Today, I am very excited to talk about Open Virtual Desktop (OVD). If you are looking for
merging Linux and Windows applications and access them all over Internet/network via your
browser, desktop, tablets, or your smart phone with the same speed as running those
applications on the actual server, OVD is that what you need.
OVD has two editions. One is Community Edition (free edition) that we are going to talk about
that today and the other one is Enterprise Edition. Both have the same functionality except
that Enterprise edition has support, updates, patches, native client and the SSL gateway for
access via the Internet.
To install and configure the OVD, we need at least 3 or 4 servers in production environments
(a Session Manager, an Application Server or Subsystem, a Windows Server
(2003/2008/2012 only) for Windows applications, a Web Portal and a
SSL/Gateway(enterprise only) for production environment), however, for demonstrating
purposes and lack of resources, I am going to install all of them in one server except Windows
server. So, total 2 servers for my purpose.
The server that I am working on is CentOS 6.6 but the process of installation should be the
same as all RedHat families. Let’s install OVD:
The first thing you need to do is disabling SELinux because Ulteo OVD is not compatible with
SELinux yet, which I don’t like to disable SELinux personally but no choice for now:
sestatus
vi /etc/selinux/config and set SELINUX=disabled
reboot
Then, you need to add Ulteo rpm repository into your server. Create a file called ovd.repo in
/etc/yum.repos.d/ and add following lines in the file:
vi /etc/yum.repos.d/ovd.repo
[ovd4.0.2]
name=Ulteo OVD 4.0.2
baseurl=http://archive.ulteo.com/ovd/4.0/rhel/6.0/
enabled=1
gpgcheck=1
gpgkey=http://archive.ulteo.com/ovd/4.0/rhel/6.0/keyring
Session Manager Installation:
First, you need to create a database. The easiest way to install a database is MySQLdatabase. To install MySQL and create a database for Session Manager, follow the
instructions below:
yum install mysql mysqlserver → install MySQL package
chkconfig mysqld on → To start automatically MySQL when the system boots up
service mysqld start → Start the service
mysqladmin -u root password 'your_password_here' → Define the root mysql password
mysql -u root -p -e 'create database ovd' → Create a database for ovd Session Manager
Now, install Session Manager and Administration Console:
yum install ulteo-ovd-session-manager ulteo-ovd-administration-console
Launch the configuration tool (needs access to Internet):
sm-config
Launch the Administration Console configuration tool (press Enter to accept the default local
host address if the Session Manager is in the same machine or enter the ip address of
Session Manager):
ovd-administration-console-config
Restart Apache service:
chkconfig httpd on → To start automatically Apache when the system boots up
service httpd restart
Since I don’t have DNS server here, I am going to use host entry in /etc/hosts file. We need 3
FQDN records (Session Manager, Application Server, Web Portal):
vi /etc/hosts → add following lines below:
127.0.0.1 sm.ovd.com
127.0.0.1 app.ovd.com
127.0.0.1 web.ovd.com
Now, we need to configure our Session Manager. Go to this url:
http://sm.ovd.com/ovd/admin
and login to admin page:
Since this is the first time that you login to admin, it will redirect you to setup page for
database. Enter your root credentials for database and click Save:
Now, you need to adjust the timezone in PHP setting, do the followings:
vi /etc/php.ini
date.timezone = America/Toronto → Change the timezone accordingly; you can find a list
of timezones here: http://php.net/manual/en/timezones.php
then, restart apache:
service httpd restart
Application Server / File Server Installation:
It’s time to set up your Application Server or Subsystem. First, you need to install yoursubsystem package:
yum install ulteo-ovd-subsystem
Due to a conflict, you may have to uninstall samba packages before installing the
ulteo-ovd-session-manager package. Remove the samba client and server packages:
yum remove samba*
then launch the configuration tool:
ovd-subsystem-config
Configure and start the Ulteo service:
chkconfig ulteo-ovd-subsystem on
service ulteo-ovd-subsystem restart
Now that you have installed and configured your Application or Subsystem, go back to admin
page and click on Unregistered servers under Servers and you will see your Application
server is there. Just click on Register to register your Application server.
After clicking on Register button, if you have followed my instructions, you may see the
following message:
Server "localhost": redirection name may be invalid!
To fix that, click on localhost and enter the following info:
Display name: Linux Apps → Whatever name you like and then click on Define
Internal name (fqdn): localhost → use localhost and then click on Change
Redirection name for this server: app.ovd.com → I used fqdn that I defined in /etc/hosts and
then click Change
I disabled fs role since I don’t want to use it.
Then click on Switch to production button.
Note:
The redirection name is used when launching sessions. When you launch a session, you are
redirected to an Application Server using the redirection name as target host.
Web Portal Installation:
We need the following packages to install Web Portal:yum install ulteo-ovd-web-client ulteo-ovd-web-client-ajaxplorer ulteo-ovd-guacamole
The HTML5 client is enabled by installing ulteo-ovd-guacamole package. By default, it's based on using Tomcat 6 server.
Launch the configuration tool:
ovd-web-client-config
Configure and restart tomcat and apache:
service httpd restart
chkconfig tomcat6 on
service tomcat6 restart
chkconfig guacd on
service guacd start
Now, you need to open port 80 on your web portal server. Run the following command:
iptables -I INPUT -p tcp -m state --state NEW -m tcp --dport 80 -j ACCEPT
then go to the link below to open the Web Portal:
http://web.ovd.com/ovd/
By using HTML5, you will find out that how much it’s fast. Thanks to HTML5. And you have 2
modes. Desktop mode and Portal mode. Desktop mode gives you a familiar environment, like
desktop computers. Portal mode gives you tile icons which is really good for use in smart
phones. I will show you in part 2 of this article.
Windows Application Server Installation:
The goal was configuring OVD to serve both Linux and Windows application in one place. Inother words, merging both Linux and Windows applications together and using them in
browser or desktop mode. Now, in order to add a Windows Application server, we need either
a Windows 2003 or a Windows server 2008 or a Windows server 2012.
Next, download Ulteo Open Virtual Desktop Windows agent from link below and install it in
Windows server:
http://www.ulteo.com/main/downloads/ulteoovdwin.php
OVD Windows agent installation is fairly easy but I will show here:
Click Next,
Leave the default and click Next. Then, you can either put IP address or fqdn of Session
Server:
Click on Next and installation will start. After installation finished, click on Reboot to reboot
your server:
Then go back to admin page and click on Servers >Unregistered Servers. You should see
the Windows server there. Click on Register button:
Next, click on IP address under Name column:
Display name: Win Apps → Whatever name you like and then click on Define
Internal name (fqdn): IP address of Win Server → then click on Change
Redirection name for this server: IP address of Win Server → then click Change
Then click on Switch to production:
and finally you should the following servers on Server page (figure 21)
This is the end of part 1. In part 2, I will show you how to configure Session Manager to serve
both Linux and Windows applications.
Hope you enjoyed,
Khosro Taraghi
