Teradici Firmware 3.2. Autologin / Kiosk Mode / Resolution Control

[#1]

I just recieved permission to talk about the next release to the Teradici's firmware 3.2 soon to be released and I have been lucky enough to get a copy to play with in my network. I've been dying to talk about this firmware release because even in the beta this thing rocks.

Kiosk Mode - AKA Auto Logon

I've talked to many of you who have a need similar to mine, you have a bunch of computers that currently logon automatically, you may or may not call them kiosks (I don't) but that's how VMWare and Teradici see them. Fair enough. This next version of the Teradici Firmware gives you kiosk mode and its pretty simple to operate. Below shows you the screen shots of the new settings and what I've learned about them:

All you have to do is log into your zero client's web page and now under Configuration you will see these extra settings:

VMware View (Advanced)

I love the new "Auto Launch If Only One Desktop" this means if the user connecting only has one desktop it won't ask you to select that single desktop and click connect, now after they authenticate it just connects. Very simple, yet very cool.

VMWare View (Kiosk)

This is the big feature everyone has been waiting for, Kiosk Mode. There are two ways to set it up, using a custom name "Custom-<Whatever>" or it will create a name by default as "CM-<MAC ADDRESS>" One issue with the MAC Address is that the use of : causes issues if you are running an Active Directory environment. I'm sure Teradici will have this fixed prior to the release of this firmware, but currently that doesn't work. Also setting up usernames in your AD that are CM-00:00:00:00:00:00 is just annoying, Custom-Whatever is a lot easier to look at.

So admittedly I was most excited about Kiosk Mode. I can tell you in my testing it works flawless. You power on the zero client and the next thing you know you are looking at your WIndows desktop. This makes it very easy for my environment that has 90 exam rooms that share a common login.

Resolution Control:

Another Feature with this release is the ability to control resolution on the zero clients. This is helpful if you have users like I do that need 640x480 resolution on a 24 inch monitor. Maybe its not that extreme but I have many users who love to crank up their resolution so they can read the monitors. This isn't possible on a zero client, however with this latest release it will be. To make this change you need to go on the client itself (not the website and not the PCoIP MC) and change it's resolution. Be sure to do this prior to setting up the Kiosk Mode. I can't give you screen shots of those changes because its on the client itself, which I happen to be using at the moment.

[dturner71]

Thanks Gunnar, I've been waiting to hear about kiosk mode. Very happy to hear that it works well.

[JLogan3o13]

Hi, Gunnar, thanks for the post. As dturner said, this kiosk mode will be wonderful to have. Also, I'd be curious to find out if the $400 price tag you got was for the 19's or the 24's. If it was for the 24's, I'd give my right arm for the Samsung rep's contact info; we're getting ready to purchase about 350 of them, and I can't get the quotes below about 511 per.

[piersky]

I cannot wait to try v3.2 on my Wyse P20 en Dell Fx100. Is there a way to to download version 3.2?

please let me know.

[gunnarb]

Update 3.2 has been released.

Http://support.teradici.com

[cpekar]

I assume some of us will have to wait till it gets posted to wyse. Since I don't have an account with teradici. Unless I just need to call them.

[piersky]

I just wrote to terrdici because we are testing en the kiosk mode is very importent for us! I will let you know the answer from terradici! I downloaded 3.2 en play around with it. Still difficult to make a one to one connection to a vm machine. What I'm also missing is a way to turn on the PCOIP devices. I have a dell FX 100 en a Wyse P20 device. In the PCOIP managment console from Terradici theres is a screen with "POWER" There is a way to set device state but the only thing you can set is:

send PCoIP processor reset command to portal(s) and host(s)

send soft power off command to host PC(s)/Workstation(s)

send hard power off command to host PC(s)/Workstation(s)

but there is no way to switch it on????

[dturner71]

Have installed version 3.2 on a test group of 40 machines, so far the auto-login feature has worked perfectly.

[acaceres2007]

Hi gunnar.

Thanks for the update.

I've been waiting for this because the Wyse P20s have an issue with the resolution XP clients. Everytime they login the resolution is set to default monitor.

I'm gonna try this out!

thanks!

[cpekar]

I've tested with the 3.2 and still have resolution problems. The settings are there on the wyse p20, but they still refuse to change the resolution. I have a support call with Teradici about this.

[acaceres2007]

thanks cpak. My specific problem is with only one monitor and windows XP.

My DELL monitor is 22' and I can not get a higher resolution than 1024768. I set the broker with 16001200 but XP it always goes back to the original resolution. On the other hand, wind 7 (svga 3d driver) works perfect.

I also tried th Display change 4.2 application but didnt work either.

Is there anything else I should do?

Any input?

thanks!

[90210red]

Hi Gunnar , sounds like a good feature is this supported in all versions of view 4? and is there configuration required on the connection server?

[gunnarb]

No configuration is required on the connection server, but you do have to setup the Zero Client (as I show above) individually. It would be nice if you could configure it centrally, but you can't. I'm not sure if this works on all versions yet.

[ros-operations]

Does anybody knows if the support for RSA (SecureID 2 factor authentication) enabled connection servers was implemented?

[90210red]

Thanks Gunnar, what version of the view connection server did you test this feature on?

[gunnarb]

4.5 RC1

[vemansinn]

Hi gunnar,

I have one setup related question regarding kiosk mode..

1. view client is configured in KIOSK mode (user name is cm-MAC ID (not a custome one) and Password for this is automated generated password..)

2. Assume Other configuration related things are taken care(connection server,AD,etc..)

Now if i want to automate the view client running from a windows machine , i just write a script some thing like the below:

C:\ wswc -unattended -serverURL myconnserv.srv.com

Now my question here is how my view client is authenticated ?

Iam assuming it sends the username & password automatically to the Conn Server for auth purpose,

my doubt here is how it knows these credentials ?

1. user name: for this it has to know my MAC ID)

2. Password: how it knows the automatically generated password on the ConnServer side ?

Username : here i can guess something like, it queries system and gets MAC ID and sends the formatted Username to connserver.

Password: here i do not have any clue; how it knows the password so that it can send to ConnServer ?