Sentral 6.8 Quick Start Guide. Revision

Transcription

1 Sentral 6.8 Quick Start Guide Revision

2 Technical Support See the support Web site for technical updates, additional warranty information and documentation, and software revisions: Web Phone: (512) (866) ClearCube Technology, Inc. The ClearCube Building 3700 W Parmer Lane Austin, Texas info@clearcube.com Phone: (512) or call toll free (866) Or contact your local ClearCube Reseller or Authorized Service Provider Copyrights 2013 ClearCube Technology, Inc. All rights reserved. Under copyright laws, this publication may not be reproduced or transmitted in any form, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, storing in an information retrieval system, or translating, in whole or in part, without the prior written consent of ClearCube Technology, Inc. This information is subject to change without notice and ClearCube shall not be liable for any direct, indirect, special, incidental or consequential damages in connection with the use of this material. Trademarks ClearCube, Sentral, Blade Switching BackPack, PC Blade, C/Port, and I/Port are trademarks or registered trademarks of ClearCube Technology, Inc. Adobe PDF is a registered trademark of Adobe Systems Incorporated in the United States and/or other countries. PC-over-IP and PCoIP are registered trademarks of Teradici Corporation in the United States and/or other countries. Microsoft, Windows and Windows Vista are registered trademarks of Microsoft Corporation in the United States and/or other countries. Intel, Intel Core, Pentium, and Xeon are trademarks of Intel Corporation in the U.S. and/or other countries. VMware and VMware View are trademarks or registered trademarks of VMware, Inc. in the United States and/or other jurisdictions. Kensington is a registered trademark of ACCO Brands. PCIE and PCIe are registered trademarks and/or service marks of PCISIG. Catalyst, Cisco, and Cisco Nexus are registered trademarks or of Cisco Systems, Inc. and/or its affiliates in the United States and certain other countries. Linux is the registered trademark of Linus Torvalds in the U.S. and other countries. S3 Graphics is a registered trademark of S3 Graphics Co., Ltd. Realtek is a trademark of Realtek Semiconductor Corporation. Other product and company names mentioned herein are trademarks or trade names of their respective companies. Patents The ClearCube Architecture and its components described in this user manual are protected by numerous granted and pending U.S. and international patents. Granted patents include: US , US , US , US , US , US , US , US , US , US , US , US , US , US , US , US , and US Patents pending include: US S/N 09/755378, US S/N 10/279475, US S/N 10/198719, US S/N 10/198650, US S/N 10/409219, US S/N 09/728667, US S/N 09/728669, US S/N 10/411804, US S/N 10/411908, US S/N 10/458853, US S/N 10/364584, US S/N 10/301536, US S/N 60/411066, US S/N 10/662933, US S/N 10/662889, US S/N 10/662932, US S/N 10/662968, US S/N 10/301563, US S/N 10/662936, US S/N 10/301518, US S/N 10/ and US S/N 10/ Inquiries regarding patented technology should be directed to ClearCube Corporate Headquarters.

3 Contents 1 Introduction New in ClearCube Sentral Requesting a Sentral License Key Minimum Requirements and Support Before You Begin: Installation Prerequisites and Recommendations Installing Microsoft IIS Installing Database Server Important Settings for MySQL Server Important Settings for MS SQL Server Virtual Machine Snapshots (Optional) Installing Sentral FTP Server and Sentral Server Installing Sentral Console Start Sentral Console as Administrator Logging in to Sentral for the First Time Important Configuration Settings for Sentral Server Notifications Alert Frequency Server Type and Addresses Device Polling and Timeout FTP Server Database Server Dashboard Refresh User Discovery Mapping User Type Offline Node Notification I9400 Logoff and Session State Label Display in Chassis View Common Configurations: ServerConfiguration.xml File Location Enabling Cross-Subnet Discovery Displaying Login Screen on Zero Clients Apply a Sentral License Key Server Log and Settings iii

4 12.1 Log Location Specifying Log Destination: ServerConfiguration.xml Turning off Logging Backups Backing up Sentral Server and Sentral Console Backing up Sentral Database Schema Backing up Virtual Machines and Snapshots Basic Operations Device Discovery Creating Groups and Subgroups (Required for All Management Tasks) Renaming I/Ports (Zero Clients) Adding Users to Sentral Database Adding a User Adding Large Numbers of Users Creating Device-Based Allocations Administrator-Instantiated PCoIP Sessions Creating User-Based Allocations Orchestrating User Moves Updating Sentral Host Agent Software Firmware Update Process Uploading Files Monitoring Progress and Restarting Devices Right-Click Menu Options from Hierarchical Tree Blade with PCoIP Host Card Zero Clients Creating Custom Views in Sentral Troubleshooting Console Response Issues Server Performance Is Slow or Server Is Not Responding Sentral Errors and Messages Running Apache Tomcat as an Application iv Important Account Information... 33

5 Revisions Version Date /21/2012 Description First release. Details installation steps and configurations necessary for initial setup and preliminary configuration /29/2012 Updated contact information. Included content for IIS support. Additional detail about permissions required during installation. Added details about Database Server installation. Added installation troubleshooting information /23/2013 Updated for release 6.8. Noted performance improvements constituting this release. v

6 vi This Page Is Intentionally Blank

7 1 Introduction ClearCube Sentral Version 6.8 provides a single interface to manage your desktop infrastructure inclusive of virtual machines, physical host (such as blades and computers), thin clients, and zero clients. ClearCube Sentral builds on six generations of ClearCube management software in a single management platform with an extensive list of innovative new features. Sentral offers IT administrators one place to monitor and control their entire deployment of local and remote computing assets. ClearCube Sentral is a software package that delivers proven cost reductions through unique features such as dynamic resource allocation, virtual desktop management, active health monitoring, and host switching and sparing. Sentral also offers these benefits across platforms, with support for other vendors host systems (that is, physical computers, blades, virtual machines, and other computing devices) as well as virtualized desktops. Designed to scale from small businesses to large enterprises, ClearCube Sentral offers IT departments total control. 2 New in ClearCube Sentral 6.8 Multiple internal architectural changes providing overall performance improvements. 3 Requesting a Sentral License Key The steps below show how to request a Sentral license key. 1. Go to 2. Select Sentral from the Software drop-down menu and the Sentral page is displayed. 3. Click How to obtain a Sentral License and the License Request page is displayed. 4. Complete the license request and click Submit. A confirmation message is displayed and a Sentral license is ed to the specified address. Next step: Apply the license key after installing Sentral Console. See 11 Apply a Sentral License Key below for instructions. 1

8 Sentral Quick Start Guide 4 Minimum Requirements and Support The table below shows minimum requirements for Sentral components and supported operating systems and VM host applications. Table 1. Minimum requirements for Sentral components and supported software Component Sentral Console Sentral Server Sentral Database Hosts running Sentral Host Agent Operating systems (Optional) VM host application 2 Minimum Requirements and Supported Items Recommended or Comments 2.4 GHz processor Intel Core i7 or Xeon 3400 series (4 cores) 1 GB RAM 8 GB RAM or higher 2 GB free space Windows 2008 R2 64-bit Server VM 2.4 GHz processor Intel Core i7 or Xeon 3400 series (4 cores) 1 GB RAM 8 GB RAM or higher 2 GB free space Windows 2008 R2 64-bit Server VM 2.4 GHz processor Intel Core i7 or Xeon 3400 series (4 cores) 1 GB RAM 8 GB RAM or higher 10 GB free space Windows 2008 R2 64-bit Server VM 1.8 GHz processor 1 GB RAM 2 GB free space Windows 7 Supported on Console, Server, Database, and Host Agent Windows 2008 Server Supported on Console, Server, Database, and Host Agent Windows 2003 Server R3 Standard Edition Supported on Console, Server, Database, and Host Agent Windows XP Professional, SP3 Supported on Host Agent only Microsoft Hyper-V VMware ESX Server VMware Server Xen Hypervisor

9 Before You Begin: Installation Prerequisites and Recommendations 5 Before You Begin: Installation Prerequisites and Recommendations Before installing Sentral ensure that: if you are using Microsoft Internet Information Services (IIS) as your Sentral Web server, install IIS before installing Sentral FTP Server and Sentral Server. See 5.1 Installing Microsoft IIS below for details. you have installed a database. 5.2 Installing Database Server below identifies Sentral Database requirements and provides database and VM-related recommendations. 5.1 Installing Microsoft IIS Perform this procedure only if you are using IIS as the Web server in your Sentral environment. Ensure that you install all of the features including all lower-level features included in the parent features that are shown below. The steps below show how to install IIS features on a computer running Windows 2008 Server, R2 or Windows 7 Enterprise operating system. 1. Click Start > Control Panel > Programs > Turn Windows features on or off. 2. Expand Internet Information Services. 3. Expand Web Management Tools and select all lower-level features. 4. Expand World Wide Web Services and select all lower-level features. 5. Select Internet Information Services Hostable Web Core. 6. Click OK. Windows displays a message while it makes changes and then minimizes the dialog box. You can now continue to install a database server. 5.2 Installing Database Server ClearCube Sentral supports MS SQL 2005 and MySQL The database server must be installed and available before installing Sentral Server. The database server can be installed on a remote computer or on the same computer as Sentral Server. For large deployments, ClearCube recommends installing the database server on: a different computer than the one running Sentral Server, and a computer with database redundancy or high availability. 3

10 Sentral Quick Start Guide Important Settings for MySQL Server MySQL Server is not included with Sentral. It is assumed that the database installer has at least an intermediate knowledge about MySQL Server and your environment to perform the installation. Configure MySQL as appropriate for your environment. If you are unsure about any settings, ClearCube recommends accepting default installation with the following exceptions: From the MySQL Server Instance Configuration Wizard s Windows options screen (shown below), select the Include Bin Directory in Windows PATH option, as shown below. Figure 1. Setting Windows options from the MySQL Configuration Wizard Enable remote execution during installation and configuration of MySQL. Figure 2. Setting security options from the MySQL Configuration Wizard 4

11 Before You Begin: Installation Prerequisites and Recommendations Important Settings for MS SQL Server MS SQL is not included with Sentral. It is assumed that the database installer has adequate knowledge about MS SQL and your environment to perform the installation. Configure MS SQL as appropriate for your environment. If you are unsure about any settings, ClearCube recommends accepting default installation settings, with the following exception: When installing MS SQL, enable mixed-mode authentication. 5.3 Virtual Machine Snapshots (Optional) If you are installing Sentral Server on a virtual machine (VM) a best practice is to create a snapshot of the VM immediately after installing Sentral Server and applying any patches or updates (if applicable). If the need arises, this step can help to return the VM to known, pristine state. 5

12 Sentral Quick Start Guide 6 Installing Sentral FTP Server and Sentral Server Before installing Sentral FTP Server and Sentral Server, ensure that you have installed all prerequisites. See 5 Before You Begin: Installation Prerequisites and Recommendations above for details. The steps below show how to install Sentral FTP Server and Sentral Server. If you are using Microsoft IIS as your Sentral Web server, you must install IIS before installing Sentral FTP Server and Sentral Server. If you are using IIS and have not already installed it, stop and do so now. If you are installing Microsoft IIS, Sentral requires the addition of ServletExec. If you do not already have a ServletExec license, contact ClearCube Sales. 1. If you are installing Sentral on a Windows 7 operating system, set Sentral installer s Compatibility mode and Privilege Level. a. Right-click Sentral installer (named Sentral Console Server n.n.n.n.exe, where n.n.n.n is the version number) and select properties. b. From the Compatibility tab, click Change settings for all users. c. Select Run this program in compatibility mode for and select Windows 7. d. In the Privilege Level area, select Run this program as administrator, and then click OK. 2. Double-click the Sentral installer. The installer contains all components required for Sentral installation. Ensure that you already have the database server (see 5.2 Installing Database Server above for more information). 3. The installer detects if any components that Sentral requires are already installed on the computer. If a component is not installed, it is automatically selected in the dialog box shown below. Click Next to install the selected components. Figure 3. The Sentral Installer showing the components selected for installation 6

13 Installing Sentral FTP Server and Sentral Server 4. Read the license agreement and click Yes. 5. Specify the path to install Sentral components and then click Next. ClearCube recommends using the default path. Sentral then installs the JRE environment. 6. Sentral installs an FTP server. This FTP server is used for firmware and software updates. Click Next to continue the FTP server installation 7. Provide the information requested in the following screens. The installer uses this information to register the FTP server components. 8. Click Finish to complete FTP server installation. 9. Select the Web server you are using in your Sentral deployment from the options provided. The list below shows the steps to perform for the Web server that you select. Select one of the following: Apache Tomcat a. The installer requests Windows operating system and Active Directory credentials for authenticating Tomcat Server. Provide credentials in these fields. See the text on this screen for more information. b. Click Next to display the database credentials screen. Continue to step 10 below. For future configuration, you can specify or modify these settings by selecting ClearCube Tomcat from Services Microsoft Management Console (MMC). Open MMC by entering services.msc in the Start menu s Search box. OR Microsoft IIS If you are using IIS it must be installed before you can continue. If you have not already installed IIS, stop and do so now. See 5.1 Installing Microsoft IIS for more information. Sentral installs ServletExec, which enables Java Servlets in IIS. a. Sentral displays the ServletExec Application Server Setup dialog box. Click Next. b. Select Install a ServletExec AS instance and then click Next. c. Continue by accepting installation defaults. From the Enter Text screen shown below, be sure to replace the default (the name of the computer on which you are installing Sentral) with CMSServer (this value is case-sensitive). Ensure that you enter CMSServer capitalized as shown. 7

14 Sentral Quick Start Guide Figure 4. Specifying the name of the AS instance d. From the Setup Type screen, select Microsoft IIS, and then click Next. e. From the Choose Destination Location screen, accept the default location, C:\InetPub\Scripts, and then click Next (assuming that the installation drive is C:\). f. Accept the default ServletExec port, 8888, and then click Next. g. Click Next to install the specified components. h. Specify values from the ServletExec Admin Username and Password screen. Note that Sentral does not require these credentials (these are used for a Web-based admin login). Click Next. i. The installer displays an Application Server Setup information message about webadapter.properties. Click OK to continue. j. Click Finish to complete ServletExec installation. Sentral then displays a message about starting ServletExec. If this message is covered by a Windows Explorer containing a readme file, close the explorer to see the remaining installation messages. Now that you have specified the Sentral Web server, continue to the following step. 10. Provide the database server credentials so that the installer can insert the schema in the database. The table below shows each field in the Enter database information screen (shown in Figure 5). 8

15 Installing Sentral FTP Server and Sentral Server Table 2. The database information screen fields Field Description User Name Enter the user name of the Sentral Database administrator you specified during MS SQL or MySQL installation. Password Enter the password for the Sentral Database administrator you specified during MS SQL or MySQL installation. Database Server Enter the network location of the Sentral Database (the IP address or host name). ClearCube recommends using a static IP address. Type localhost if you are using the default MySQL database user name and the password root. Port For MySQL: 3306 For SQL Server: 1433 Database Select MySQL or MS SQL as appropriate for your installation. Create Database Select Yes to automatically load the Sentral schema for the database you selected above. You must select Yes the first time you install Sentral. Figure 5. The Sentral Database information screen 11. From the Primary and Secondary Server screen, specify the IP address or host name of Sentral Server (ClearCube recommends using an IP address). If you are using a primary server only, specify the primary server s address in the Secondary Sever field. 12. Click Next and the installer displays progress messages. 9

16 Sentral Quick Start Guide 13. Enter the requested information to create an SSL certificate (shown in the figure below). This information is used for communicating with R-series chassis Remote Management Module (RMM). (See Sentral Administrator s Guide and R-Series Data Center Products User s Guide for more information.) All fields are mandatory Country Code field is a two-letter code. You can find a list of two-letter country codes (or code elements) in the ISO standard, located at: Figure 6. Entering SSL certificate information 14. Click Next to continue. A message is displayed about SSL certificate creation. 15. Click Finish to complete Sentral Server installation and to begin Sentral Console installation. Next step: Sentral Console installation 10

17 Logging in to Sentral for the First Time 7 Installing Sentral Console Sentral Console installation automatically begins after Sentral Server installation is complete. Do not install Sentral host agent on the computer on which Sentral Console is installed. 1. In the Sentral Server Information screen, Sentral automatically populates the Primary and Secondary Server fields with the hostname of the computer on which you are performing the installation. ClearCube recommends entering the computer s IP address here. If you are installing only one Sentral Server, enter the same value in the primary and secondary server fields. Click Next to continue. See 10.3 Server Type and Addresses below for information about important settings when using PCoIP zero clients. 2. From the Choose Destination Location screen, accept the default or specify a different installation path and click Next to continue. 3. From the InstallShield Wizard Complete screen, click Finish to complete installation. 4. Select Yes, I want to restart my computer now and click Finish to restart the computer. 8 Start Sentral Console as Administrator Always start Sentral Console as an administrator user. The steps below show how to start Sentral Console (these steps assume Sentral is installed on Windows 7). 1. Click Start > All Programs > ClearCube Sentral > ClearCube Sentral Console, then right-click the second ClearCube Sentral Console menu item. 2. From the right-click menu, select Run as administrator, and then click Yes. 9 Logging in to Sentral for the First Time The default Sentral account enables you log in for the first time and set and configure all settings. After performing initial configurations and setting security options, you can disable the default account and 11

18 Sentral Quick Start Guide use the local administrator account or a configured Domain account. The table below shows the default Sentral account credentials. Table 3. The Default Sentral account credentials Credential Value Username administrator Password clearcube Domain CCT 10 Important Configuration Settings for Sentral Server Sentral Server settings are available from the Configuration Wizard (displayed by default when you log in to Sentral Console), and from the Configuration screen. Settings here apply to: Sentral Console Sentral Server Sentral Database Sentral FTP server Sentral logs, and more. The pictures below shows the Configuration Wizard and the Configuration screen. Figure 7. The Configuration Wizard displayed at login 12

19 Important Configuration Settings for Sentral Server Figure 8. The Configuration screen (Setup > Configuration) The sections below provide short lists of the Sentral Configuration screen fields Notifications The list below shows settings for notifications sent from Sentral Server. Alert Sender Alert Sender Password SMTP Server SMTP Port SSL Password Authentication Group 13

20 Sentral Quick Start Guide 10.2 Alert Frequency The list below shows settings controlling how often deployed alerts are evaluated and how often notifications are sent when they are triggered. Alert Evaluation Interval (min) Alert Firing Internal (hrs) 10.3 Server Type and Addresses The list below shows settings that specify the IP address(es) of Sentral Server and indicate if the environment contains a backup server. Primary Server Secondary Server Server Type In deployments using PCoIP devices, only use Sentral Server in Standalone mode. In this case: the primary and secondary server IP address is the same, and 10.4 Server type is Standalone. Device Polling and Timeout The following settings control the polling and timeout parameters for thin clients, host cards, and hosts. The list below shows polling and timeout settings: Thin Client Update Timeout (min) Host Update Timeout (min) Host Card Update Timeout (min) Thin Client Health Update Interval (min) Host Card Health Update Interval (min) Host Card Health Update Interval (min) The list below shows best practices: Timeout values are always larger than update intervals. ClearCube recommends setting polling and timeout values so devices can send two polls within the timeout period. 14

21 Important Configuration Settings for Sentral Server 10.5 FTP Server The list below shows FTP server settings. The FTP server is used for updating firmware on PCoIP devices and for pushing out software updates. FTP Host FTP User FTP Password 10.6 Database Server The list below shows Database Server settings. All data processed by the server is stored on the database. Database Server Name Database User Name Database User Password Database Server Port Database Type 10.7 Dashboard Refresh The list below shows settings that control how frequently the Sentral dashboard refreshes and the history (in number of hours) shown for average polls received by the server. Dashboard Scale (hrs) Figure 9. Time scale in graph specified in Dashboard Scale setting Dashboard Refresh Time (min) 15

22 Sentral Quick Start Guide 10.8 User Discovery Sentral can discover users to map (or allocate) users to devices. The Discovery User Preference setting determines if the users discovered allocations are part of the local machine (or imported directly into database) or are part of a Domain. Select Domain if Sentral user accounts are located in an Active Directory Domain OR Local if Sentral users are defined in a Sentral Database (see 14.4 Adding Users to Sentral Database below for more information) or are Windows user accounts on the local computer Mapping User Type This setting determines if users are imported into Sentral for allocation or reside in Active Directory Offline Node Notification Select this option for Sentral to notify the administrator when a device goes offline I9400 Logoff and Session State Change this option to True to stop a PCoIP session when a user logs off from a zero client. The default setting, False, maintains the PCoIP session when a user logs off, which is the most common configuration Label Display in Chassis View The Staggered Labels option specifies how C/Port, Host, and I/Port labels are displayed in chassis graphical views (for example, in the C/Ports Switching screen. Figure 10 below shows staggered C/Port labels. 16

23 Important Configuration Settings for Sentral Server Figure 10. Staggered view of C/Port labels in R-Series chassis view Common Configurations: ServerConfiguration.xml File This section describes common configurations made to Sentral Server s ServerConfiguration.xml file, which specifies many server settings Location The default location of ServerConfiguration.xml is: C:\Program Files\ClearCube Sentral\Tomcat\webapps\CMSServer\WEB-INF\configuration\properties This location might be different depending on where you installed Sentral Enabling Cross-Subnet Discovery This entry specifies the protocol used for device discovery. Entry <entry key="teradici.device.discovery.type">tcp</entry> The default value is SLP. Changing the value to TCP enables device discoveries to traverse routers and cross subnets. If host cards and zero clients are on different subnets, this value must be TCP. TCP discovery is slower than SLP discovery, but allows cross-subnet discovery Displaying Login Screen on Zero Clients This entry shows or hides the login screen displayed on zero clients. Credentials requested here are Windows user account credentials. <entry key="iport.hide.login.screen">false</entry> 17

24 Sentral Quick Start Guide The default value is true, which hides the zero client login screen. Setting the value to false displays the zero client login screen. 11 Apply a Sentral License Key Section 3 Requesting a Sentral License, above, shows how to request a Sentral license key from ClearCube Support. After you receive the license key and install all Sentral components, apply the key as shown in the steps below (these steps assume Sentral is installed on Windows 7). 1. Copy the license key from the you received from ClearCube. 2. Start Sentral Console by running as administrator. Click Start > All Programs > ClearCube Sentral > ClearCube Sentral Console, then right-click the second ClearCube Sentral Console menu item. 3. From the right-click menu, select Run as administrator, and then click Yes. 4. From the Sentral menu, click Setup > License Information. 5. Paste the license key in the dialog box (press CTRL+V), then click Submit. 6. A message is displayed about restarting Sentral Console. Click OK to automatically close Sentral Console. 7. Start Sentral Console again as described above and log in. Your Sentral license is now applied. 12 Server Log and Settings Logging is enabled by default so you can monitor Sentral Server performance after installation. After configuring server poll times, timeouts, and so on, ClearCube recommends turning logging off as described below. Sentral Server logs are either: written (appended) to a SerntralServer.log file OR 18

25 Backups displayed in an Apache Tomcat Console (The console is available only when starting Tomcat as an application instead of as a service.) 12.1 Log Location The log file, SentralServer.log, is located in the C:\Program Files\ClearCube Sentral\Tomcat\logs directory Specifying Log Destination: ServerConfiguration.xml The console.system.out.appender entry in ServerConfiguration.xml specifies if log output is written to SentralServer.log or is output to an Apache Tomcat Console. Table 4. ServerConfiguration.xml and console.system.out.appender values Value Description true Default value. Server logs are appended to SentralServer.log. See the previous section for log location. false Server logs are displayed in an Apache Tomcat console, available only when starting Tomcat as an application. This option is useful for troubleshooting. See 23.4 Running Apache Tomcat as an Application below for information about launching Apache Tomcat as an application Turning off Logging The steps below show how to stop logging (where logs are not written to SerntralServer.log or displayed in Tomcat Console). 1. Set the console.system.out.appender entry in ServerConfiguration.xml to true (see the previous section for instructions), and 2. Set logging level to OFF: a. Edit log4j.xml in the following directory: C:\Program Files\ClearCube Sentral\Tomcat\webapps\CMSServer\WEB-INF\classes b. Change level value from DEBUG to OFF, as shown below: <logger name="com"> <level value="off" /> <appender-ref ref="csmsserver"/> </logger> 13 Backups The sections below discuss recommendations for backing up Sentral components. 19

26 Sentral Quick Start Guide 13.1 Backing up Sentral Server and Sentral Console ClearCube recommends backing up Sentral Server and console after making all configurations. From the C:\Program Files\ClearCube Sentral\ directory, back up the directories shown below: ClearCube Sentral Console Tomcat 13.2 Backing up Sentral Database Schema ClearCube recommends creating an automated daily or weekly backup of the database schema. You can create a batch file that gracefully stops the console and server, backs up the database, and then restarts the Apache Tomcat service. The example below is a script you can use with Windows Scheduler that backs up a MySQL database. Example 1. A script to back up MySQL database echo OFF TASKKILL /F /IM "javaw.exe" NET STOP "tomcat7" "C:\Program Files\MySQL\MySQL Server 5.5\bin\mysqldump" u<username> -p<password> --result-file="\\network-location\file%date:/=%.sql" cms NET START "tomcat7" Save the script above as a.bat file and schedule it to run using Task Scheduler, included with Windows operating systems. You can then use MySQL restore commands to restore the database if needed: mysql --verbose --user=username --password=password CMS < /PATH/TO/backupfilename.SQL> 13.3 Backing up Virtual Machines and Snapshots When Sentral is installed on a virtual machine, it is a best practice to create a snapshot after completing all Sentral configurations. The snapshot enables you to return to a known instance if it is ever necessary. Additionally, it is a best practice to create backups of the Sentral Server virtual machine on a regular basis. 20

27 Basic Operations 14 Basic Operations The sections below provide instructions for basic Sentral tasks Device Discovery Before you can perform any Sentral operations, you must discover your devices (zero clients, host blades, host cards, users, and more). The steps below shows how to perform a discovery from the Sentral menu. 1. Click Setup > Run Discovery. 2. Create a subnet range by right-clicking an empty space and selecting New Subnet. 3. Complete the fields and click the Save icon. 4. Right-click the subnet entry and select Device Discovery. 5. Select one or more device types to discover (such as Sentral Host Machines and PCoIP-enabled Devices, Managed Mode). 6. The discovery process can be lengthy. Be sure to allow the discovery to complete. Note that the discovery process additionally configures devices to poll Sentral Server. When the discovery process is complete, all discovered devices are displayed in the hierarchical tree Creating Groups and Subgroups (Required for All Management Tasks) Devices and users must be in a Sentral group to perform management tasks on them. To create a group: 1. Right-click CCT node in the hierarchical tree on the left portion of the screen. 2. Select Add Group. 3. Complete the group name fields and then click Add Group. 4. Optionally, to create a subgroup, right-click a group and perform the steps above Renaming I/Ports (Zero Clients) For ease of management, it is a best practice to rename I/Ports (zero clients and thin clients) with an alias that allows you to quickly identify them. For example, an alias could be the I/Port s desk or user location. To rename I/Ports (zero clients): 1. From the hierarchical view on the left portion of the screen, right-click an I/Port. 2. Select Rename Device. 21

28 Sentral Quick Start Guide 3. Specify a new name and click OK Adding Users to Sentral Database The sections below show how to add users to Sentral Database. From the Management > Configuration screen, ensure that the Discovery User Preference is set appropriately for your environment. Select Domain when you are using Active Directory in your environment, otherwise, select Local Adding a User 1. From the main menu, click Setup > Configuration Click the Add User icon ( ). In the User Name field, specify the user name to add and select a Security Group to associate it with. Click Save. Click Management > Groups. If you do not already have a group specified for users, create one from the hierarchical tree by right-clicking the CCT group, selecting New Group, and specifying a name. 6. Right-click the group to which you are adding users and select Manage User Group. 7. On the Connection Brokering User Groups (New) screen, select the group again, right-click, and select Add User. 8. From the Group Name list, select Users. All users in the group are displayed. 9. Select the user you want to add, and then select the group you want to add the user to. 10. Click the Add User icon ( ). The user is displayed in the selected group in the hierarchical tree and is now available for allocation to devices. 22

29 Basic Operations Adding Large Numbers of Users You can add large numbers of users by creating user records directly in the Sentral Database. You can use this method to add users through batch scripts. The high-level instructions below assume your Sentral Database is a MySQL database. Figure 11. Adding users directly through Sentral Database 1. From the Sentral Database, open the discovereduser table. 2. Add a new record for each user in the format: Username, SecurityGroups, DomainName, TypeID. For Sentral Database, use the values shown below, where User Name is the name of each user: User Name, Users, Local, 5 3. Perform steps 5 to 10 as shown in the previous procedure. 23

30 Sentral Quick Start Guide 15 Creating Device-Based Allocations The steps below show how to allocate clients to blades (a zero client to a blade in this example). To allocate devices they must be in a group as shown in 14.2 Creating Groups and Subgroups above. 1. From the Sentral menu, click Connection Brokering > Allocation. 2. Click the Thin Client tab. 3. From the pane on the left, select the zero client you want to allocate (listed in the Hostname column). From the pane on the right, select the host (blade) to which to allocate the zero client. 4. Click Allocate, located on the bottom of the screen. The devices are now allocated. 5. Optionally, to delete the allocation, select the zero client or the blade and click Delete Current Allocation(s) at the bottom of the device selection pane. Perform the same process to allocate zero clients or thin clients to virtual machines. 16 Administrator-Instantiated PCoIP Sessions When performing device-based allocations, administrators can remotely create a PCoIP session from Sentral Console. The zero client and the blade must be allocated to perform this procedure. 1. From the Sentral menu, click Connection Brokering > Allocation. 2. From the Connection Brokering screen, select the zero client and the blade that are allocated. 3. Click the Connect button at the bottom of the screen to create a PCoIP session. (If a session is not created, ensure that the devices are allocated to each other). 17 Creating User-Based Allocations The steps below show how to allocate a user to a blade. Perform similar steps to allocated users to virtual machines. 1. From the Sentral menu, click Connection Brokering > Allocation. 2. Click the Users tab. 3. From the pane on the left, select the user (listed in the Hostname column) you want to allocate. From the pane on the right, select the blade to which to allocate the user. 4. Click Allocate, located on the bottom of the screen. The user and blade are now allocated. 5. To delete the allocation, select the user or the blade and click Delete Current Allocation(s) at the bottom of the device selection pane. 24

31 Updating Sentral Host Agent Software 18 Orchestrating User Moves The steps below show how to move users from one desk to another using device-based allocation. Before you begin: Obtain the MAC addresses of the zero client the user is currently using and of the zero client they will be moving to. MAC addresses are shown on a label on the zero client. 1. From the Connection Brokering > Allocation screen, right-click the zero client (listed in the Thinclient column) and select Disconnect device. (Use the MAC address to help identify the device.) 2. Right-click the zero client that the user is moving to and select Disconnect device. Disconnecting devices ensures that the zero clients do not have active PCoIP sessions. 3. From the user s new zero client, ask them to enter their user name and click Connect. The zero client display shows the allocated device. 4. Ask the user to click Connect again. The PCoIP session starts. 19 Updating Sentral Host Agent Software Sentral can update the host agent installed on blades from version 6.5 to version 6.8. From Sentral Console you can deploy a package (including the host agent and an answer file) to large groups of devices at the same time. The steps below show how to update host agent software. Before you begin, ensure you have created a group called updates (this is the name used below; however, you can use any name) placed the host agent update package (Softwareupdate.zip) and answer file in a directory you can access from Sentral Console. 1. From the hierarchical tree, drag the blades you are updating the updates group. 2. From the menu, click Management > Hosts > All Hosts. 3. Right click in an empty space and select Update Host Agent Group. Figure 12. Selecting the Update Host Agent Group option 25

32 Sentral Quick Start Guide 4. Right-click the group that you want to update (in this example, the update group) and select New Update. Figure 13. Selecting the New Update option 5. Select the SoftwareUpdate.zip package and the ans.run file from the applicable directory. Figure 14. Selecting the Software Update and answer files 6. Click the Schedule Time icon ( ) to display the Time Date Management screen. 7. Specify an update time 15 minutes in advance to ensure that the console has enough time to upload the package to the FTP server. Click the Save icon. 8. Click the Update icon ( ) to start uploading to the FTP server. Results and Notes: A confirmation message is displayed once the files are uploaded. After uploading is complete, Sentral sends a request to each device in the group to download the files from the FTP server. Thereafter, the update process is silent. When the update process is complete, restart each computer to complete the installation. After each devices polls Sentral, the new host agent version is displayed in Sentral Console. 26

33 Firmware Update Process 20 Firmware Update Process The sections below show how to update PCoIP firmware for PCoIP host cards and PCoIP zero clients Uploading Files The steps below show how to upload firmware update files to the Sentral FTP Server. Before you begin, ensure you have created a group called updates and dragged the devices you want to update to this group ( updates is the group name used below; however, you can use any name) placed the PCoIP firmware in a directory you can access from Sentral Console. 1. From the Sentral menu, access the devices you are updating. For blades and host cards: click Management > Hosts > PCoIP Hosts. OR For zero clients: Click Management > Thin Client > PCoIP Thin Clients. 2. Right-click an empty space in the screen and then select PCoIP Firmware Update. 3. Right-click the update group and select New Update. The devices that you dragged to the group are listed in the text box. 4. Click Browse to navigate to the firmware file. 5. Click Upload ( ). The file is uploaded to the FTP server. A confirmation message is displayed once the files are uploaded. Sentral then sends the firmware update command to each device Monitoring Progress and Restarting Devices The steps below show how to use the PCoIP Event Log to monitor update progress and restart devices to complete the update process. 1. From the Sentral menu, click Reports > PCoIP Event Log. Monitor progress from this screen. 2. The PCoIP Event Log displays the message FirmwareupdatedSuccessfully when the update process is complete. 3. Be sure to wait for an additional 10 minutes to ensure that the process completes gracefully. 4. Restart devices. For blades and host cards: Restart blades by removing them from the chassis and re-inserting them. Ensure that they power on either automatically or by pressing the power button. 27

34 Sentral Quick Start Guide OR 21 For zero clients: Power off and then power on the zero client. Right-Click Menu Options from Hierarchical Tree You can right-click hosts and zero clients in the hierarchical tree shown on the left side of Sentral Console (as shown in Figure 15 and Figure 16). Right-click menus display common management options. The sections below explain frequently-used right-click menu options Blade with PCoIP Host Card The table below describes commonly-used right-click menu options for blades with PCoIP host cards. Table 5. Right-click menu options for blades with host cards Menu Option Description Change Mode to Managed Sets the host card to poll to Sentral Server Change Mode to Unmanaged Clears Sentral Server IP address from the host card Advance PCoIP Configuration Displays the Web interface for host card configuration Restart Performs an OS restart on the blade Shutdown Performs an OS shut down on the blade Rediscover Rediscovers the blade OS (does not affect the host card) Figure 15. The right-click menu for blades with PCoIP host cards 28

35 Right-Click Menu Options from Hierarchical Tree 21.2 Zero Clients The table below describes the zero client right-click menu options that are commonly used. Table 6. Zero client right-click menu options Menu Option Description Change Mode to Managed Sets the zero client to poll to Sentral Server and enable connection brokering. Change Mode to Unmanaged Zero client does not poll Sentral Server (for deployments using unmanaged connections). Rename Device Allows you to create an alias for the zero client. Reset Device Power cycles the zero client. Disconnect Device Disconnect a zero client s active session (see 18 Orchestrating User Moves above for a usage example). Set Peer Enables you to set the IP address of a peer host card (especially for deployments that do not use connection brokering). If using this option, set the zero client to unmanaged mode. Clear Peer Clears the peer address if it is present on the zero client. Rediscover Rediscovers the zero client and sets it to managed mode. Figure 16. The zero client right-click menu options 29

36 Sentral Quick Start Guide 22 Creating Custom Views in Sentral Administrators can create custom views to filter data shown in the console. Figure 17. The View menu with custom views The default view in Sentral shows all devices. By creating customized views you can reduce the amount of information that Sentral Console displays. Custom views can simplify data management on screen enable administrators to assess targeted information quickly, and improve console performance. The steps below show how to create views. Before you begin: You will add one or more groups to a view in the steps below, so be sure to have groups defined before creating a view. See 14.2 Creating Groups and Subgroups above for instructions about creating groups. 1. From the Sentral menu, click Management > Views. 2. From the Defined Views area in the upper portion of the screen, right-click an empty space and select Add new View. 30

37 Creating Custom Views in Sentral Figure 18. Right-click and select Add new View 3. Give the view a name in the View Name field. 4. Select the group(s) that you want to include in the view (you can SHIFT-click and CTRL-click to select multiple groups). Figure 19. Selecting groups to include in a custom view 5. Click the right arrow to move the groups you are including in the view the right panel. 6. Click the Save button. Sentral displays the New view has been added message. 7. Click OK. The view is now available from the View drop-down menu in the upper-right portion of the console (see Figure 17 above). 31

38 Sentral Quick Start Guide 23 Troubleshooting The sections below provide troubleshooting steps and suggestions Console Response Issues If Sentral Console does not respond to mouse clicks, you might need to restart Sentral Console. From the Windows operating system Task Manager s Processes tab, find the javaw.exe process and click End Process ClearCube recommends exiting the console when you have finished using the console rather than leaving it running. Server Performance Is Slow or Server Is Not Responding Restart Sentral Server (depending on your environment, either ClearCube Tomcat service or IIS Admin Service). From the Windows Start menu Search bar, type services.msc and press Enter). From the Services panel, select the service and click Restart. Depending on your environment, you might find it necessary to occasionally restart the server service. In addition to restarting the service from Services panel (services.msc), you can automate restarts using Windows Task Scheduler (for example, restart the service on a daily basis) Sentral Errors and Messages If you encounter Sentral errors, turn on logging (as described in 12 Server Log and Settings above) and send ClearCube server logs See ClearCube Sentral training documentation and Sentral Administrator s Guide for additional troubleshooting information. Running Apache Tomcat as an Application For deployments using Apache Tomcat, you can assist troubleshooting steps by running Apache Tomcat as an application instead of as a service (the default mode). Ensure that you do not run Tomcat as a service and as an application at the same time. This can cause unsupported behavior. 1. As mentioned above, ensure that Tomcat service is stopped. 2. Navigate to the C:\Program Files\ClearCube Sentral\Tomcat\bin\ directory. 3. Right-click tomcat7.exe and select Run as administrator. 4. From the User Account Control dialog box, click Yes to open the console. 32

39 Inportant Account Information 24 Important Account Information Use the table below to record important Sentral-related account information. Sentral Server Hostname Domain User Account on Computer Running Sentral Server User Name Password Domain Sentral Account Details Built-in CCT Account User Name Password Domain (CCT by Default) CCT User Account on Computer Running Sentral Console (Local System Account) User Name Password Domain Sentral Database Database Type (MySQL, MS SQL) MySQL Database Version Continued Below Rev 1.Ϯ.0ϭ.2ϯ.201ϯ ϯϯ

40 Sentral Quick Start Guide Sentral Database (continued) P/N G Rev User Name Password Sentral Server ClearCube Tomcat Service Account Not applicable if your deployment uses Internet Information Services (IIS) User Name Password Micrsoft Internet Information Services (IIS) Account Not applicable if your deployment uses Apache Tomcat User Name Password Sentral Account Sender Receiver SMTP Server Port SSL Password Sentral FTP Server FTP Server is typically installed on the same computer as Sentral Server. FTP Host FTP User Name FTP Password 3ϰ Rev 1.Ϯ.0ϭ.2ϯ.201ϯ

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42 P/N G clearcube.com