Custom Clouds and Custom Cloud Pools

The Custom Cloud feature allows you to create Workspot desktop pools from the Windows systems and virtual machines of your choice. They are especially useful with hypervisors, Cloud providers, or on-premises infrastructure that is not fully supported by Workspot.

The basic concept is that Workspot Control does not create or delete the Custom Cloud desktop devices and thus does not need to understand or manage their full life cycle. You retain responsibility for provisioning, updating, and deleting the devices. Other than these and a few related limitations, once imported into Control, day-to-day operation is the same as any other Workspot desktop from the point of view of end-users and Workspot administrators alike.

Features

Allows any device that can run the Workspot Agent to become a Workspot desktop.
- This includes bare-metal systems and otherwise unsupported hypervisors.
- Allows users to access all resources through the Workspot Client that otherwise would be accessible only by other means.
- Allows all resources to be monitored through Workspot Watch and Trends.
Allows your existing management system to remain in place.
- You handle image templates, provisioning, updates, and removal of your desktops.
- Workspot Control handles monitoring, the assignment of desktops to users, and access via the Workspot Client.
- Your existing monitoring can remain in place as well.
Both persistent and non-persistent desktop pools are supported.
Shared Persistent Desktops are supported. Each desktop can have multiple users assigned to it, but only one can use the desktop at a time. These desktops behave like ordinary Windows desktops with more than one user account. See Shared Persistent Desktops for more information.
The same desktop licenses are used as with other desktops.

Limitations

Available to Enterprise Plus customers only.
Only Windows desktops are currently supported.
Adding desktops to a Custom Desktop Pool is currently not supported in the Control UI. Use the Control API.
Control cannot provision, delete, apply new templates, or perform power management on the desktops.

How it Works

A pool of Custom Cloud desktops is an arbitrary group of one or more devices capable of running the Workspot Client. To create such a pool:

Declare a Custom Cloud in Control.
Create a Custom Cloud Pool within the Custom Cloud in Control.
Select existing bare-metal or virtual devices to add to the pool, or provision new ones.
Install the Workspot Agent on these devices as part of provisioning or afterward.
Add these devices to the pool through the Control API.
Acquire a Pool Token from Control or the Control API and use it to register the Agent on each device with Control. The device is now ready for end-users.
Verify operation.
Assign users to the pool using the usual Workspot mechanisms.

Declare a Custom Cloud

Declare a Custom Cloud in Control on the “Settings > Cloud” page under “Custom Cloud > Add Custom Cloud.” There are only two fields: “Name” and “Description.”

You can have as many Custom Clouds as you like.

Create a Custom Desktop Pool

Create a Custom Desktop Pool in Control by clicking the “Add Pool” button on the “Resources > Cloud Desktop Pools” page. This pops up the “Create Your Cloud Desktop Pool” page (referred to as the “Add/Edit Pool Page” from now on).

In general, creating a Custom Desktop Pool uses the procedure in Control: Desktop Pools, with the exceptions and special considerations described below.

The first step in creating a Custom Desktop Pool is to select your Custom Cloud in the “Select a Cloud” field.

Some of the usual fields for this page will vanish, including:

Number of desktops. Custom Desktop Pools are initialized with no desktops. They are added later through the Control API.
All fields referring to templates, regions, network, and VM types and sizes. Control accepts the desktops you add, regardless of their size, location, and configuration.

Most features remain, however, including:

Persistent vs. Non-persistent.
Gateway/VPN selection and mode.
Login type.
Policies.
Allowed Client types.

Fill in the form as described in Control: Desktop Pools and press the “Create” button. You now have a Custom Desktop Pool with (so far) no Custom Desktops.

Select or Provision Devices and Install the Workspot Agent

Select or provision the devices you want to add to the Custom Desktop Pool. Install the Workspot Agent on these desktops as described in Workspot Desktop Agent Installation and Configuration.

Note: The Agent can be installed after you add the devices to the Custom Pool if you like, but the desktops won’t be marked as “Ready” and can’t be assigned to users until the Agent is running and has been registered to the Custom Pool as described below.

Add Devices to the Pool

Desktops are added to the Custom Pool one at a time through the customDesktop command of the Control API. This command allows four parameters:

biosGUID, the GUID of the desktop device’s BIOS.
computerName, a unique name Control will use when referring to the desktop, such as in Event messages, the Desktop Details page, and the “Manage Cloud Desktop Pool” page.
- This name must be no more than fifteen characters long and consist of only alphanumeric and dash characters.
- Computer names typically take the form of mypooname-001, mypoolname-002, etc.
- Note that, unlike a typical Workspot pool, Control simply accepts the name you provide, so you must provide the “-001” portion of “mypoolname-001” yourself.
fqdn, the fully qualified domain name (FQDN) of the desktop.
macAddress, the MAC address of the desktop.

See the screen capture above for examples of the syntax used for these fields.

At a minimum, you must specify at least a Computer Name and either a BIOS GUID or both a MAC Address and an FQDN. All four parameters can be specified if desired.

Acquire an Agent Token and Register the Agents

To associate your desktops with your Cloud Desktop Pool, the Workspot Agent on each desktop must register with Workspot Control using a pool-based Agent Token. To do this, follow the “Reregistering a Pool VM” procedure in the Reregistering VMs and Templates Using an Agent Token of Workspot Desktop Agent Installation and Configuration.

Verify Your Configuration

The “Manage Cloud Desktop Pool” Page

If everything worked as expected, your desktops will appear in the “Manage Cloud Desktop Page” for your Cloud Desktop Pool in Control at “Resources > Cloud Desktop Pools > poolname” and show a Status of Ready, Connected, or Disconnected.

More specifically:

Each desktop should be listed. If it isn’t, the Control API “customDesktop” command failed or was not attempted.
Their status should be Ready, Connected, or Disconnected. Valid status values include:
- Ready. The desktop is fully configured, connected to Control, and waiting for a user to sign in.
- Online.
- Error. Agent is not connected to Control. The desktop may not be connected to the network or running, or Agent may not be configured.
- Connected. A user is signed in and connected to the desktop.
- Disconnected. A user is signed in but disconnected from the desktop.

Other fields of note:

Desktop Name: This is the name you provided through the Control API.
Template: Unused.
Image Lock: Unused.
FQDN: This is the FQDN you provided through the Control API.
Email: This is the email of the user to whom Control has assigned the desktop, or “—” if no user is assigned.
Actions: Per-desktop administrative actions. Valid actions include Reboot, Log Off, Send Message, and Remote Assist.

Assigning Users to and Removing Users from a Desktop

Users are not assigned to the pool. Instead, they are assigned directly to their desktop through the Control API using the “POST desktops” command. If this is a Shared Persistent Desktop, you can assign multiple users to a desktop bycalling the command multiple times.

Users are removed from the desktop Control API using the “DELETE desktops” command. If this is a Shared Persistent Desktop, you can delete multiple users to a desktop bycalling the command multiple times.