The tlwebadm interface consists of several modules which address different aspects of ThinLinc configuration:
Status, for viewing information such as license usage, server load and sessions. See Section 16.3.1, “ The Status Module ” below.
Locations, for viewing and configuring printers and terminal locations. See Section 16.3.2, “ The Locations Module ” below.
Desktop Customizer, for configuring desktops. See Section 16.3.3, “ The Desktop Customizer Module ” below.
Application Servers, for viewing and configuring application servers.
Novell Configurator, for configuring, optimising and troubleshooting Novell LDAP servers. See Section 16.3.4, “ The Novell Configurator Module ” below.
VDI, for configuring Virtual Desktop Infrastructure integration with existing VMware platforms. See Section 16.3.5, “ The VDI Module ” below.
Documentation Center, a module containing documentation and other useful information.
These modules are described in more detail in the following sections.
The Status module allows you to view or manipulate the following aspects of ThinLinc, by selecting the relevant submenu:
Licenses allows you to view current and historic license usage, as well as the current number of licenses.
Load allows you to check the current server load on both ThinLinc and application servers.
Sessions allows you to terminate, shadow or view details of sessions. This feature is described in more detail in the next section, Section 16.3.1.1, “ The Sessions Menu ”
When you select the sessions menu, a table with all currently active users is displayed. To perform additional tasks, click on the corresponding user name. This will bring up the session details page, which displays all the session parameters for each session the user has running. The information table is described below.
Terminal Server : The DNS host name of the server that is hosting this session. If you only have one ThinLinc server, this server will host all sessions. If you have several ThinLinc servers in a cluster, new sessions will be created on the server with the lightest load.
Display Number : Each session on a certain server has a unique number, the X Window System display number. Display zero is reserved, and never used for ThinLinc sessions.
Terminal ID : An identification of the thin terminal. This is the terminal's ethernet hardware address (MAC address).
Framebuffer Size : The size (resolution) of the active session.
Local Screen Size : The size (resolution) of the terminal's screen.
Session process ID : The PID (process identification number) of the tl-session process, which is the parent for all processes belonging to a certain session.
Command : The command line that was specified when starting this session. This is usually empty for full desktop sessions.
Below each table, there are two buttons:
: By clicking this button, you can terminate a session immediately. Caution: This can lead to data loss, since applications running on the ThinLinc servers may not hold unsaved data.
: This button will generate a ThinLinc "launch file" (see Section 8.9.4, “ Launching the Native Client From a Web Page ”) that starts the native ThinLinc client, preconfigured to shadow the current user.
Note
The user will not be informed that shadowing is in progress, unless tl-shadow-notify is enabled.
Locations contains information about locations where terminals and printers reside. A location can be a room, a floor, a house or some other type of geographical delimitation.
Every terminal should be assigned as a member of a location. In addition to terminals, printers may also be assigned to locations.
Terminals contains necessary information about all terminals. The most important information here is every terminal's interface hardware (MAC) address.
Each terminal should be entered as described in this section. Enter the terminals module by clicking on the menu item. You will be presented with a list of currently entered terminals. This could be something like the example in Figure 16.1.
Figure 16.1 shows a system with a total of two terminals.
To edit a terminal, click on its name in the list.
To add a new terminal to the list you press the button. This will bring up an empty terminal edit form. See Figure 16.2 for an example.
There are three editable fields in this view, Hardware (MAC) address , Terminal name and Location . They are described in Table 16.1 below.
To save changes, press the button. When you have pressed the button you will see that the Hardware (MAC) address field will change from being an editable field to become a static text label. To assure data integrity between the modules you aren't allowed to change this field after it's added.
When a new terminal is saved or when clicking an existing in the terminals list, there will be three buttons inside the form. The button is used to save changes made to the terminal. The button deletes the currently viewed terminal. The button will add a new printer field to the form.
Table 16.1. Terminal properties
| Name | Description |
|---|---|
| Hardware (MAC) address | hardware (MAC) address of the main interface of the terminal. This field is important! Without a correct value the nearest printer won't work! |
| Terminal name | Name of the terminal. Could for example be the terminal's DNS name or a name following a naming scheme that identifies the terminal. |
| Location | Which of the locations, entered in the Locations module, this terminal belongs to. |
It is also possible to add a printer to a terminal in the terminal module. This can be used if a terminal has its own printer or is closer to another printer than the ones assigned to this terminals location. You should use this feature moderately since it may cause more administration.
To add a printer you do exactly as in the Locations menu. Click the button, select the printer in the pop-up menu and then press to make sure that the settings are stored. To delete it, check the relevant Delete checkbox(es) for the printer(s) you wish to remove, and click .
To edit a location, click on its name in the list.
To add a new location to the list you press the button. This will bring up an empty location edit form. See Figure 16.3 for an example.
Fill the Name and Description fields with relevant information. Check the checkbox if this location is to be used for unknown terminals when using the printer access control feature (see Section 5.5, “ Printer Access Control ” for details).
To save changes, press the button. When you have pressed the button you will see that the Name field will change from being an editable field to become a static text label. To assure data integrity between the modules you aren't allowed to change the name of an item after it's added.
The button deletes the currently viewed location, but only if the confirmation checkbox is also checked. The button will add a new field to the form, a drop-down menu with all possible printers. An example of this can be seen in Figure 16.4.
The Printer field above has the printer europa selected. Remember to save the changes if you change printer! You can assign more printers to this location by clicking again to bring up another printer line. To remove a printer you select the Delete checkbox corresponding to the printer(s) you want to delete, and click to apply the changes. The printer(s) will disappear.
Note
Printers contains entries for all available printers. These entries are just shadows of the real CUPS (Common Unix Printing System) printer system entries. This means that you first need the printers to be installed in the CUPS printer system and then added to this list.
The ThinLinc Desktop Customizer is described more fully in its own chapter, Chapter 17, Building Custom Linux Desktops with the ThinLinc Desktop Customizer . Links to sections of this chapter pertaining to the respective menus of the Desktop Customizer Module are provided below for convenience.
For information on configuring Application Groups using TLDC, see Section 17.3.5, “ Defining Application Groups ”
For information on configuring Manual Applications using TLDC, see Section 17.3.3, “ Handling Applications ”
For information on configuring System Applications using TLDC, see Section 17.3.1.1, “ Applications ”
For information on configuring Menu Structures using TLDC, see Section 17.3.4, “ Defining a Menu Structure ”
The ThinLinc Novell Configurator is described more fully in its own chapter, Section 9.4.5, “ Using Novell eDirectory with ThinLinc ”.
The ThinLinc VDI module is described more fully in its own chapter, Chapter 22, VDI Administration .