ClearCube Sentral 6.9.3 User Manual

Sentral 6.9.3

Quick Start Guide

Revision F 2.2.08.06.2014

Technical Support

See the support Web site for technical updates, additional warranty information and documentation, and software revisions:
Web http://www.clearcube.com/support/
Email: [e-mail]
Phone: [phone]

[phone]

ClearCube Technology, Inc.

The ClearCube Building
3700 W Parmer Lane
Austin, Texas 78727

E-mail [e-mail]
Phone: [phone] or call toll free [phone]
Or contact your local ClearCube Reseller or Authorized Service Provider

Copyrights

© 2014 ClearCube Technology, Inc. All rights reserved. Under copyright laws, this publication may not be reproduced or
transmitted in any form, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, storing in an information retrieval
system, or translating, in whole or in part, without the prior written consent of ClearCube Technology, Inc.

This information is subject to change without notice and ClearCube shall not be liable for any direct, indirect, special, incidental
or consequential damages in connection with the use of this material.

Trademarks

ClearCube®, Sentral®, Blade Switching BackPack™, PC Blade™, C/Port™, and I/Port™ are trademarks or registered trademarks of
ClearCube Technology, Inc.

Adobe PDF is a registered trademark of Adobe Systems Incorporated in the United States and/or other countries.
PC-over-IP and PCoIP are registered trademarks of Teradici Corporation in the United States and/or other countries. Microsoft,
Windows and Windows Vista are registered trademarks of Microsoft Corporation in the United States and/or other countries.
Intel, Intel Core, Pentium, and Xeon are trademarks of Intel Corporation in the U.S. and/or other countries. VMware and
VMware View are trademarks or registered trademarks of VMware, Inc. in the United States and/or other jurisdictions.
Kensington is a registered trademark of ACCO Brands. PCIE® and PCIe® are registered trademarks and/or service marks of PCI­SIG. Catalyst, Cisco, and Cisco Nexus are registered trademarks or of Cisco Systems, Inc. and/or its affiliates in the United States
and certain other countries. Linux® is the registered trademark of Linus Torvalds in the U.S. and other countries. Red Hat, Red
Hat Enterprise Linux, the Shadowman logo and JBoss are registered trademarks of Red Hat, Inc. in the U.S. and other
countries.Raspberry Pi is a trademark of the Raspberry Pi Foundation. S3 Graphics is a registered trademark of S3 Graphics Co.,
Ltd. Realtek is a trademark of Realtek Semiconductor Corporation. Other product and company names mentioned herein are
trademarks or trade names of their respective companies.

Patents

The ClearCube Architecture and its components described in this user manual are protected by numerous granted and pending
U.S. and international patents. Granted patents include: US05926172, US05966056, US05994952, US06012101, US06020839,
US06037884, US06038616, US06119146, US06148182, US06167241, US06385666, US06421393, US06426970, US06633934,
US06708247, US06735658, and US06886055.

Patents pending include: US S/N 09/755378, US S/N 10/279475, US S/N 10/198719, US S/N 10/198650, US S/N 10/409219, US S/N
09/728667, US S/N 09/728669, US S/N 10/411804, US S/N 10/411908, US S/N 10/458853, US S/N 10/364584, US S/N 10/301536, US
S/N 60/411066, US S/N 10/662933, US S/N 10/662889, US S/N 10/662932, US S/N 10/662968, US S/N 10/301563, US S/N 10/662936,
US S/N 10/301518, US S/N 10/662955 and US S/N 10/662954.

Inquiries regarding patented technology should be directed to ClearCube Corporate Headquarters.

Contents

1 Introduction .................................................................................................................................... 1

2 New in ClearCube Sentral 6.9.3 ....................................................................................................... 1

3 Requesting a Sentral License Key .................................................................................................... 1

4 Minimum Requirements and Support ............................................................................................. 2

5 Before You Begin: Installation Prerequisites and Recommendations.............................................. 3

5.1 Installing Microsoft IIS ............................................................................................................. 3

5.2 Installing Database Server ........................................................................................................ 3

5.2.1 Important Settings for MySQL Server ................................................................................. 4

5.2.2 Important Settings for MS SQL Server ................................................................................ 5

5.3 Virtual Machine Snapshots (Optional) ...................................................................................... 5

6 Installing Sentral FTP Server and Sentral Server.............................................................................. 6

7 Installing Sentral Console .............................................................................................................. 12

8 Start Sentral Console as Administrator ......................................................................................... 12

9 Logging in to Sentral for the First Time ......................................................................................... 13

10 Important Configuration Settings for Sentral Server ..................................................................... 13

10.1 SNMP Configuration .............................................................................................................. 15

10.2 Email Notifications ................................................................................................................. 17

10.3 Alert Frequency ..................................................................................................................... 17

10.4 Server Type and Addresses .................................................................................................... 17

10.5 Device Polling and Timeout .................................................................................................... 17

10.6 FTP Server ............................................................................................................................. 18

10.7 Database Server..................................................................................................................... 18

10.8 Dashboard Refresh ................................................................................................................ 18

10.9 User Discovery ....................................................................................................................... 19

10.10 Mapping User Type ................................................................................................................ 19

10.11 Offline Node Notification ....................................................................................................... 19

10.12 I9400 Logoff and Session State............................................................................................... 19

10.13 Label Display in Chassis View ................................................................................................. 20

10.14 VMware View Connection Server Settings ............................................................................. 20

10.15 IPMI-Enabled Server Discovery .............................................................................................. 21

10.16 Search Options ...................................................................................................................... 21

10.17 Common Configurations: ServerConfiguration.xml File .......................................................... 21

10.17.1 Location .......................................................................................................................... 21

10.17.2 Displaying Login Screen on Zero Clients ........................................................................... 21

iii

11 Apply a Sentral License Key ........................................................................................................... 22

12 Server Log and Settings ................................................................................................................. 22

12.1 Log Location .......................................................................................................................... 23

12.2 Specifying Log Destination: ServerConfiguration.xml ............................................................. 23

12.3 Turning off Logging ................................................................................................................ 23

13 Backups ......................................................................................................................................... 23

13.1 Backing up Sentral Server and Sentral Console ....................................................................... 24

13.2 Backing up Sentral Database Schema ..................................................................................... 24

13.3 Backing up Virtual Machines and Snapshots........................................................................... 24

14 Basic Operations ........................................................................................................................... 24

14.1 Installing Sentral Host Agent .................................................................................................. 25

14.1.1 Windows Embedded Standard 7 ...................................................................................... 25

14.1.2 Red Hat® Enterprise Linux® (RHEL) .................................................................................... 29

14.1.3 CentOS® Linux® ................................................................................................................. 31

14.1.4 Ubuntu ............................................................................................................................ 32

14.2 Installing Sentral Thin Client Agent......................................................................................... 32

14.2.1 Windows Operating Systems ........................................................................................... 33

14.2.2 Linux-Based Operating Systems ....................................................................................... 36

14.3 Device Discovery .................................................................................................................... 37

14.4 Creating Groups and Subgroups (Required for All Management Tasks) .................................. 38

14.5 Renaming I/Ports (Zero Clients) ............................................................................................. 38

14.6 Adding Users to Sentral Database .......................................................................................... 38

14.6.1 Adding a User .................................................................................................................. 38

14.6.2 Adding Large Numbers of Users ....................................................................................... 39

15 Creating Device-Based Allocations ................................................................................................ 41

16 Administrator-Instantiated PCoIP Sessions ................................................................................... 41

17 Creating User-Based Allocations ................................................................................................... 41

18 Orchestrating User Moves ............................................................................................................ 42

19 Updating Sentral Host Agent Software ......................................................................................... 42

20 Firmware Update Process ............................................................................................................. 44

20.1 Uploading Files ...................................................................................................................... 44

20.2 Monitoring Progress and Restarting Devices .......................................................................... 44

21 Right-Click Menu Options from Hierarchical Tree ......................................................................... 45

21.1 Blade with PCoIP Host Card.................................................................................................... 45

21.2 Zero Clients............................................................................................................................ 46

iv

22 Creating Custom Views in Sentral ................................................................................................. 47

23 Troubleshooting ............................................................................................................................ 49

23.1 Console Response Issues........................................................................................................ 49

23.2 Server Performance Is Slow or Server Is Not Responding ....................................................... 49

23.3 Sentral Errors and Messages .................................................................................................. 49

23.4 Running Apache Tomcat as an Application ............................................................................. 49

24 Important Account Information .................................................................................................... 51

v

Version

Date

Description

1.0.06.20.2012

06/21/2012

First release. Details installation steps and configurations necessary for
initial setup and preliminary configuration.

1.1.08.29.2012

08/29/2012

Updated contact information.
Included content for IIS support.
Additional detail about permissions required during installation.
Added details about Database Server installation.
Added installation troubleshooting information.

1.2.01.23.2013

01/23/2013

Updated for release 6.8.
Noted performance improvements constituting this release.

2.0.07.30.2013

07/30/2013

Updated for release 6.9.

2.1.02.24.2014

02/24/2014

Updated for release 6.9.3.
Added SNMP configuration content.
Added log performance and configuration content.
Added Windows® and Linux® Host Agent, Thin Client Agent content.

2.2.08.06.2014

08/06/2014

Revisions

Updated content about requesting a Sentral License Key.

vi

This Page Is Intentionally Blank

vii

NOTE:

You must apply a license within 60 days of installing Sentral. Sentral documentation details how
to apply a Sentral license.

1 Introduction

ClearCube® Sentral™ Version 6.9.3 provides a single interface to manage your desktop infrastructure
including virtual machines, physical host (such as blades and computers), thin clients, and zero clients.
ClearCube Sentral builds on six generations of ClearCube management software in a single management
platform with many innovative new features. Sentral offers IT administrators one console to monitor
and control their entire deployment of local and remote computing assets. ClearCube Sentral is a
software package that delivers proven cost reductions through unique features such as dynamic
resource allocation, virtual desktop management, active health monitoring, and host switching and

sparing. Sentral offers these benefits across platforms, with support for other vendors’ host systems

(physical computers, blades, virtual machines, and other computing devices). Designed to scale from
small businesses to large enterprises, ClearCube Sentral offers IT departments total control.

2 New in ClearCube Sentral 6.9.3

 SNMP updates

Sentral Server can now send alerts for all SNMP events that the server receives.

 Teradici® firmware support

Support for Teradici firmware release 4.1.2 and above.

 Log optimization

Internal logging improvements.

 Support for new ClearCube hardware

Support for new zero client series CD7500, CD7600, CD7700, CD7800, CD9500, CD9600, CD9700 and
CD9800. Support for new V5430 and V5420 host cards.

 New Host Agent and Thin Client Agent operating system support

New Sentral Host Agent and Thin Client Agent for Red Hat® Linux, CentOS® Linux®, and Ubuntu®
distributions

 Multiple performance improvements

Exponential server performance improvements to support an appliance model for future releases

3 Requesting a Sentral License Key

Contact ClearCube Support for a Sentral license.

Email: [e-mail]

Phone: [phone]

Next step: Apply the license key after installing Sentral Console. See 11 “Apply a Sentral License Key”

below for instructions.

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Sentral Quick Start Guide

Component

Minimum Requirements and

Supported Items

Recommended or Comments

Sentral Console

2.4 GHz processor

Intel Core™ i7 or Xeon® 3400 series (4 cores)

1 GB RAM

8 GB RAM or higher

2 GB free space

Windows® 2008 R2 64-bit Server VM

Sentral Server

2.4 GHz processor

Intel Core™ i7 or Xeon® 3400 series (4 cores)

1 GB RAM

8 GB RAM or higher

2 GB free space

Windows® 2008 R2 64-bit Server VM

Sentral
Database

2.4 GHz processor

Intel Core™ i7 or Xeon® 3400 series (4 cores)

1 GB RAM

8 GB RAM or higher

10 GB free space

Windows® 2008 R2 64-bit Server VM

Hosts running
Sentral Host
Agent

1.8 GHz processor

—

1 GB RAM

—

2 GB free space

—

Operating
systems

Windows 7

Supported on Console, Server, Database, and
Host Agent

Windows 2008 Server

Supported on Console, Server, Database, and
Host Agent

Windows 2003 Server R3
Standard Edition

Supported on Console, Server, Database, and
Host Agent

Windows XP Professional, SP3

Supported on Host Agent only

(Optional)
VM host
application

Microsoft Hyper-V®

—

VMware® ESX Server

—

VMware Server

—

Xen® Hypervisor

—

4 Minimum Requirements and Support

The table below shows minimum requirements for Sentral components and supported operating
systems and VM host applications.

Table 1. Minimum requirements for Sentral components and supported software

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Before You Begin: Installation Prerequisites and Recommendations

NOTE:

Ensure that you install all of the features—including all lower-level features included in the
parent features—that are shown below.

5 Before You Begin: Installation Prerequisites and Recommendations

Before installing Sentral ensure that:

 if you are using Microsoft® Internet Information Services (IIS) as your Sentral Web server, install IIS

before installing Sentral FTP Server and Sentral Server. See 5.1 “Installing Microsoft IIS” below for
details.

 you have installed a database. 5.2 “Installing Database Server” below identifies Sentral Database

requirements and provides database and VM-related recommendations.

5.1 Installing Microsoft IIS

Perform this procedure only if you are using IIS as the Web server in your Sentral environment.

The steps below show how to install IIS features on a computer running Windows 2008 Server, R2 or
Windows 7 Enterprise operating system.

1. Click Start > Control Panel > Programs > Turn Windows features on or off.

2. Expand Internet Information Services.

3. Expand Web Management Tools and select all lower-level features.

4. Expand World Wide Web Services and select all lower-level features.

5. Select Internet Information Services Hostable Web Core.

6. Click OK. Windows displays a message while it makes changes and then minimizes the dialog box.

You can now continue to install a database server.

5.2 Installing Database Server

ClearCube Sentral supports MS SQL 2005 and MySQL 5.5.24. The database server must be installed and
available before installing Sentral Server. The database server can be installed on a remote computer or
on the same computer as Sentral Server. For large deployments, ClearCube recommends installing the
database server on:

 a different computer than the one running Sentral Server, and
 a computer with database redundancy or high availability.

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Sentral Quick Start Guide

5.2.1 Important Settings for MySQL Server

MySQL Server is not included with Sentral. It is assumed that the database installer has at least an
intermediate knowledge about MySQL Server and your environment to perform the installation.
Configure MySQL as appropriate for your environment. If you are unsure about any settings, ClearCube
recommends accepting default installation with the following exceptions:

 From the MySQL Server Instance Configuration Wizard’s Windows options screen (shown below),

select the Include Bin Directory in Windows PATH option, as shown below.

Figure 1. Setting Windows options from the MySQL Configuration Wizard

 Enable remote execution during installation and configuration of MySQL.

Figure 2. Setting security options from the MySQL Configuration Wizard

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Before You Begin: Installation Prerequisites and Recommendations

5.2.2 Important Settings for MS SQL Server

MS SQL is not included with Sentral. It is assumed that the database installer has adequate knowledge
about MS SQL and your environment to perform the installation. Configure MS SQL as appropriate for
your environment. If you are unsure about any settings, ClearCube recommends accepting default
installation settings, with the following exception:

When installing MS SQL, enable mixed-mode authentication.

5.3 Virtual Machine Snapshots (Optional)

If you are installing Sentral Server on a virtual machine (VM) a best practice is to create a snapshot of
the VM immediately after installing Sentral Server and applying any patches or updates (if applicable). If
the need arises, this step can help to return the VM to known, pristine state.

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Sentral Quick Start Guide

NOTE:

If you are using Microsoft IIS as your Sentral Web server, you must install IIS before installing
Sentral FTP Server and Sentral Server. If you are using IIS and have not already installed it, stop
and do so now.

NOTE:

If you are installing Microsoft IIS, Sentral requires the addition of ServletExec. If you do not
already have a ServletExec license, contact ClearCube Sales.

6 Installing Sentral FTP Server and Sentral Server

Before installing Sentral FTP Server and Sentral Server, ensure that you have installed all prerequisites.
See 5 “Before You Begin: Installation Prerequisites and Recommendations” above for details.

The steps below show how to install Sentral FTP Server and Sentral Server.

1. If you are installing Sentral on a Windows 7 operating system, set Sentral installer’s Compatibility

mode and Privilege Level.

a. Right-click the Sentral Console and Server installer (named Setup.exe) and select properties.
b. From the Compatibility tab, click Change settings for all users.
c. Select Run this program in compatibility mode for and select Windows 7.
d. In the Privilege Level area, select Run this program as administrator, and then click OK.

2. Double-click the Sentral installer. The installer contains all components required for Sentral

installation. Ensure that you already have the database server (see 5.2 “Installing Database Server”
above for more information).

3. The installer detects if any components that Sentral requires are already installed on the computer.

If a component is not installed, it is automatically selected in the dialog box shown below. The
pictures below show a Sentral Server and Console installation.

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Installing Sentral FTP Server and Sentral Server

Figure 3. The Sentral Installer showing the components selected for installation

4. Read the license agreement and click Yes.

5. Specify the path to install Sentral components and then click Next. ClearCube recommends using

the default path. Sentral then installs the JRE environment.

6. Sentral installs an FTP server. This FTP server is used for firmware and software updates. Click Next

to continue the FTP server installation

7. Provide the information requested in the following screens. The installer uses this information to

register the FTP server components.

8. Click Finish to complete FTP server installation.

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Sentral Quick Start Guide

NOTE:

For future configuration, you can specify or modify these settings by selecting ClearCube
Tomcat from Services Microsoft Management Console (MMC). Open MMC by entering
services.msc in the Start menu’s Search box.

NOTE:

If you are using IIS it must be installed before you can continue. If you have not already
installed IIS, stop and do so now. See 5.1 “Installing Microsoft IIS” for more information.

NOTE:

Ensure that you enter CMSServer capitalized as shown.

9. Select the Web server you are using in your Sentral deployment from the options provided. The list

below shows the steps to perform for the Web server that you select. Select one of the following:

 Apache Tomcat

a. The installer requests Windows operating system and Active Directory credentials for

authenticating Tomcat Server. Provide credentials in these fields. See the text on this screen for
more information.

b. Click Next to display the database credentials screen. Continue to step 10 below.

—OR—

 Microsoft IIS

Sentral installs ServletExec®, which enables Java® Servlets in IIS.

a. Sentral displays the ServletExec Application Server Setup dialog box. Click Next.
b. Select Install a ServletExec AS instance and then click Next.
c. Continue by accepting installation defaults. From the Enter Text screen shown below, be

sure to replace the default (the name of the computer on which you are installing Sentral)
with CMSServer (this value is case-sensitive).

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Installing Sentral FTP Server and Sentral Server

NOTE:

If this message is covered by a Windows Explorer containing a readme file, close the
explorer to see the remaining installation messages.

Figure 4. Specifying the name of the AS instance

d. From the Setup Type screen, select Microsoft IIS, and then click Next.
e. From the Choose Destination Location screen, accept the default location,

C:\InetPub\Scripts, and then click Next (assuming that the installation drive is C:\).

f. Accept the default ServletExec port, 8888, and then click Next.
g. Click Next to install the specified components.
h. Specify values from the ServletExec Admin Username and Password screen. Note that

Sentral does not require these credentials (these are used for a Web-based admin login).
Click Next.

i. The installer displays an Application Server Setup information message about

webadapter.properties. Click OK to continue.

j. Click Finish to complete ServletExec installation. Sentral then displays a message about

starting ServletExec.

Now that you have specified the Sentral Web server, continue to the following step.

10. Provide the database server credentials so that the installer can insert the schema in the database.

The table below shows each field in the Enter database information screen (shown in Figure 5).

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Sentral Quick Start Guide

Field

Description

Database

Select MySQL or MS SQL as appropriate for your installation.

Database
Server

Enter the network location of the Sentral Database (the IP address or host name).
ClearCube recommends using a static IP address. Type localhost if you are using the default
MySQL database user name and the password root.

NOTE:

Only if you are using a non-default port for your database server (the default
MySQL port is 3306, and the default SQL Server port is 1433), specify the port
at the end of the IP address with a comma between the IP address and the
port number. For example:

192.168.3.52,nnnn

where 192.168.3.52 is the IP address and nnnn is the port number.

If you are using default database server ports (see above), do not specify any
port at the end of the IP address.

Username

Enter the user name of the Sentral Database administrator you specified during MS SQL or
MySQL installation.

Password

Enter the password for the Sentral Database administrator you specified during MS SQL or
MySQL installation.

Create
Database

Select Yes to automatically load the Sentral schema for the database you selected above.

NOTE: You must select Yes the first time you install Sentral.

Figure 5. The Sentral Database information screen

The table below explains the Database Configuration fields.

Table 2. The Database Configuration screen fields

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Installing Sentral FTP Server and Sentral Server

NOTE:

If you are using a primary server only, specify the primary server’s address in the

Secondary Sever field.

11. From the Primary and Secondary Server screen, specify the IP address or host name of Sentral

Server (ClearCube recommends using an IP address).

12. Click Next and the installer displays progress messages.

13. Enter the requested information to create an SSL certificate (shown in the figure below). This

information is used for communicating with R-series chassis Remote Management Module (RMM).
(See Sentral Administrator’s Guide and R-Series Data Center Products User’s Guide for more information.)

 All fields are mandatory
 Country Code field is a two-letter code. You can find a list of two-letter country codes (or code

elements) in the ISO 3166-1 standard, located at:

http://www.iso.org/iso/country_codes/iso_3166_code_lists.htm

Figure 6. Entering SSL certificate information

14. Click Next to continue. A message is displayed about SSL certificate creation.

15. Click Finish to complete Sentral Server installation and to begin Sentral Console installation.

Next step: Sentral Console installation

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Sentral Quick Start Guide

NOTE:

Do not install Sentral host agent on the computer on which Sentral Console is installed.

NOTE:

See 10.4 “Server Type and Addresses” below for information about important settings when
using PCoIP zero clients.

7 Installing Sentral Console

Sentral Console installation automatically begins after Sentral Server installation is complete.

1. In the Sentral Server Information screen, Sentral automatically populates the Primary and Secondary

Server fields with the hostname of the computer on which you are performing the installation.
ClearCube recommends entering the computer’s IP address here.

If you are installing only one Sentral Server, enter the same value in the primary and secondary
server fields.

Click Next to continue.

2. From the Choose Destination Location screen, accept the default or specify a different installation

path and click Next to continue.

3. From the InstallShield® Wizard Complete screen, click Finish to complete installation.

4. Select Yes, I want to restart my computer now and click Finish to restart the computer.

8 Start Sentral Console as Administrator

Always start Sentral Console as an administrator user. The steps below show how to start Sentral
Console (these steps assume Sentral is installed on Windows 7).

1. Click Start > All Programs > ClearCube Sentral > ClearCube Sentral Console, then right-click the

second ClearCube Sentral Console menu item.

Figure 7. Entering SSL certificate information

2. From the right-click menu, select Run as administrator, and then click Yes.

12 Rev F 2.2.08.06.2014