System Management and Resource Monitoring

The admin console provides the system administrator with far-reaching control over all the settings for the user desktops and applications below the Configuration tab. In addition to this, admins can also define load balancing policies for application and file servers here. This ensures optimal performance for your user sessions. The reporting module in the Status tab provides the necessary statistics for optimization. For example, you can find out when users start their sessions and what the CPU and RAM usage looks like at these times.

Firewall-Friendly

The OVD Gateway provides a web gateway for Ulteo Premium Edition customers that allows them to tunnel client connections to the web portal/Session Manager via SSL. The Gateway Server role should be installed on a dedicated system, which makes sense given that the gateway typically resides in the firewall's DMZ. On the firewall for this DMZ and between the DMZ and the session manager host, only HTTPS is enabled.

Installing the gateway on Ubuntu 12.4 is the same as for any other server role. First, add the repository to /etc/apt/sources.list.d/ulteo_ovd.list, then install the software:

deb http://archive.ulteo.com/ovd/4.0/ubuntu precise main
deb http://archive.ulteo.com/ovd/4.0/premium/ubuntu precise main
sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get install ulteo-ovd-slaveserver-role-gateway

For the gateway, you need to enter the IP address or hostname of the Session Manager during the installation. For security reasons, access to the web portal is initially disabled. To enable access, look for the configuration file /etc/ulteo/ovd/slaveserver.conf, uncomment the

#web_client=http[s]://ip[:port]/

line, and set the URL for the web portal. Finally, restart the slave server service with the:

sudo /etc/init.d/ulteo-ovd-slaveserver restart

command line.

Conclusions

Ulteo Open Virtual Desktop is of interest to any organization looking to deploy Windows and Linux applications via a terminal server on classic desktops and mobile platforms such as tablets and smartphones. The Community Edition already comes with an amazing range of functions, including the very useful HTML5 mode. For enterprise use, however, the Enterprise Edition is definitely recommended. This is the only version that lets users access their desktops or applications with native clients. Professional support and the SSL gateway for access via the Internet are also only available in the commercial version.