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Single-Connector Terraform Deployment

Objective: The objective of this documentation is to deploy the Single Connector architecture using Anyware Manager SaaS on Azure using Azure Cloud Shell (ACS).

Table of Contents

  1. Single-Connector Architecture
  2. Requirements
  3. Connect Azure to Anyware Manager
  4. Storing Secrets on Azure Key Vault
  5. Assigning a SSL Certificate
  6. Deploying the Single-Connector via Terraform
  7. Adding Workstations in Anyware Manager
  8. Starting a PCoIP Session
  9. Changing the deployment
  10. Deleting the deployment
  11. Troubleshooting

For other Azure deployments, Amazon Web Services (AWS) deployments, and Google Cloud Platform (GCP) deployments:

Please find deployment files here

1. Single-Connector Architecture

The Single-Connector deployment creates a Virtual Network with 3 subnets in the same region, provided that the workstations defined in terraform.tfvars do not have distinct locations. The subnets created are:

  • subnet-dc: for the Domain Controller
  • subnet-cac: for the Connector
  • subnet-ws: for the workstations

Network Security Rules are created to allow wide-open access within the Virtual Network, and selected ports are open to the public for operation and for debug purposes.

A Domain Controller is created with Active Directory, DNS and LDAP-S configured. Domain Users are also created if a domain_users_list CSV file is specified. The Domain Controller is given a static IP (configurable).

The Connector currently runs on an Ubuntu server, we are adding the support to run on Rocky Linux 8 or RHEL 8 starting from Connector version 22.04.0. The Cloud Access Connector is installed and configured on Ubuntu server, while the Anyware Connector is installed and configured on Rocky Linux 8 server.

A Cloud Access Connector\Anyware Connector is created and registers itself with the Anyware Manager service with the given token and PCoIP registration code.

Multiple domain-joined workstations and Cloud Access Connectors\Anyware Connector can be optionally created, specified by the following respective parameters:

  • workstations: List of objects, where each object defines a workstation
  • cac_configuration: List of objects, where each object defined a connector

The workstation_os property in the workstations parameter can be used to define the respective workstation's operating system (use 'linux' or 'windows').

Note: Please make sure that the location property in the workstations parameter is in sync with the location property defined in the cac_configuration parameter.

Each workstation can be configured with a graphics agent by using the isGFXHost property of the workstations parameter.

These workstations are automatically domain-joined and have the PCoIP Agent installed.

The following diagram shows a single-connector deployment instance with multiple workstations and a single Cloud Access Connector deployed in the same region specified by the user.

single-connector diagram

2. Requirements

  • Access to a subscription on Azure.
  • a PCoIP Registration Code. Contact sales here to purchase a subscription.
  • a Anyware Manager Deployment Service Account. Anyware Manager can be accessed here
  • A basic understanding of Azure, Terraform and using a command-line interpreter (Bash or PowerShell)
  • Terraform v0.13.5
  • Azure Cloud Shell access.
  • PCoIP Client
  • Git

3. Connect Azure to Anyware Manager

To interact directly with remote workstations, an Azure Account must be connected to the Anyware Manager.

Run the deploy script via . deploy.sh in the Azure Cloud Shell, this will provide and set the required users Subscription and Tenant ID environment variables. Note: The deploy script could be found at /Azure_Deployments/terraform-deployments/deployments/'Your-target-architecture'

Note: The user only needs to perform this step once to obtain a service principal. However, if the user already has a valid service principal but has forgotten the credential secret associated with it, they will need to delete the existing service principal and repeat this step again.
After the service principal is created:

  1. If the user keep remaining in the current ACS session, please continue with the remaining steps.
  2. If the user manually or accidentally exits the current ACS session before the architecture is successfully deployed, they need to manually execute the following commands when a new ACS session starts:
    • export ARM_SUBSCRIPTION_ID=$(az account show --query id --output tsv)
    • export ARM_TENANT_ID=$(az account show --query homeTenantId --output tsv)
Option 1 (faster automated authentication):

The bash deploy script will automate the creation of a service principal and assign all of the required roles for deployment. Users will not be required to login via the Azure Portal

  1. Upon completion of the deploy script, the Azure Cloud Shell will output the required Application ID and Client Secret which must be saved in the terraform.tfvars file
 {
 "appId": "xxxxxxxxxx",
 "displayName": "single_connector_lls",
 "password": "xxxxxxxxxx",
 "tenant": "xxxxxxxxxx"
 }
  1. Open the terraform.tfvars file via code terraform.tfvars seen in section 6, step 3
  2. Copy and paste the appId value into the application_id input field and the password value into the aad_client_secret input field
application_id                = "appId value here"
aad_client_secret             = "password value here"
  1. Login to Anyware Manager admin console here.
  2. Create a new deployment. Note: Steps 6 and 7 are optional. It allows for admins to turn on & off workstations from the Anyware Manager admin console.
  3. Click on Provider Service Accounts and then Azure.
  4. Submit the credentials into the Azure form.
  5. Click Connectors on the side bar and create a new connector.
  6. Input a connector name to generate a token. Tokens will be used in the .tfvars file.
    • This token expires in 2 hours.
    • The value will be used inside terraform.tfvars like so:
    cac_configuration : [
        { 
            cac_token: "vk315Gci2iJIdzLxT.. ", 
            location: "westus2" 
        }
    ]
  7. The remaining information to be filled out includes providing the PCoIP Registration Code and all other desired workstation configurations. Save the file and skip to the remaining steps of deployment in section 6 Note: What if the Service Principal creation output values are lost or the Azure Cloud Shell times out? In the instance that the Azure Cloud Shell times out or the output values are lost, the deploy script can be re-run and the previously created app and service principal will be patched and reset with a new client secret that users should update with. Otherwise, manual creation of the Service Principal and role assignments could be followed as seen by the steps in Option 2
Option 2 (slower manual authentication):

Running the deploy script will set the necessary environment variables for the User. Users are still able to manually authenticate via the Azure Portal using the following steps

  1. Login to the Azure portal
  2. Click Azure Active Directory in the left sidebar and click App registrations inside the opened blade.
  3. Create a new application for the deployment by clicking New registration. If an application exists under Owned applications, this information can be reused.
    • More information on how to create an App Registration can be found here.
  4. Copy the following information from the application overview:
    • Client ID
    • Tenant ID
    • Object ID
  5. Under the same app, click Certificates & secrets.
  6. Create a new Client Secret or use an existing secret. This value will only be shown once, make sure to save it.
  7. Go to Subscriptions by searching subscription into the search bar and click on the subscription of choice.
  8. Copy the Subscription ID and click on Access control (IAM) on the blade.
  9. Click + Add, click Add role assignments and follow these steps to add roles:
    1. Under Role, click the dropdown and select the role Reader.
    2. Leave Assign access to as User, group, or service principal
    3. Under Select search for the application name from step 4 and click Save.
    4. Repeat steps i - iii for the role Virtual Machine Contributor and Contributor.
  10. Login to Anyware Manager admin console here.
  11. Create a new deployment. Note: Steps 12 and 13 are optional. It allows for admins to turn on & off workstations from the Anyware Manager admin console.
  12. Click on Provider Service Accounts and then Azure.
  13. Submit the credentials into the Azure form.
  14. Click Connectors on the side bar and create a new connector.
  15. Input a connector name to generate a token. Tokens will be used in the .tfvars file.
    • This token expires in 2 hours.
    • The value will be used inside terraform.tfvars like so:
    cac_configuration : [
        { 
            cac_token: "vk315Gci2iJIdzLxT.. ", 
            location: "westus2" 
        }
    ]

4. (Optional) Storing Secrets on Azure Key Vault

Note: This is optional. Users may skip this section and enter plaintext for the AD admin password, safe mode admin password, PCoIP registration key, and connector token in terraform.tfvars.

As a security method to help protect the AD safe mode admin password, AD admin password, PCoIP registration key, and connector token, users can store them as secrets in an Azure Key Vault. Secrets will be decrypted in the configuration scripts.

  1. In the Azure portal, search for Key Vault and click + Add to create a new key vault.
    1. Select the same region as the deployment.
    2. Click next to go to the Access policy page.
    3. Click + Add Access Policy.
      1. Under Configure from template select Secret Management.
      2. Under Select principal click on None selected.
      3. Find the application from section 3 and click Select. The ID underneath should match the Client ID/Application ID saved from earlier.
      4. Click Review + create and then Create.
  2. Click on the key vault that was created and click on Secrets inside the rightmost blade.
  3. To create AD safe mode admin password, AD admin password, PCoIP registration key, and connector token as secrets follow these steps for each value:
    1. Click + Generate/Import.
    2. Enter the name of the secret.
    3. Input the secret value.
    4. Click Create.
    5. Click on the secret that was created, click on the version and copy the Secret Identifier.
    • Tip: To reduce the chance of errors, verify the secret is correct by clicking on Show Secret Value.
  4. Fill in the following variables. Below is a completed example with tips underneath that can aid in finding the values.
...

cac_configuration : [
    { 
      cac_token: "https://mykeyvault.vault.azure.net/secrets/cacToken/e9d0204710d83e4d1e8b71a2d2a9c778", 
      location: "westus2" 
    }
  ]

# (Encryption is optional) Following 3 values and cac_token from cac_configuration can be encrypted. 
# To encrypt follow section 4 of the documentation.
ad_admin_password             = "https://mykeyvault.vault.azure.net/secrets/adPasswordID/123abcexample"
safe_mode_admin_password      = "https://mykeyvault.vault.azure.net/secrets/safeAdminPasswordID/123abcexample"
pcoip_registration_code       = "https://mykeyvault.vault.azure.net/secrets/pcoipSecretID/123abcexample"

# Used for authentication and allows Terraform to manage resources.
application_id                = "4928a0xd-e1re-592l-9321-5f114953d88c"
aad_client_secret             = "J492L_1KR2plr1SQdgndGc~gE~pQ.eR3F."

# Only fill these when using Azure Key Vault secrets.
# Examples and tips can be found in section 4 of the documentation.
# tenant_id                     = "31f56g8-1k3a-q43e-1r3x-dc340b62cf18"
# key_vault_id                  = "/subscriptions/12e06/resourceGroups/keyvault/providers/Microsoft.KeyVault/vaults/mykeyvault"
# ad_pass_secret_name           = "adPasswordID"
  • Tips for finding these variables:
    1. application_id and tenant_id are from section 3 step 4.
    2. aad_client_secret: This is the same secret from section 3. If this secret is no longer saved, follow section 3 from steps 1-3 & 5-6 to obtain a new client secret.
    3. key_vault_id: Go to the key vault containing the secrets on the Portal and click on Properties inside the opened blade. Copy the Resource ID.
    4. ad_pass_secret_name: This is the name used for the ad pass secret. The name can be seen after/secrets/ from the variable ad_admin_password. From the example above, this would be adPasswordID.

5. (Optional) Assigning a SSL Certificate

Note: This is optional. Assigning a SSL certificate will prevent the PCoIP client from reporting an insecure connection when establishing a PCoIP session though users may still connect. Read more here. It is also an option to assign an SSL certificate after the completion of the script. More information can be found here.

To upload a SSL certificate and SSL key onto ACS:

  1. Go into the Resource group that contains ACS storage. By default, the name should look like: cloud-shell-storage-[region]
  2. Click on the storage account being used for deployment.
  3. Next, click File shares and then click the file share that is mounted onto ACS.
  4. Upload the SSL certificate and SSL key. Must be in .pem format.
  5. The location of these files will be found in ~/clouddrive/
  6. Enter the paths to the SSL certificate and SSL key inside terraform.tfvars.

6. Deploying the Single-Connector via Terraform

terraform.tfvars is the file in which a user specifies variables for a deployment. The terraform.tfvars.sample sample file shows the required variables that a user must provide, along with other commonly used but optional variables.

Note: Uncommented lines show required variables, while commented lines show optional variables with their default or sample values.

Before deploying, terraform.tfvars must be complete.

  1. Clone the repository into your Azure Cloud Shell (ACS) environment.
  • git clone https://github.com/teradici/Azure_Deployments
  1. Change directory into:
  • Ubuntu server as Connector: cd Azure_Deployments/terraform-deployments/deployments/cas-mgr-single-connector.
  • Rocky Linux 8 server as Connector: cd Azure_Deployments/terraform-deployments/deployments/cas-mgr-single-connector-rocky.

  1. Save terraform.tfvars.sample as terraform.tfvars, and fill out the required variables.

    • To copy: cp terraform.tfvars.sample terraform.tfvars
    • To configure: code terraform.tfvars
    • To include optional variables, uncomment the line by removing preceding #.
    • Make sure the locations of the connectors and work stations are identical.

    terraform.tfvars variables:

    1. workstation configuration:
      • prefix: prefix added to workstation machines. e.g.: 'tera0' will name a standard Linux VM tera0-scent-0
        • Must be a max of 5 characters to avoid name cropping. Can be left blank.
      • location: location of the workstation. westus machines will be placed in the West US region.
        • Possible values: Regions.
        • e.g. West US 2 will be inputted as westus2. Central US as centralus.
      • workstation_os: Operating system of the workstation.
        • Possible values: windows or linux
      • vm_size: Size of the virtual machine.
      • disk_type: Type of storage for the workstation.
        • Possible values: Standard_LRS, StandardSSD_LRS or Premium_LRS
      • count: Number of workstations to deploy under the specific settings.
      • isGFXHost: Determines if a Grahpics Agent will be installed. Graphics agents require NV-series VMs or NCasT4_v3-series VMs. The default size in .tfvars is Standard_NV12s_v3. Additional VM sizes can be seen in the Appendix
        • Possible values: true or false

  2. (Optional) To add domain users save domain_users_list.csv.sample as domain_users_list.csv and edit this file accordingly.

    Uncomment line#74 in "terraform.tfvars". The user must ensure the full path to the domain users list .csv file is correct. Otherwise, the provisioning script is not able to complete.

    • Note: To add users successfully, passwords must have atleast 3 of the following requirements:
      • 1 UPPERCASE letter
      • 1 lowercase letter
      • 1 number
      • 1 special character. e.g.: !@#$%^&*(*))_+

  3. Run terraform init to initialize a working directory containing Terraform configuration files.

  4. Run terraform apply | tee -a installer.log to display resources that will be created by Terraform.

    • Note: Users can also do terraform apply but often ACS will time out or there are scrolling limitations which prevents users from viewing all of the script output. | tee -a installer.log stores a local log of the script output which can be referred to later to help diagnose problems.

  5. Answer yes to start provisioning the infrastructure.

    • To skip the need for this extra input, you can also initially use terraform apply --auto-approve | tee -a installer.log

A typical deployment should take around 30-40 minutes. When finished, the scripts will display VM information such as IP addresses. At the end of the deployment, the resources may still take a few minutes to start up completely. It takes a few minutes for a connector to sync with the Anyware Manager so Health statuses may show as Unhealthy temporarily.

Note: During the deployment, if you don't interact with the Azure portal (for example click around), the Azure Cloud Shell (ACS) session may time out. In such cases, the deployment process will not continue once you reconnect to the ACS. You will need to delete the created resource group manually from the Azure portal and reconnect to ACS. Then, you must manually run the following two commands before applying the Terraform script again from the beginning to initiate a fresh deployment:

  • export ARM_SUBSCRIPTION_ID=$(az account show --query id --output tsv)
  • export ARM_TENANT_ID=$(az account show --query homeTenantId --output tsv)

Example output of successful deployment:

Apply complete! Resources: 67 added, 0 changed, 0 destroyed.

Outputs:

cac-vms = [
  {
    "name" = "cac-vm-0"
    "private_ip" = "10.0.3.4"
    "public_ip" = "52.109.24.176"
  },
]
centos-graphics-workstations = [
  {
    "name" = "gcent-0"
    "private_ip" = "10.0.4.5"
  },
]
centos-standard-workstations = [
  {
    "name" = "scent-0"
    "private_ip" = "10.0.4.6"
  },
]
domain-controller-private-ip = "10.0.1.4"
domain-controller-public-ip = "52.109.24.161"
locations = [
  "westus2",
]
resource_group = "single_connector_deployment_c4fe3"
windows-standard-workstations = [
  {
    "name" = "swin-0"
    "private_ip" = "10.0.4.4"
  },
]
windows-graphics-workstations = [
  {
    "name" = "gwin-0"
    "private_ip" = "10.0.4.7"
  },
]

7. Adding Workstations in Anyware Manager

It is recommended to add your Azure Provider Credentials to the Anyware Manager as to allow service interactions between them. This allows actions such as powering a remote workstation on or off. This can be done on the Anyware Manager dashboard, select Add provider credentials, select the Provider Service Accounts tab, and fill out the account credentials under Azure.

To connect to workstations, they have to be added through the Anyware Manager.

  1. Go to the Anyware Manager admin console and ensure the correct deployment is selected.
  2. Click Workstations on the left sidebar, click the blue + and select Add existing remote workstation.
  3. From the Provider dropdown, select Private Cloud or Azure. If Azure is selected, select the name of the resource group of the deployment.
  4. In the search box below, select Windows and CentOS workstations.
  5. At the bottom click the option Individually select users and select the users to assign to the workstations.
    • Note: If assigning certain users to certain workstations, remove workstations under Remote workstations to be added (x).
  6. Click Save.

Note that it may take a 5-10 minutes for the workstation to show up in the Select Remote Workstations drop-down box.

8. Starting a PCoIP Session

Once the workstations have been added by Anyware Manager and assigned to Active Directory users, a user can connect through the PCoIP client using the public IP of the Cloud Access Connector.

  1. Open the Teradici PCoIP Client and click on NEW CONNECTION.
  2. Enter the public IP address of the Cloud Access Connector (CAC) virtual machine and enter a name for this connection.
    • Note: If the public_ip of the cac-vms output does not show at the end of completion due to error it can be found on the Azure Portal. Select the machine [prefix]-cac-vm-0 and the Public IP address will be shown.
  3. Input the credentials from the account that was assigned under User Entitlements for Workstations from section 7 step 5.
  4. Click on a machine to start a PCoIP session.
  5. To connect to different workstations, close the PCoIP client and repeat steps 1-4.

9. Changing the deployment

Terraform is a declarative language to describe the desired state of resources. A user can modify terraform.tfvars and run terraform apply again. Terraform will try to only apply the changes needed to acheive the new state.

Note that changes involving creating or recreating Cloud Access Connectors requires a new connector token from the Anyware Manager admin console. Create a new connector to obtain a new token.

10. Deleting the deployment

Run terraform destroy -force to remove all resources created by Terraform. If this command doesn't delete everything entirely due to error, another alternative is to delete the resource group itself from the Resource groups page in Azure.

11. Troubleshooting

  • If the console looks frozen, try pressing Enter to unfreeze it.
  • If no machines are showing up on Anyware Manager or get errors when connecting via PCoIP client, wait 2 minutes and retry.
  • If trying to run a fresh deployment and have been running into errors, delete all files containing .tfstate. These files store the state of the current infrastructure and configuration.
  • If there is a timeout error regarding centos-gfx machine(s) at the end of the deployment, this is because script extensions time out after 30 minutes. This happens sometimes but users can still add VMs to Anyware Manager.
    • As a result of this, there will be no outputs displaying on ACS. The IP address of the cac machine can be found by going into the deployment's resource group, selecting the machine [prefix]-cac-vm-0, and the Public IP address will be shown on the top right.

Information about connecting to virtual machines for investigative purposes:

  • CentOS and Windows VMs do not have public IPs. To connect to a CentOS workstations use the Connector (cac-vm) as a bastion host.

    1. SSH into the Connector. ssh <ad_admin_username>@<cac-public-ip> e.g.: cas_admin@52.128.90.145
    2. From inside the Connector, SSH into the CentOS workstation. ssh centos_admin@<centos-internal-ip> e.g.: ssh centos_admin@10.0.4.5
    3. The installation log path for CentOS workstations are located in /var/log/teradici/agent/install.log. CAC logs are located in /var/log/teradici/cac-install.log.

    Note: SSH access is only allowed for your current ACS IP. if you exit the current ACS session and open another session, you won't be able to SSH into the connector because the IP of ACS changes each time the session is reconnected. In this case, you may need to manually add an inbound rule to your network security group (NSG) to allow traffic to port 22 from your IP (this is only for debug purpose). Please remember to delete your customized rule after debugging.

  • To connect to a Windows workstations use the Domain Controller (dc-vm) as a bastion host.

  • Note: By default RDP is disabled for security purposes. Before running a deployment switch the false flag to true for the create_debug_rdp_access variable in terraform.tfvars. If there is already a deployment present go into the Networking settings for the dc-vm and click Add inbound port rule. Input 3389 in the Destination port ranges and click Add. Users should now be able to connect via RDP.

    1. RDP into the Domain Controller virtual machine.
    Computer: <domain-controller-public-ip>
User: cas_admin
Password: <ad_admin_password from terraform.tfvars>
    1. From inside the Domain Controller, RDP into the Windows workstation.
    Computer: <win-internal-ip>
User: windows_admin
Password: <ad_admin_password from terraform.tfvars>
    1. The installation log path for Windows workstations and DC machines are located in C:/Teradici/provisioning.log.

Appendix

Current VM sizes supported by PCoIP Graphics Agents