Parallels Remote
Application Server
Licensing Guide
v17
Parallels International GmbH
Vordergasse 59
8200 Schaffhausen
Switzerland
Tel: + 41 52 672 20 30
www.parallels.com
Copyright © 1999-2019 Parallels International GmbH. All rights reserved.
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All other marks and names mentioned herein may be trademarks of their respective owners.
Contents
Introduction ............................................................................................................... 4
Purchase or Upgrade Licenses ................................................................................. 5
Parallels RAS Licensing ..................................................................................................... 5
License Overuse ............................................................................................................... 6
Purchase Licenses ............................................................................................................ 6
Upgrade an Existing License ............................................................................................. 7
Sign Up and Register a Subscription ....................................................................... 8
Create a Parallels Account and Register a Subscription .................................................... 8
Create a Business Account ............................................................................................. 12
Register a Subscription ................................................................................................... 13
Activate Parallels RAS ..................................................................................................... 14
Manage Subscriptions and Licenses ...................................................................... 15
View Subscriptions and Subscription Details ................................................................... 15
Create Additional License Keys ....................................................................................... 18
Manage Parallels RAS Farms .................................................................................. 20
Manage Accounts ................................................................................................... 22
Switching Between Accounts .......................................................................................... 22
Viewing and Modifying Business Profile ........................................................................... 23
Inviting Users to Join a Business Account ....................................................................... 24
Blocking and Removing Users from a Business Account ................................................. 26
Support and Downloads ......................................................................................... 28
C HAPTER 1
Introduction
This guide describes how to manage your Parallels Remote Application Server (Parallels RAS)
subscriptions and licenses. It begins with the information on how to purchase and upgrade
licenses. It then describes how to sign up for a Parallels account and register a subscription. After
that, it describes how to manage your account, subscriptions and licenses using your Parallels
account.
C HAPTER 2
Purchase or Upgrade Licenses
There are several options for licensing Parallels RAS. Read this chapter to find out which licensing
options are right for you and how to purchase and upgrade licenses.
In This Chapter
Parallels RAS Licensing ............................................................................................ 5
License Overuse ....................................................................................................... 6
Purchase Licenses ................................................................................................... 6
Upgrade an Existing License .................................................................................... 7
Parallels RAS Licensing
Parallels RAS uses concurrent-user licensing. This means that a user can establish any number of
connections to Parallels RAS as long as the number of users simultaneously accessing Parallels
RAS does not exceed the number of concurrent user licenses.
Consider the following examples:
• One user, one device, one connection — one license is needed.
• One user, one or multiple devices, multiple connections — one license is needed.
• Multiple users, each establishing one or multiple connections — a license is needed for each
user. When all licenses are used up, the next user will have to wait for one of the current users
to log out from all sessions.
The following table shows license consumption by connection type and user rights:
Connection Type User Rights Consumes RAS License
RAS desktop/published application connection Non-admin
RDP desktop/published application connection Non-admin
RAS published application connection Administrator
Yes
Yes
Yes
RAS published desktop connection*
Direct or tunneled RDP desktop connection*
Administrator
Administrator
No
No
* Maximum up to two connections of either type per RD Session Host server.
Purchase or Upgrade Licenses
Prepaid Subscription
You license Parallels RAS with a prepaid subscription, which works as follows:
• Your active subscription allows you to upgrade to a newer version of Parallels RAS whenever
one becomes available.
• A subscription is purchased for a predefined period of time, either one month, one year, two
years, or three years. One-month subscriptions can only be purchased online.
• If a subscription is purchased online, by default it is set to automatically renew when the
subscription period ends. Subscriptions purchased through a reseller must be renewed through
the reseller.
• Support is included in the cost of the subscription. You can choose either the Standard or
Premium support plan.
Grace Period
If your license expires, Parallels RAS continues to run for a grace period of 30 days, within which
time you should renew your subscription.
License Overuse
Parallels RAS gives you a grace period of 7 days during which time you can connect more users to
a farm than your subscription terms specify. To continue providing access to the increased number
of concurrent users, you should purchase more licenses before the grace period is over. The 7-day
grace period can be used again later after you purchase more licenses.
If by the end of the grace period you don't purchase more licenses, the Parallels RAS farm will
continue to operate normally as long as the number of concurrent users doesn't exceed the limit
specified in your subscription. If the number of concurrent users exceeds the limit at any time, your
Parallels RAS farm will be temporarily deactivated. This means that none of the users will be able to
get the listing of published resources from the farm or use those resources. Please note that
deactivation may not happen as soon as the license overuse occurs, but it will happen within 1-2
hours. To re-activate the farm, you have to make sure that the number of concurrent users doesn't
exceed the license limit. Parallels RAS performs the validation every 20 minutes. As soon as it
detects that the number of concurrent users is at or below the limit, it will reactive the farm.
Purchase Licenses
You can purchase Parallels RAS licenses online or you can contact a Parallels partner.
6
Purchase or Upgrade Licenses
Purchase licenses online
Visit http://www.parallels.com/products/ras/buy/
Purchase licenses through a Parallels partner
To find a Parallels partner near you, visit http://www.parallels.com/partners/locator/
Once you purchase licenses, the Parallels partner will provide you with a single license key which
you can use to activate Parallels RAS. You only need one key to register and activate all your
licenses.
If you don't already have a Parallels account, you will also receive an invitation to join one.
Important: A license key can be used to activate a single installation of Parallels RAS. You can change
the activated installation up to three times (for backup purposes, if a previously activated server has been
damaged or stolen, etc.). If you need to activate several Parallels RAS installations to work
simultaneously, you need multiple license keys.
Upgrade an Existing License
Upgrade eligibility
You are eligible for a free upgrade to Parallels RAS v16.5 if you have any of the following:
• A valid Parallels RAS subscription.
• A permanent license and a valid upgrade insurance plan.
7
C HAPTER 3
Sign Up and Register a Subscription
After you purchase a Parallels RAS subscription, you need to register your license key in Parallels
My Account before you can use it to activate a Parallels RAS farm. The registration also gives you
the ability to manage your subscriptions and licenses in one place.
In This Chapter
Create a Parallels Account and Register a Subscription ............................................ 8
Create a Business Account ...................................................................................... 12
Register a Subscription ............................................................................................ 13
Activate Parallels RAS .............................................................................................. 14
Create a Parallels Account and Register a Subscription
Parallels My Account is a web service that enables Parallels customers (consumers and
organizations) to view and manage subscriptions and licenses for Parallels products. The
instructions below describe how to quickly get started with Parallels My Account.
Personal vs. Business Account
There are two types of Parallels accounts:
• Personal account is used to manage subscriptions to Parallels consumer products. The
account is also required to manage Parallels business products.
• Business account is used to manage business products, such as Parallels RAS. A business
account is created for your organization when you register a business subscription for the first
time.
What you should read next
• If you are a new customer and don't have a Parallels account, continue reading this section.
• If you already have a personal account (but not a business account), you may skip to Create a
Business Account (p. 12).
• If you already have both personal and business accounts, you may skip to Register a
Subscription (p. 13).
Sign Up and Register a Subscription
Create a Parallels Account
1 Visit Parallels My Account at https://my.parallels.com
2 On the Welcome to Parallels My Account page, click Sign Up.
9
Sign Up and Register a Subscription
3 Enter your first and last name, email address and password.
4 Read the Parallels Terms of Use and if you agree, select the I agree with Parallels Terms of
Use option.
5 Click Sign Up to continue.
10
Sign Up and Register a Subscription
6 In the dialog that opens, input your Parallels RAS license key that you received with your
subscription and click Register.
7 In the Provide your business details dialog, enter you company name, address, and phone
number.
8 Click Register.
11
Sign Up and Register a Subscription
9 You will now be taken to Dashboard, which is the home page of your Parallels account where
you can see your registered subscription(s).
Hint: To return to Dashboard from any other area of Parallels My Account, simply click the Dashboard
link on the page header at any time.
Summary
After completing the steps above:
• A personal Parallels account is created for you.
• A business Parallels account is created for your organization to which you are assigned as the
account administrator.
• Your Parallels RAS license key is registered and can be used to activate a Parallels RAS farm.
Create a Business Account
If you already have a Parallels personal account (but not a business account) and need to register a
business subscription that you have purchased, do the following:
1 Visit Parallels My Account at https://my.parallels.com
12
Sign Up and Register a Subscription
2 Sign in using your email address and password.
3 Click Register Key on the page header.
4 Input your Parallels RAS license key and click Register.
5 In the Provide your business details dialog, enter you company name, address, and phone
number.
6 Click Register.
7 You will now be taken to Dashboard where you can see your registered subscription(s).
Summary
After completing the steps above:
• A Parallels business account is created for your organization to which you are assigned as the
account administrator.
• Your Parallels RAS license key is registered and can be used to activate a Parallels RAS farm.
Register a Subscription
If you would like to register a business subscription using your existing business account, do the
following:
1 Sign in to Parallels My Account using your email address and password.
2 Click Register Key on the page header.
3 Input your license key and click Register.
Your subscription is now registered and can be used to activate a Parallels RAS farm.
13
Sign Up and Register a Subscription
Activate Parallels RAS
After you registered your subscription in Parallels My Account, you can activate a Parallels RAS
farm using your license key.
Sign in to Parallels My Account
Open the Parallels RAS Console. When you run it for the first time, you'll see the Sign In to
Parallels My Account dialog. If you already have an account, type your email address and
password and click Sign In.
If you don't have a Parallels account, you can register for one as follows:
1 In the Sign In to Parallels My Account dialog, click Register. The Register Parallels My
Account dialog opens.
2 Enter your name, email address, a desired password, and your company info (all fields are
required).
3 Click Register to register an account. This will create a personal account for yourself and a
business account for your organization to which you will be assigned as the account
administrator.
You should see the confirmation message saying that your account has been registered
successfully. Click OK to close the message box. In the Sign In to Parallels My Account dialog,
provide the email address and password and click Sign In. You'll see the Activate Product dialog.
Activate Parallels RAS
After you sign in to Parallels My Account in the RAS Console, the Activate Product dialog opens
asking you to activate Parallels RAS. Select the Activate using license key option and enter the
key in the field provided. You can click the button next to the field to see the list of subscriptions
and/or permanent license keys you have registered in Parallels My Account.
If you don't have a Parallels RAS subscription or license key, you have the following options:
• Purchase a subscription online by clicking the Purchase a license link.
• Activate Parallels RAS as a trial by selecting the Activate trial version option.
After entering a license key (or selecting to activate a trial version), click Activate. You should see a
message that your Parallels RAS farm has been activated successfully. Click OK to close the
message box.
Read on to learn how to manage your business account(s) and your Parallels RAS licenses using
your Parallels account.
14
C HAPTER 4
Manage Subscriptions and Licenses
This chapter describes how to manage your Parallels accounts, subscriptions and licenses.
In This Chapter
View Subscriptions and Subscription Details ............................................................ 15
Create Additional License Keys ................................................................................ 18
View Subscriptions and Subscription Details
To view your Parallels RAS subscription(s):
1 Sign in to your Parallels account.
2 If you don't see the Dashboard page, click Dashboard on the page header.
Manage Subscriptions and Licenses
3 The Products page will be populated with the subscription information.
Active subscriptions
To see active subscriptions, click the Active subscriptions row. This opens the page with active
subscriptions.
16
Subscription details
To see subscription details, click the subscription name.
Manage Subscriptions and Licenses
The Subscription Details page contains general subscription information, such as status, dates,
number of licenses, etc. The action links allow you to turn the subscription renewal on/off, see your
order history and contract details, and buy more licenses.
To modify the display name of the subscription, click the
link (at the top of the page).
The License Keys section displays information about the Primary Key that came with your
subscription and one or more additional license keys (also known as sublicenses), if available. You
create additional keys yourself by clicking the Create License Key link above the list. For more
information, see Creating Additional License Keys (p. 18).
You can sort the list by one of the license key properties by clicking on the desired column heading.
17
Manage Subscriptions and Licenses
Create Additional License Keys
When you purchase a subscription, you receive a single license key with it called Primary Key. In
many business situations a single license key may not be flexible enough. For this reason, Parallels
provides you with the ability to create additional license keys (also known as sublicenses) linked to
your Primary Key. When creating a license key, you can allocate a desired number of licenses to it
and specify a custom expiration date.
Planning for license keys
Additional license keys are useful in these typical scenarios:
• You want to grant a division of your organization the ability to use a limited number of your
available licenses (concurrent users). You can create a license key with a required number of
licenses and give it to the administrator of that division.
• You don't want another Parallels RAS administrator to have control of your Primary Key. You
can create an additional license key and give it to that administrator.
All of the allocated licenses in a license key are reserved exclusively for that particular key. None of
the licenses (including unused ones) are available to the Primary Key or other additional keys.
Creating a license key
To create an additional license key:
1 On the Subscription Details page, click Create License Key. The License Key dialog opens.
18
Manage Subscriptions and Licenses
You can specify the following properties:
• To change the display name for this license key, click the "pencil" icon and enter the desired
name.
• In the Quota of Licenses field, specify the desired number of individual licenses (concurrent
users) that the key should contain.
• Select the Renew with Subscription option if you want this license key to have the same
expiration date as the Primary Key. The key will also renew automatically when you renew
your subscription. To set a custom expiration date, clear the option and enter the date in the
Expiration Date field.
2 Click Save to create a license key.
Modify or delete a license key
To modify an existing license key, make sure you are on the Subscription Details page (p. 15). Click
the "gear" icon at the end of the license key row. This will open the dialog where you can modify
the license key properties.
To delete a license key, click Delete Key. Please note that if you have an active Parallels RAS farm
using this license key, it will be deactivated.
Note: You can assign one or more administrators to manage a license key. For example, if you create a
license key to be used by a specific division in your organization, you can invite the administrator of that
division to join the business account and give them rights to manage that particular license key. For the
complete information, please see Inviting Users to Join a Business Account (p. 24) and Managing
License Administrators.
19
C HAPTER 5
Manage Parallels RAS Farms
To view active Parallels RAS farms:
1 In Parallels My Account, click Dashboard.
2 Click the Prepaid farms row inside the Parallels Remote Application Server box. This opens
a page listing active and deactivated farms (if any). To see active farms only, click the Farms
drop-down menu (above the list) and choose Active.
Scroll the list vertically to see all displayed columns. To select columns to be displayed, click the
"gear" icon and select from the following:
• Farm Name: Farm name.
• Activation key: License key that was used to activate the farm.
• Status: Farm status (active, deactivated).
• Server ID: The host server ID.
• App Version: Parallels RAS version number.
• Activation Date: The farm activation date.
• Latest Report Date: The date the farm last contacted Parallels cloud.
• Peak Usage: The peak number of concurrent users recorded.
• Notes: A custom note about the farm. See below for the info on how to enter a note.
Manage Parallels RAS Farms
The Actions drop-down menu allows you to save the list to a CSV file and deactivate one or more
selected farms (see Deactivating a farm at the end of this section). To select a farm, click the
checkbox in the first column. To select all farms in the list, click the checkbox in the table header.
Once one or more farms are selected, the Actions menu becomes enabled.
To view the summary info for a farm, click its name in the Farm Name column. This will open the
following dialog:
Here you can view the farm summary info and enter a custom note using the Notes edit box.
Deactivating a farm
You can deactivate a farm by clicking the Actions drop-down menu on the Prepaid Farms page
(see above) or by clicking the Deactivate button in the farm details dialog (see the screenshot
above).
The farm will be deactivated the next time it contacts Parallels cloud. Once it's deactivated, the
users will no longer be able to connect to it. The license key used by the farm becomes available,
so you can use it to activate a different Parallels RAS farm.
21
C HAPTER 6
Manage Accounts
Read this chapter to learn how to manage your Parallels accounts.
In This Chapter
Switching Between Accounts ................................................................................... 22
Viewing and Modifying Business Profile .................................................................... 23
Inviting Users to Join a Business Account ................................................................ 24
Blocking and Removing Users from a Business Account .......................................... 26
Switching Between Accounts
When you log in to Parallels My Account, you use your personal account credentials. Once logged
in, you can switch between your personal and your organization's accounts by clicking the dropdown menu in the upper left hand corner and choosing an account.
When you select an account, the Dashboard is automatically populated with Parallels product(s)
registered with the account.
When you select a business account, the Business Profile item is added to the navigation area of
the page.
Clicking the Business Profile item opens the page where you can view and manage your
organization's business account.
Clicking on the
following items:
icon in the page header, opens a menu where you can view and select the
Manage Accounts
• Your name and email address.
• Personal Profile. Opens a page where you can view and modify your personal account
information.
• Security Settings. Opens a page where you can view your account security settings.
• Logout. Logs you out of Parallels My Account.
Viewing and Modifying Business Profile
To view and modify the business profile of your organization, click the Business Profile item in the
upper right hand corner. This opens the Business Profile page.
Click the Edit button to open the Edit Company Information dialog. You can modify any
information on that page. When done, click Save.
The Membership area of the Business Profile page displays your role (e.g. Account Administrator)
and the date your account membership began. The Leave This Business Account button allows
you to terminate your business account membership. Please note that if you are the only
administrator on this account, you must invite at least one more user to be an account
administrator before you can leave the account.
23
Manage Accounts
The Account Admins section lists account administrators. For more information, see Inviting
Users to Join a Business Account (p. 24).
Inviting Users to Join a Business Account
As the administrator of a business account, you can invite other users in your organization to join it.
Once a user joins the account, you can grant them rights to manage all or specific license keys.
To invite a user to join the business account:
1 On the Dashboard, click Business Profile in the upper right and then click Users (also in the
upper right).
2 The Business Account Users list is displayed:
3 Click Invite Users.
4 In the dialog that opens, select a language of invitation, then type the email address of a user
and click Add. You can invite more than one user at the same time. Once the list of users is
complete, click the Send Invitations button.
24
Manage Accounts
When a user receives the email, it will contain instructions and a link to join the business account.
Clicking on the link will open the following Parallels My Account dialog in a web browser:
If the user already has a personal account, he/she will need to enter their current password. If the
user doesn't have an account, they must choose and type a password to create a personal
account. The user then clicks Join account to join and log in to Parallels My Account.
Types of business account membership
There are two types of business account membership:
• Regular Member. When a user accepts the invitation, they are initially granted privileges of a
regular member. A regular member cannot manage any of the subscriptions or licenses and
must be either promoted to the account administrator (see below for details) or granted rights
to manage a particular license key (see Managing License Administrators).
• Account Administrator. An account administrator has full privileges to manage all of the
available subscriptions and licenses.
Promoting a user to account administrator
To promote a user to the administrator of a business account, you need to do the following:
1 Open the Business Account Users list (see above) and click the user name you want to
promote.
25
Manage Accounts
2 The dialog displaying the user membership information opens.
3 Click the Role drop-down menu and select Account Administrator.
4 Use the Notes box to enter a note if desired and click Save to save the information.
The user needs to log off and then log on again for the new role to take effect.
Blocking and Removing Users from a Business Account
You can block or remove a user from the business account:
• When you block a user, the user's access to the account is revoked, but the user remains a
member of the account and can be unblocked. You can use this functionality to temporarily
block users when you need to perform maintenance of the account or some other similar task.
• When you remove a user, he/she is completely removed from the business account. You can
later invite the user to join the business account again if you wish.
To block or remove a user from the business account:
1 Make sure your business account is selected on the Dashboard and click Business Profile in
the upper right.
2 Click Users in the upper right.
3 Click on a user name.
26
Manage Accounts
4 In the dialog that opens, click Block or Delete.
5 Click Save.
The user will receive an email with a message that their business account membership has been
blocked or canceled. If you wish to unblock a user, repeat the steps above and click Unblock.
27
C HAPTER 7
Support and Downloads
As a Parallels business customer, you get 24/7 business-class technical support with your Parallels
RAS subscription. If you have an issue with deploying or using Parallels RAS, contact Parallels
Support at any time either by phone or online.
To contact Parallels Support:
1 In Parallels My Account, click Dashboard and then click Support inside the Parallels Remote
Application Server box. This will open the support web page.
2 Scroll down to the Contact Support section.
To see the available Parallels RAS downloads:
1 On the Dashboard, click the Active Subscription row inside the Parallels Remote
Application Server box.
2 Click Download at the top of the page. This will open the page from where you can download
additional Parallels RAS software and documentation. The version selector at the top (a dropdown menu) allows you to select a Parallels RAS version for which you would like to see the
available downloads.
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