’ will load any virtual desktop published to any user that logs in. ‘Connect to specific guest’ will load the virtual desktop selected to every user. ‘Connect to a guest where name equals’ will loads the virtual desktop to users who’s user name is the same as that of the virtual desktop or to users which are using a machine that has an IP address equal to the virtual desktop’s name.

Desktop Size

Choose, from the drop down list, the resolution you would like to use. Choose ‘Custom’ to be able to enter your own resolution.

In case you want to publish the application to certain users/groups, clients or IP addresses/ranges you must configure the Filtering tab and select the filtering type that you want by using the ‘Select Filtering Type’ drop down list as shown in the figure below.

First check the ‘Allow the following Users:’ checkbox and add the usernames/groups in the dialog ‘Select Users or Groups’ as shown in the figure below.

Check “Use LDAP mode when adding Users & Groups” to add users and groups in LDAP format instead of WinNT format. Administrators can use LDAP format to filter users found in groups within groups.

First check the ‘Allow the following Clients:’ and then select or type the Client (computer) name in the dialog ‘Select Client’ as shown in the figure below.

For Client names you can use the * character as a wildcard. For example if all your computer names start with CLIENT- simply type CLIENT-*.

First check the ‘Allow the following IPs:’, then click the ‘Add...’ button. You can select to filter a single IP or a range of IPs.

Click ‘Finish’ to finalize the wizard, and the application you’ve just configured will be generated in the ‘Published Applications Explorer’ area. Now you can re-configure the options by using the tabs in the Published Applications Properties’ area.

Publish Document Content

To publish document content such as Word document and Excel spreadsheet, you can choose to publish the particular content file directly. First select the content type to browse for by selecting the filters you want to browse for. You may also add custom content types if they’re not listed in the Filters list by listing the custom file extensions separated by semicolon.

E.g *.text; *.texts; *.pub

Publish Applications using Drag and Drop

An alternative method to publish applications is to drag an application from the Windows Explorer. This method will capture all data related with the application and will be incorporated in the Application and Startup settings. Then you may opt to configure the ‘Publish From’ and Filtering settings from their respective tabs as by default drag and drop applications will be published to ‘All Farm’ and Filtering is not enabled. You may also configure the ‘Startup Settings’ for other servers. For more information how to configure each published application setting refer to the section ‘2X Publishing Wizard – Application’

To publish an application using the drag and drop feature, first select the group from the Published Applications Explorer in order to select the Application group where you want the application to be published.

Then open the Windows Explorer or just a normal folder and drag and drop any application or content into the 2X Console. You may also drag and drop a whole folder with sub folders, and it will be represented as Application groups and sub-groups in the Published Applications Explorer.

Publish Applications Configuration

After you’ve published an ‘Application’, ‘Application Group’, ‘Desktop’, ‘Predefined applications’ or a ‘Virtual Desktop’ using the Wizard or the drag and drop facility, you may choose to re-configure each selected item by using the ‘Published Application Properties’ Area.

First select the item that you want to re-configure from the ‘Published ‘Applications Explorer’ tree and then choose the appropriate tab according to your needs. The tabs related with the published items are:

î Information – A detailed summary related with the selected application.

î Publish From - To select from where you want to publish the selected item.

î Application – To add or modify the application name and the description related with the selected application and an ability to configure the ‘Target’, ‘Start in’ and ‘Parameters’ for each Terminal Server.

î Filtering – Ability to filter each application or group for certain users or computers according to the username, client name or IP.

For more detailed information about each tab, refer to section ‘2X Publishing Wizard - Application.

2X Startup Wizard

2X VirtualDesktopServer now incorporates a Startup Wizard which will guide you through each step needed to setup Virtual Desktops, Published Applications Published Desktops or Terminal Servers (for load balancing) in the shortest amount of time.

Start by selecting what you want to publish. You can choose from:

Virtual Desktop

Choosing ‘All Servers in Farm’ will include all the servers that are added to the farm. If only on server is present you will be automatically taken to the ‘Startup Wizard - Virtual Desktop’ Dialog.

Choosing ‘Server Groups’ will allow you to choose which group of servers from your farm you would like to use to publish a virtual desktop.

Choosing ‘Individual Servers’ will allow you to choose the servers you would like to use to publish a virtual desktop one by one by checking the checkbox next to the name of the server.

Choosing ‘New Server’ will allow you to add a new server to the farm and use it to publish a virtual desktop.

Virtual Desktop

In this dialog you can type the Desktop Name and a Description for the published desktop. From this dialog you may also change the icon for the published desktop.

Properties

There are 3 different properties which can be used by the virtual desktop. ‘Connect to any guest’ will load any virtual desktop published to any user that logs in. ‘Connect to specific guest’ will load the virtual desktop selected to every user. ‘Connect to a guest where name equals’ will loads the virtual desktop to users who’s user name is the same as that of the virtual desktop or to users which are using a machine that has an IP address equal to the virtual desktop’s name.

Published Applications

Choosing ‘All Servers in Farm’ will include all the servers that are added to the farm. If only on server is present you will be automatically taken to the ‘Startup Wizard – Publish Applications’ Dialog.

Choosing ‘Server Groups’ will allow you to choose which group of servers from your farm you would like to use to publish an application.

Choosing ‘Individual Servers’ will allow you to choose the servers you would like to use to publish an application one by one by checking the checkbox next to the name of the server.

Choosing ‘New Server’ will allow you to add a new server to the farm and use it to publish an application.

Add Applications

Click on the ‘Browse...’ button and select the Executable (.exe) file of the application that you would like to publish. You can also drag and drop Executable (.exe) files onto the box at the top of the dialog. You will see a new entry in the list box which shows the list of applications to be published. Once all the applications have been select click ‘Finish’ so the applications can now be published.

Published Desktop

Choosing ‘All Servers in Farm’ will include all the servers that are added to the farm. If only on server is present you will be automatically taken to the ‘Startup Wizard - Publish Desktop’ Dialog.

Choosing ‘Server Groups’ will allow you to choose which group of servers from your farm you would like to use to publish a desktop.

Choosing ‘Individual Servers’ will allow you to choose the servers you would like to use to publish a desktop one by one by checking the checkbox next to the name of the server.

Choosing ‘New Server’ will allow you to add a new server to the farm and use it to publish a desktop.

After you have chosen the source of the published desktop all you need to do is give it a name and maybe add a description. Click ‘Finish’ to complete the process.

Setup LoadBalancer

After selecting ‘Setup LoadBalancer’ a new page will load listing all the servers available on the network and the information about their Agent. Select which servers you would like to use for load balancing by checking the check box next to the servers.