F. A. Q. - Recent questions and answers in Parallels RAS

Answered: How do I allocate memory to work as swap space in an Amazon EC2 instance by using a swap file?

Sat, 16 Mar 2024 10:37:00 +0000

https://aws.amazon.com/premiumsupport/knowledge-center/ec2-memory-swap-file/

Last updated: 2021-03-09

I want to allocate memory to work as a swap file in an Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (Amazon EC2) instance. How do I do that?

Short description

When physical RAM is already in use, Amazon EC2 instances use swap space as a short-term replacement for physical RAM.

Contents of RAM that aren't in active use or that aren't needed as urgently as other data or instructions can be temporarily paged to a swap file. This frees up RAM for more immediate use.

You can also create swap space on a partition. For more information, see How do I allocate memory to work as swap space on an Amazon EC2 instance using a partition on my hard drive?

Note: It's a best practice to create swap space only on ephemeral storage instance store volumes.

Resolution

Note: Before beginning this resolution, verify that your file system supports the usage of swap files.

Calculate the swap space size

For information on how to calculate the size of your swap space, see the following:

All about Linux swap space on the linux.com website.
How much swap do I need? on the help.ubuntu.com website.

Create a swap file

1. Use the dd command to create a swap file on the root file system. In the command, bs is the block size and count is the number of blocks. The size of the swap file is the block size option multiplied by the count option in the dd command. Adjust these values to determine the desired swap file size.

The block size you specify should be less than the available memory on the instance or you receive a "memory exhausted" error.

In this example dd command, the swap file is 4 GB (128 MB x 32):

$ sudo dd if=/dev/zero of=/swapfile bs=128M count=32

2. Update the read and write permissions for the swap file:

$ sudo chmod 600 /swapfile

3. Set up a Linux swap area:

$ sudo mkswap /swapfile

4. Make the swap file available for immediate use by adding the swap file to swap space:

$ sudo swapon /swapfile

5. Verify that the procedure was successful:

$ sudo swapon -s

6. Enable the swap file at boot time by editing the /etc/fstab file.

Open the file in the editor:

$ sudo vi /etc/fstab

Add the following new line at the end of the file, save the file, and then exit:

/swapfile swap swap defaults 0 0

Answered: How to set up 2FA for the first login using Google Authenticator to login to Parallels.

Thu, 25 Jan 2024 10:41:23 +0000

Important: To use Google Authenticator, the time on a user device must be in sync with the time set on the RAS Connection Broker server. Otherwise, Google authentication will fail.

Google Authenticator is supported in Parallels Client running on all supported platforms, including mobile, desktop, and Web.

To use Google Authenticator, a user needs to install the Authenticator app on their iOS or Android device. Simply visit Google Play or App Store and install the app. Once the Authenticator app is installed, the user is ready to connect to Parallels RAS using two-factor authentication.

To connect to Parallels RAS:

The user opens Parallels Client or Web Client and logs in using his/her credentials.
The multi-factor authentication dialog opens displaying a barcode (also known as QR code) and a secret key.
The user opens the Google Authenticator app on their mobile device:
- If this is the first time they use it, they tap Begin and then tap Scan a barcode.
- If a user already has another account in Google Authenticator, they tap the plus-sign icon and choose Scan a barcode.
The user then scans the barcode displayed in the Parallels Client login dialog.
If scanning doesn't work for any reason, the user goes back in the app, chooses Enter a provided key and then enters the account name and the key displayed in the Parallels Client login dialog.
The user then taps Add account in the app, which will create an account and display a one time password.
The user goes back to Parallels Client, clicks Next and enters the one time password in the OTP field.

On every subsequent logon, the user will only have to type their credentials (or nothing at all if the Save password options was selected) and enter a one time password obtained from the Google Authenticator app (the app will continually generate a new password). If the RAS administrator resets a user (see the Reset Users(s) field description at the beginning of this section), the user will have to repeat the registration procedure described above.

Answered: How to change Parallels Server password.

Thu, 25 Jan 2024 10:39:23 +0000

Changing Domain Password

If you need to change your domain account password, you can do it right from Parallels Client.

To change your domain password:

Click File > Change Domain Password in the main menu (or right-click a connection and choose Change Domain Password).
In the Logon dialog, type your current password and click OK.
In the Change Password dialog, enter a new password in both fields and click OK.

Your domain account password is now changed. Your existing connections in Parallels Client are automatically updated to use the new password.

Answered: How to enable Drag and Drop of the files from the published desktop to the Mac machine?

Thu, 07 Sep 2023 07:17:54 +0000

The local folder needs to be redirected ro the RDS session for the drag and drop functionality to work.

1. Open Parallels Client for Mac

2. Open File > Connection properties

3. Go to Local Resources > Check the Folders and click Configure

4. Add the folder which you'd like to be able to drag and drop files to/from:

5. Please note that these changes will be applied next time you connect.

6. Please pay attention that GPO on the server should not prohibit redirection of local drives.

From Parallels Client version 19, drag and drop functionality:

You can drag and drop files to and from remote applications.

For example, you can drag and drop a local file to a remote application to open it, or you can drag and drop a file from the remote Windows Explorer to the local Explorer. You can also drag and drop objects like images and text from/to remote applications. Some limitations apply, so it may not work for all types of files and applications. The list below describes formats that are supported:

Files — files can be dragged from Finder and dropped to a remote application. The remote application will open the file given that it has access to the file itself. Any changes are done to the original file.

Virtual file contents — dragging of virtual files similar to dragging attachments from a mail client to a remote application. A copy of the file is used temporarily. Usually the original file is not modified.

Global data formats — dragging of elements like images or text blocks. This highly depends on the format itself, so it is not guaranteed that all applications and formats will work.

EMF format — when combining images and text, some applications convert the data into EMF (Enhanced Metafile), which is supported.

HTML format — dragging of HTML content from web browsers is supported.

Please note that while drag and drop is in progress, you cannot interact with the source and destination folders or applications. If the amount of data being transferred is large, you may have to wait until the transfer is complete.