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Information

The below guide is a step by step configuration guide for deploying AWS Elastic load balancer (ELB) to front-end and load-balance Parallels RAS Environment.

Note: It is assumed that reader has a basic understanding of both AWS ELB  and Parallels RAS. This guide will only focus on the configuration of AWS ELB  and Parallels Secure Client Gateways load balancing. It is assumed that Parallels RAS environment have already been deployed and configured on EC2 instances with 443 Inbound rule on the Parallels Secure Client Gateways security groups.

Document process flow

The process that will be discussed in more detail is as illustrated below:

1. Choose the Load Balancer Type
2. Configure Load Balancer
3. Configure Routing
4. Register Targets
5. Review and Create
6. Finalize Configuration
7. Test and Evaluate Load Balancing

 

Step 1: Choosing the Load Balancer Type

A load balancer serves as the single point of contact for clients. The load balancer distributes incoming traffic across multiple targets, such as Amazon EC2 instances acting as Parallels RAS Secure Client Gateways.

Elastic Load Balancing supports the following types of load balancers: Application Load Balancers, Network Load Balancers, and Classic Load Balancers.

For both Parallels native clients and Parallels HTML5 Client connectivity the TCP Network Load Balancer is required.

For more information on AWS Network Load Balancer please check this article

Step 2: Configure Load Balancer

1	Basic Configuration
	Name	Provide a significant name for your load balancer
	Scheme	Internet-facing
2	Listeners
	Load Balancing Protocol: TCP	Load Balancer Port: 443
3	Availability Zones
	Choose the zones where your instances reside in

 

 

Step 3: Configure Routing

1	Target Group
	Target Group	Create New (or use existing if already created)
	Name	Provide a significant name for your target group
	Protocol	TCP
	Port	443
	Target Type	Instance
2	Health Checks
	Protocol	TCP
3	Advanced health check settings
	Port	Traffic port
	Healthy threshold	3
	Unhealthy threshold	3
	Timeout	10
	Interval	30 seconds

 

 

 

Step 4: Register Targets

Register targets with your target group. If you register a target in an enabled Availability Zone, the load balancer starts routing requests to the targets as soon as the registration process completes and the target passes the initial health checks

Click Add to register the EC2 instances acting as Parallels RAS Secure Client Gateways to register targets in your previously created target group.

Step 5: Review and Create

Review the load balancer details before continuing

 

Progress to deploying and Load balancer

 

Step 6: Finalize configuration

Once created successfully, open AWS navigation pane and go to Target groups. Choose the Target group created in Step 3 above and right click to edit attributes

 

  

 

Edit the deregistration delay from default 300 to 0 and click save.

 

Please see here for more information regarding deregistration delay

Step 7: Test and Evaluate Load Balancing

You can test Load balancer configuration by taking note and copying the DNS name given the to Load balancer as shown from Load balancers – Description – Basic configuration

Paste DNS Name (or IP) in the browser and Parallels RAS HTML5 Client Portal should be visible.

Log on and confirm application launching by using the HTML5 Client and/or the Parallels Client installed on your device by choosing the delivery method (right click for menu)

 

Alternatively, you can also use Parallels Client with this configuration directly.

 

Links for reference

For more information regarding Parallels RAS please see here: https://www.parallels.com/products/ras/remote-application-server/

For more information regarding AWS ELB please see here: https://aws.amazon.com/elasticloadbalancing/