NX Builder
Installation Instructions

NX Builder is a Web application written in php, using a MySQL database for storing the information, and is provided as a compressed TAR package. This application, which can be easily integrated into any Web site, once configured by the Web administrator using the steps outlined below, will provide NX end users with pre-configured session files which will then allow them to access remote desktops and applications via the NX Client. There will be no need for users to configure their NX Client software other than setting the remote desktop resolution and the connection link type.

1.2 Supported Platforms

1.3 Prerequisites

2. Setting up and Configuring the NX Builder on Linux

# sudo tar -xvzf nxbuilder-X.Y.Z-W.tar.gz

# sudo cp -a /usr/NX/share/nxbuilder /var/www/html

# sudo chown -R apacheUser: apacheGroup DocumentRoot/nxbuilder

Where apacheUser, apacheGroup and DocumentRoot should be replaced with the proper values depending on your Apache configuration.

2.2 Configuring Apache HTTP Server to Run the NX Builder

<Directory "${path}/nxbuilder">
DirectoryIndex nxbuilder.php
Options Multiviews

<Files ~ "\.(cfg|conf)$">
Order deny,allow
Deny from all
</Files>

</Directory>
AddType application/nxs .nxs

<Directory "/var/www/html/nxbuilder">

Include DocumentRoot/nxbuilder/builder.conf

Include DocumentRoot/nxbuilder/builder.conf

http://ServerName/nxbuilder/Setup.php

2.3 Creating and Updating the NX Builder Backend

http://ServerName/nxbuilder/Setup.php

Bind-address:      Address IP of the machine where Mysql is running on
DB Name:           Name of the DB you are going to create
Administrator:     MySQL administrator's username
Password:          MySQL administrator's password

2.4 Updating the NX Builder

# sudo tar cvzf /root/nx-BACKUP.tar.gz /var/www/html/nxbuilder

# sudo chmod 0600 /root/nx-BACKUP.tar.gz

To configure your NX Builder to access the backend, please refer to the previous section.

2.5 Removing the NX Builder

# sudo rm -rf /var/www/html/nxbuilder
# sudo [mysql dir]/bin/mysql -h hostname -u root -p 
mysql> drop database [database name];

3. Administering the NX Builder

3.1 What Does the NX Builder Allow You to Do?

The NX Builder application allows you, as NX Builder Administrator, to deploy a pre-configured set of NX sessions on the Web, to be run on your NX Server(s), that you can then make available to the end-users. The NX sessions can be deployed either on a per-server and/or on a per-user basis. You will be able to give access to your NX Builder to both Guest Builder Users, i.e. all users can access the application without the need for Web access credentials, and/or to your established end-users who have Web access credentials.

The only prerequisites needed to ensure that the end-user will be able to run whichever NX session among the available list are that:

• The end-user has NX Client installed on his/her machine.
• A proper account is created on the NX server.

More details on how to configure users on NX builder to better integrate with accounts available on NX server are provided at sections 3.6 Add the NX Builder Guest User and Deploy Sessions on the Web, and 3.7 Add the NX Builder User and Deploy Sessions on the Web.

3.2 What are the Basic Steps to Set Up your NX Builder?

These are the basic steps you need to follow to deploy sessions on the Web via NX Builder:

• Log-in to NX Builder as Administrator and change the default password provided by the installation.
• Add NX server(s) to the NX Builder list of servers.
• Create the session type(s) to be made available for each server.
• Create NX Builder users - you might want to create either a Guest Builder User and/ or specific Web users.
• Associate NX Server(s) to each NX Builder user, including the Guest Builder User if present. Choose among the list of available sessions per-server which session has to be deployed on the Web for that user.

3.3 Log-in as Administrator to NX Builder

The NX Builder application is provided with a default Web Administrator user. You can enter the application at:

http://ServerName/nxbuilder

by using the following credentials:

Username: nxbuilder
Password: nxbuilder

3.4 Add NX server to the NX Builder Server List

Click on the 'Add server' button in the NX Builder top bar.

Fill all the mandatory fields

• Server name: the name of your NX server. It will be displayed on the Web page providing the list of available NX servers.
• Host: either hostname or IP address of the machine where your NX server is running.
• Port: the TCP port where the NX server SSHD daemon is running. The default is 22.

Provide more information about your NX Server:

The following fields allow you to specify more details for your NX server machine, for example:

• Description: a short note to add information about the machine.
• O.S.: Operating System running on the server machine.
• CPU: Processor of the server machine.
• Memory: RAM size.
• Disk: Hard disk size.

Temporarily forbid access to your NX server via Web

If you want to temporary disable access to your NX Server via the NX Builder application, you can access the 'Suspend display of this server via Web' interface. This can be useful, for example, if you need to make technical operations on your NX server host machine and you can't ensure accessibility to this server for a period of time.

You can choose either to disable display of the NX server from the list deployed on the Web or to replace the NX Server item with a notification message.

Please note that this feature can be activated in any moment by accessing the 'Modify' interface for that server.

Associate the appropriate image to your NX Server

You might also want to associate an image to the new server. Feel free to upload your preferred image which will be displayed at 122x93 px. If you don't specify any image, a default 'empty' image will be associated.

3.5 Add sessions to the NX server

Click on the 'Add session' button in the NX Builder top bar.

Give a name to the session

Choose a meaningful name for the session, that can identify what kind of session you are deploying on the Web. That name will be displayed in the sessions list deployed on the Web.

Please note that NX Builder will name the .nxs file, generated on demand when starting a session, by concatenating the session name and the server host name. Furthermore, each space in the session name will be replaced by an underscore. For example:

Session name: My session

Server host name: testdrive.nomachine.com

Resulting .nxs file: My_session@testdrive.nomachine.com

Associate the session to the NX Server

Select among the 'Server name' list the NX Server on which you want this session to be run.

Configure the session

Choose the session type in the 'General' tab. You can also override the default parameters of the session configuration by setting options in the 'Advanced', 'Services' and 'Environment' tabs.

Associate an image to the NX session

In the 'General' tab, you can specify a category for the session, choosing among any of the default categories (which has a pre-defined image associated) or create a new category and associate your preferred image.

3.6 Add the NX Builder Guest User and Deploy Sessions on the Web

Click on the 'Add user' button in the NX Builder top bar.

Add the NX Builder Guest User

Select 'Guest' as 'User type': you will not need to specify username or password for this guest user. Note also that you can only have one unique guest user in your Web application.

Specify how the NX Builder Guest User will authenticate on the NX server

If you select 'Login to NX Server as a guest user', the NX Builder Guest User will try to run sessions on the NX Server as a 'guest'.

IMPORTANT

Pre-requisites for running sessions as a guest user on the server are:

3.7 Add the NX Builder User and Deploy Sessions on the Web

Click on the 'Add user' button in the NX Builder top bar.

Add the NX Builder User

Select 'User' as 'User type' and specify username and password for this user. These will be the user's Web credentials to login to NX Builder. If you want to give administrator privileges to the new user, specify 'Administrator' as 'User type'. In that way, the freshly created user will be able to access the NX Builder Administration interface.

Specify how the NX Builder User will authenticate on the NX Server

If you select 'Use Web credentials to access NX', each time the end-user tries to start a session, the NX Builder will pass the user's Web credentials to the NX session file generated on demand.

If you select 'Login to NX Server as a guest user' instead, the NX Builder Guest User will try to run sessions on the NX Server as a 'guest'.

IMPORTANT

• It is recommended that when NX Builder is configured to create the session file based on the user's Web credentials, a correspondent account exists on the server to ensure that the user will be able to access the NX system. This account needs to use the same credentials set for accessing the NX Builder.
• Pre-requisites for running sessions as a guest user on the server are:
  The end-user needs NX Client version 2.0.0 or higher installed on his/her machine. Support for guest users is available with NX Enterprise Server and NX Advanced Server.

3.8 List, Modify and Delete the NX Servers

Click on the 'Server list' button in the NX Builder top bar: you will then able to list, modify and delete each of the NX Servers you have added to the NX Builder.

You will be also able to start sessions on the server via the same Web interface.

3.9 List, Modify and Delete the NX Sessions

Click on the 'Session list' button in the NX Builder top bar: you will then able to list, modify and delete each of the sessions you have deployed on a per-server basis.

You will be also able to start sessions on the server via the same Web interface.

3.10 List, Modify and Delete the NX Builder Users

Click on the 'User list' button in the NX Builder top bar: you will then able to list, modify and delete each of the users. Note that at least one Administrator user is needed on the NX Builder.

3.11 The Configuration Interface

The Configuration interface allows you to extract the source code needed to display the list of NX Servers and associated NX sessions deployed on the Web. The source code can be easily integrated in any Web page, giving the possibility to directly display the per-server session list. This can be used when the NX Builder Guest User is defined and there is no need to give Web access credentials to log-in to the NX Builder application.

The source code is automatically generated by the NX Builder application and includes references to the NX Builder installation paths, needed for the correct working of the code. You can get a preview of the embedded code by clicking on the 'Preview' button.

To embed NX Builder in your Web site, copy and paste the source code in a file and include it on the Web site. You will be then able to offer a live experience as the NoMachine Testdrive already does:

4. Personalizing the NX Builder