Table of Contents

Introduction

1. NoMachine Enterprise Desktop - Installation and Configuration Guide

1.1. About This Guide

How to set-up the Enterprise Desktop

2. Install the Enterprise Desktop

2.1. Prerequisites

2.2. Windows Installations

2.3. Mac Installations

2.4. Linux Installations

2.5. RPM Packages

2.6. DEB Packages

2.7. TAR.GZ Packages

2.8. Activating the License (for Customers)

Connect to the Enterprise Desktop

3. Initiating a NoMachine Connection (end-user's side)

3.1. Connecting by Browsers Via Enterprise Desktop Web Tools

3.2. Connecting by NoMachine Client

3.3. Preventing Users from Storing Credentials

Configurations and Optimizations

4. Configuring NoMachine Enterprise Desktop

4.1. Configuring Web Sessions

4.2. Managing Enterprise Desktop Web Services

4.3. Using an Alternative Apache Web Server

4.4. Web Optimizations: Using WebRTC (Real-Time Web Communication)

5. Compression Techniques and Optimizations

5.1. Video Streaming Encoding in Web Sessions

5.2. Video Streaming Encoding in Client Sessions

Enterprise Desktop's Administration

6. Enterprise Desktop's Configuration

6.1. Configuration Files

7. Services Management

7.1. Accepting Connections

7.2. Stopping and Starting Enterprise Desktop and Services

7.3. Stopping and Starting Network Services

7.4. Local and Network Ports

7.5. Hiding the NoMachine Monitor and Notification Messages

7.6. Hiding the Whiteboard and Chat Tools

7.7. Handling with Discovering of this Server on LAN

8. Notifications to Users

8.1. Whiteboard and Custom Notifications

9. Supported Connection Protocols and Authentication Methods

9.1. Defining Protocol in Server Configuration

9.2. Locking Down the Accepted Authentication Methods

9.3. Changing Port for the NX Protocol

9.4. Changing Port for the SSH Protocol

9.5. Connecting to a Server Behind a Firewall (UPnP Port Mapping)

9.6. Using NoMachine DBs for Managing User Access

10. Users Management

10.1. Managing Users on the Enterprise Desktop Host

10.2. Connecting with a Privileged System Account

10.3. Connecting as a NoMachine Trusted User

10.4. Guest Users

11. Sessions' Management

11.1. Monitoring Sessions

11.2. Managing Sessions

11.3. Executing Custom Scripts on Server/Node Events

12. Connections to the Remote Desktop and Collaborative Sessions

12.1. Blanking the Remote Screen and Auto Lock Upon Disconnecting

12.2. Configuring Interaction Level to the Physical Desktop

12.3. Configuring Users and Authorization for Connecting to a Physical Desktop

12.4. Configuring User's Ability to Disable Accepting Connections

13. Device Sharing, Copy&Paste and File Transfer

13.1. Connecting Devices

13.2. Disks

13.3. Printers

13.4. USB Devices

13.5. Network Ports

13.6. Smartcard Readers

13.7. Copy and Paste Operations

13.8. Transferring Files

14. Multimedia and Session Recording

14.1. Supporting Audio and Microphone

14.2. Recording your Screen

15. Automatic Updates

16. Logging Facilities

16.1. Using the System Logging Facilities

16.2. Redirecting Logs to a Custom File

16.3. Configuring the Automatic Clean-up of Session Directories

16.4. NoMachine Log Rotation

Federating the Enterprise Desktop Under a Cloud Server

17. Setting-up a Centralized Access to Multiple Enterprise Desktop Servers

17.1. Federating the Enterprise Desktop Under a Cloud Server

Introduction 1. NoMachine Enterprise Desktop Installation and Configuration Guide Welcome to the NoMachine Enterprise Desktop - Installation and Configuration Guide v. 6. What is NoMachine Enterprise Desktop for? NoMachine Enterprise Desktop is a standalone server that provides unlimited concurrent accesses to the physical desktop of its host. Designed for work sharing sessions and real-time collaboration, remote teaching or assistance, it can be configured for full interaction with the desktop or view-only mode. Available for Linux, Mac and Windows, the Enterprise Desktop accepts connections via a browser (thanks to its built-in web server) or via NoMachine client. Additionally, it can also be federated under a Cloud Server. This solution is suitable to centralize the access to multiple NoMachine servers distributed across the world. A Graphical Interface The NoMachine Enterprise Desktop server package includes the NoMachine GUI which provides the graphical interface (Server preferences) for administering the server and its services. This GUI acts also as client for running sessions and connecting to remote desktops. Most common operations detailed in this guide can be performed by the NoMachine UI and the Server preferences panel running on the local installation of the server: The server is fully operative once installed Installation is conceived to provide a fully operative NoMachine server with a default configuration suitable for the greatest part of environments. All the necessary services are automatically started. A standalone server NoMachine Enterprise Desktop, available for Linux, Windows and Mac, supports multiple concurrent connections to the physical desktop (sharing of the desktop) of its host machine. Number of users is not limited. NoMachine Enterprise Desktop is a single server (standalone server), to all effects. A federated server NoMachine Enterprise Desktop can be also federated under a Cloud Server v. 6 which provides a single point of access to multiple server subsystems. In this case, it's possible configuring the Enterprise Desktop to not accept direct connections. For more specific instructions about federating the Enterprise Desktop, refer to the Cloud Server administrative's guide. 1.1. About This Guide Document Conventions and Important Notices The following conventions are used in this guide: BaseDirectory is the base directory where the NoMachine binaries and libraries are installed. By default, BaseDirectory is: /usr on Linux, C:\Program Files\ on Windows and /Applications on Mac. InstallationDirectory is: BaseDirectory/NX on Linux, BaseDirectory/NoMachine on Windows and BaseDirectory/NoMachine.app on Mac. The command line interface NoMachine server and node programs have a command line interface to execute operations. You need to be a privileged system user to access all these functionalities. These commands can be run from an xterm or similar on Linux and Mac using the sudo utility or as root. On Windows they can be run from a command prompt (cmd.exe) executed as administrator. On Linux and Mac, invoke the 'nxserver' and 'nxnode' programs from /etc/NX, for example: $ /etc/NX/nxserver --help $ /etc/NX/nxnode --help on Windows: move to the 'NoMachine' installation directory, by default it's under C:\'Program files (x86)' on 64bit systems and 'C:\Program file' on 32bits machines and go to the 'bin' subdirectory. > cd C:\PROGRA~1 > cd NoMachine\bin > nxserver --help > nxnode --help E.g.: > cd C:\PROGRA~1 C:\Program Files (x86)> cd NoMachine\bin C:\Program Files (x86)\NoMachine\bin>nxserver --help C:\Program Files (x86)\NoMachine\bin>nxnode --help The 'nxserver --help' and 'nxnode --help' display the list of all the available commands and options and their description. Online Resources Visit the NoMachine Support Area to access a variety of online resources included the NoMachine Forums, tutorials and FAQs: https://www.nomachine.com/support Find a list of all documents and tutorials: https://www.nomachine.com/all-documents Use the Knowledge Base search engine to access articles, FAQs and self-help information: https://www.nomachine.com/knowledge-base Leave Feedback About This Guide Our goal is to provide comprehensive and clear documentation for all NoMachine products. If you would like to send us your comments and suggestions, you can use the contact tool available at https://www.nomachine.com/contact-request, selecting Web Quality Feedback as your option. 2. Install the Enterprise Desktop 2.1. Install the Enterprise Desktop Supported Operating Systems Windows 32-bit/64-bit XP/Vista/7/8/8.1/10 Windows Server 2008/2012/2016 Mac OS X Intel 64-bit 10.7 to 10.14 Linux 32-bit and 64-bit RHEL 4 to RHEL 8 SLED 10 to SLED 15 SLES 10 to SLES 15 openSUSE 10.x to openSUSE 15.x Mandriva 2009 to Mandriva 2011 Fedora 10 to Fedora 30 Debian 4.0 to Debian 9 Ubuntu 8.04 to Ubuntu 19.04 Raspberry Pi 2/3 ARMv6/ARMv7/ARMv8 Hardware requirements Intel Core2 Duo or AMD Athlon Dual-Core or equivalent 1 GB RAM Network connection (either a LAN, or Internet link: broadband, cable, DSL, etc...) Size required on disk: Windows 210 MB Linux 195 MB Mac 180 MB ARMv6 175 MB ARMv7 165 MB ARMv8 185 MB Software requirements A desktop environment must already be installed. This applies also to headless Linux machines. Connections by the web and by NoMachine clients are supported. Compatibility with older versions Even if it's advisable to upgrade client installations to the same version 6 of the Enterprise Desktop, compatibility with clients v. 4 and 5 is preserved. NoMachine v. 6 is not compatible with the legacy NX version 3.5.0 (no longer supported since December 2016). Note also that when the Enterprise Desktop works as a federated server, NoMachine Cloud Server v. 6 requires a client v. 6. 2.2. Windows Installations INSTALL Download the package for Windows from the NoMachine web site and install it by double-clicking on the icon of the executable: a setup wizard will take you through the installation. Accept to reboot the machine, this is mandatory for completing the installation. If you own a customer license we recommend to download the package from your Customer Area: https://www.nomachine.com/support#login. TIP To install the package in silent or very silent mode from a CMD console, run respectively: >nomachine-packageName_packageVersion.exe /silent or: >nomachine-packageName_packageVersion.exe /verysilent Then reboot the machine: >SHUTDOWN -r -t 10 -c " your comments here" To specify a non-default installation directory, use: >nomachine-packageName_packageVersion.exe /SILENT /DIR="X:Target_directory" or: >nomachine-packageName_packageVersion.exe /VERYSILENT /DIR="X:Target_directory" Note for Windows XP: the NoMachine server will not start until the machine is rebooted. UPDATE The update procedure for server and node installations requires to stop all NoMachine services in order to correctly replace libraries and binaries. This implies that the Enterprise Desktop is not accessible to users during the update procedure. Current sessions will be terminated, users will be able to connect again later. There are two ways to update your current installation: I Automatic updates You can update your installation from our repositories. Just run the NoMachine GUI from your Programs Menu and access the 'Settings' panel and click on 'Server preferences'. Go to the 'Updates' GUI and click on the 'Check now' button. NoMachine has the automatic check for updates enabled: it will check by default our repositories every two days to verify if updates are available. In this case, the server will prompt a dialog informing that a new version is available but it will never automatically update the current installation. Checking for updates can be disabled from that dialog by selecting the 'Don't ask again for this version' option or in the Updates panel by unchecking the 'Automatically check for updates' option. You can find detailed instructions for configuring the Automatic Updates in a separate document available at: https://www.nomachine.com/all-documents . Note: Due to heavy changes between versions 5 and 6, the automatic updates are disabled: it's therefore necessary to upgrade NoMachine Enterprise Desktop v. 5 by using packages. II Update with NoMachine packages Alternatively, download the latest available package from the NoMachine web site and click on the executable file to launch Setup. As for the installation, Setup will guide you through all steps necessary for updating your installation. If you own a customer license we recommend to download the package from your Customer Area: https://www.nomachine.com/support#login. UNINSTALL You can uninstall NoMachine Enterprise Desktop from the Windows Control Panel and the 'Add or Remove Programs' in Windows XP or 'Program and Features' in Windows Vista, 7, 8 or 10. Find the NoMachine program in the list of installed programs and choose to uninstall it. On Windows 8 or later you can use the Search box from the Charms bar on the right side of the screen: type Control Panel to open it. Then access the Programs - 'Uninstall a program' panel. On Windows 7, Vista and XP, click on the Start button and click to open the Control panel from the Start menu. Then access panel 'Programs and Features' or 'Add or Remove Programs', depending on your Windows version. Reboot is requested to complete the uninstalling process. TIP To uninstall from a CMD console, move to C:/ProgramData/NoMachine/var/uninstall/ (if you are on Vista/7/8/10) or to C:/Documents and Settings/All Users/NoMachine/var/uninstall/ (if you are on XP). Then run: > unins000.exe /silent or: > unins000.exe /verysilent Uninstalling is completed when your command prompt is back. Then, your computer will restart automatically.

INSTALL
Download the DMG package from the NoMachine web site. Double-click on the disk Image to open it and see the package icon. Then double-click on the package icon to install the program: the installer will take you through the installation.

If you own a customer license we recommend to download the package from your Customer Area: https://www.nomachine.com/support#login.

TIP

To install from the command line, run:

$ NXMOUNTDIR=$(echo `hdiutil mount nomachine-enterprise-desktop_version.dmg | tail -1 | awk '{$1=$2=""; print $0}'` | xargs -0 echo) $ sudo installer -pkg "${NXMOUNTDIR}/NoMachine.pkg" -target /

UPDATE
The update procedure for server and node installations requires to stop all NoMachine services in order to correctly replace libraries and binaries. This implies that the Enterprise Desktop is not accessible to users during the update procedure. Current sessions will be terminated, users will be able to connect again later.

There are two ways to update your current installation:

UNINSTALL
To uninstall the Enterprise Desktop drag and drop NoMachine from Applications to trash or select 'Move to trash' from the mouse button menu. This will uninstall all the NoMachine software.

TIP

To uninstall from command line, it's enough you remove the NoMachine application directory:

$ sudo rm -rf /Applications/NoMachine.app

Installing for the first time
You can install, update and uninstall using the graphical package manager of your Linux distribution or from command line by running commands from an xterm or similar with the sudo utility, or as root user if you don't have sudo installed. Instructions below refer to installation by command line.

If you own a customer license we recommend to download the package from your Customer Area: https://www.nomachine.com/support#login.

Successive updates
The update procedure for server and node installations requires to stop all NoMachine services in order to correctly replace libraries and binaries. This implies that the Enterprise Desktop is not accessible to users during the update procedure. Current sessions will be terminated, users will be able to connect again later.

There are two ways to update your current installation:

If you want to install to default location, namely /usr/NX/:

INSTALL

UPDATE

UNINSTALL

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For non-default locations, for example /opt/NX:

INSTALL # rpm -ivh <pkgName>_<pkgVersion>_<arch>.rpm --prefix /opt UPDATE # rpm -Uvh <pkgName>_<pkgVersion>_<arch>.rpm --prefix /opt UNINSTALL # rpm -e nomachine-enterprise-desktop

If you want to install to default location, namely /usr/NX/:

INSTALL

UPDATE

UNINSTALL

TIP

For non-default locations, for example /opt/NX:

INSTALL $ sudo NX_INSTALL_PREFIX=/opt dpkg -i <pkgName>_<pkgVersion>_<arch>.deb UPDATE $ sudo NX_INSTALL_PREFIX=/opt dpkg -i <pkgName>_<pkgVersion>_<arch>.deb UNINSTALL $ sudo dpkg -r nomachine-enterprise-desktop

If you want to install to default location, namely /usr/NX/, ensure that package is placed there.

INSTALL

UPDATE

UNINSTALL

TIP

For non-default locations, for example /opt/NX:

INSTALL $ sudo NX_INSTALL_PREFIX=/opt /usr/NX/nxserver --install UPDATE $ sudo NX_INSTALL_PREFIX=/opt /usr/NX/nxserver --update UNINSTALL $ sudo /opt/NX/scripts/setup/nxserver --uninstall $ sudo rm -rf /opt/NX

Customers' packages
include a temporary (30-days) node.lic and server.lic files for evaluation.
Such license files have to be replaced with the customer's license files acquired from NoMachine. This can be done via the NoMachine server GUI in the 'Updates' panel: click on the server.lic and node.lic links to open their license panel and replace the license.

See https://www.nomachine.com/DT10O00155 for more details on the GUI usage, or https://www.nomachine.com/AR11O00942 for more instructions, included commands from a terminal to activate licenses manually.

To verify from command line that server.lic and node.lic are correctly in place and check their validity, you may run the nxserver/nxnode --subscription and --version commands. For example on Linux:

First of all, ensure that the user has a system account on the Enterprise Desktop host: you can create it by using system tools or by using nxserver commands. Empty password is not supported.

Once installation is complete, Enterprise Desktop is ready to go.

The end-user should point the browser on his/her device to:

http://SERVER:4080

Where SERVER is either the name or IP address of the host you want to reach.

E.g., if Enterprise Desktop is installed on a host named 'myserver.com', the URL will look like this:

http://myserver.com:4080

Connection will be automatically switched to HTTPS protocol:

https://myserver.com:4443/nxwebplayer

In the login form, the end-user has to provide username and password of his/her system account on the Enterprise Desktop host and connect.

TIPS
I	Auto-reconnection is supported: when the connection is lost for whatever reason (including when browser's computer has entered sleep mode), the NoMachine web application will automatically try to reconnect for as long as the user keeps the web page open. If reconnecting is not possible, then the user will have to reconnect manually.
II	IPv6 is supported: specify the IP address of the server host in IPv6 format (e.g. 2001:0:5ef5:79fb:30c6:1516:3ca1:5695) if you want to use it instead of IPv4.

From a client device, where you have already installed a NoMachine package type or the Enterprise Client, run the NoMachine GUI from the programs or applications menu. A wizard will take you through the steps necessary to set-up your first connection, just click on 'Create a new connection'. If you prefer to skip the wizard, click on 'Continue'.

The fastest way to create a new connection is to write the name or IP of the NoMachine host you want to connect to in the text field and click on the 'Press enter to create a new connection' link. This method will use the default NX protocol on port 4000.

Alternatively, you can click on the 'New' icon next to the white text field to configure the session in more detail.

TIPS
I	Auto-reconnection is supported: when the connection is lost for whatever reason (including when the client host has entered sleep mode), the client will automatically try to reconnect for as long as the user keeps the GUI open. If reconnecting is not possible, then the user will have to reconnect manually.
II	IPv6 is supported: specify the IP address of the server host in IPv6 format (e.g. 2001:0:5ef5:79fb:30c6:1516:3ca1:5695) if you want to use it instead of IPv4.

See also the NoMachine Enterprise Client - Installation and Configuration Guide available at: https://www.nomachine.com/all-documents

To prevent NoMachine users from storing their credentials, use the EnableCredentialsStoring key in the server configuration file. The accepted values are:
player Only users connected via NoMachine client are enabled to save username and password in the connection file stored on their devices (computer, tablet etc ...)
webplayer Only users connected via browser can choose to save their access credentials. They are stored in the browser's cookie, given that the user's browser has cookies enabled.
both All users, regardless if connected via NoMachine client or via web, can store their credentials.
none Users cannot save their username and password. They will be requested to provide their log-in credentials at each connection.

For example, to allow only users connecting via NoMachine client to store credentials, set in the server configuration file:
EnableCredentialsStoring player

The configuration file for the web player program (which provides the graphical front-end) and the web client program (which manages web sessions) is server.cfg, located in the BaseDirectory/NX/etc on Linux, BaseDirectory/NoMachine/etc on Windows and /Applications/NoMachine.app/Contents/Frameworks/etc on Mac.

For example on Linux: /usr/NX/etc/server.cfg.

Default settings
The Section directive defines settings for the NoMachine server(s) where the web player application will connect. This directive, by default, points to localhost and looks like:

Section "Server"

Name "Connection to localhost"
Host localhost
Protocol NX
Port 4000
Authentication password

EndSection

Name is a label that can be displayed as an alternative to show hostname of the server.
Host is IP or hostname of the NoMachine server host.
Protocol and Port indicates protocol and port that web player will use to connect to the NoMachine server.
Authentication defines the authentication method to be used when connecting by the web: 'password' for password-based authentication (default) or 'private-key' for key-based authentication.

Changing protocol and port
By default when users connect via web, they will use the NX protocol on port 4000. Supported protocols are NX and SSH with system login

To use the NX protocol (this is the default), set:

Protocol NX
Port 4000

To use SSH protocol and system login, set for Linux and Mac:

Protocol system
Port 22

and for Windows:

Protocol system
Port 4022

Define the authentication method
When connecting by the web and since v. 6.6.8, it's possible to use password-based authentication or key-based authentication (available at the moment only for the NX protocol).

To use password-based authentication (this is the default), set:

Authentication password

To use SSH key-based authentication, set:

TIP

NoMachine uses by default port 22 for SSH protocol on Linux and Mac, and port 4022 on Windows. The default port for NX protocol is 4000. In order to change the port for NX protocol, change the port for the nxd service and restart it. See the paragraph 'Connecting by NX Protocol'. To change the port for connections by SSH to Linux and Mac hosts it's necessary to modify the listen port for the SSH server on the system. On Windows instead, change the port for the nxsshd service.

Showing hostname or a custom label
To display hostname or IP of the Enterprise Desktop host when connecting by the web, set the following key. This is the default:

EnableWebConnectionName 0

To display the label set in the 'Name' field of Section "Server" set:

EnableWebConnectionName 1

Hiding the tutorial wizard at web session startup
To not display the tutorial wizard for the menu panel at session startup, set:

EnableWebMenuTutorial 0

and to show it (this is the default):

EnableWebMenuTutorial 1

Allowing to log-in as a guest
If the Enterprise Desktop has support for guest users enabled, set the following key if you need that users connect by the web always as guest users:

EnableWebGuest 1
If this key is disabled, users will have the possibility to choose if log-in with their credentials or as a guest.

You can start and stop the NoMachine HTTP server (nxhtd) from the Server preferences GUI -> Server preferences -> Network services panel. From the NoMachine GUI you can also change the port where the web server will be listening (by default 4080 and 4443 for secure connections).

From command line instead it's possible to do the following.

Stop, start or restart nxhtd

Automatic restart of the nxhtd service
Each service is automatically restarted at the next boot. You can change the default behavior for the nxhtd service by setting:

The nxserver --startmode command operates on the StartHTTPDaemon server configuration key:

StartHTTPDaemon Automatic

and:

StartHTTPDaemon Manual

Disabling connections by the web
Edit the server configuration file and remove HTTP from the ClientConnectionMethods key. It should then look like:
ClientConnectionMethods NX,SSH

Then restart NoMachine server to make this change effective:

NoMachine Enterprise Desktop is designed to provide a fully integrated service to deploy sessions on the web which doesn't require additional software to be installed or manual configuration. The minimal Apache web server, nxhtd, provides the necessary modules and is pre-configured to work with the web player application.

However, it is possible to run the web player application with an alternative Apache web server. This requires the configuration of Apache and the web player.

Instructions are available at: https://www.nomachine.com/DT03O00128

The implementation of WebRTC support in browser-based remote desktop sessions has inititally been released as beta and must be enabled explicitly by the administrator by editing the server.cfg file.

With the help of a STUN/TURN server for negotiating NAT traversal, peer-to-peer WebRTC communication can be established also when the web session has to be run behind a NAT.

STEP 1: Uncomment and set the AcceptedWebMethods key as follows to enable the use of WebRTC:

AcceptedWebMethods webrtc

STEP 2: If the node machine where the web session will be started is behind a NAT, you need to uncomment the following section in server.cfg:

Section "STUN"

Host hostname
Port portnumber
User username
Password password

EndSection

and provide relevant information to contact a STUN or TURN server. In this last case change Section name to "TURN".

See also: https://www.nomachine.com/AR07N00892 for further intructions about the configuration and: https://www.nomachine.com/AR07N00894 for an example about how to set up your own STUN/TURN server and configure the Enterprise Desktop accordingly.

In case of web sessions, by default, session data are streamed in video frames compressed and decompressed by using the MJPEG lossy algorithm, which is the video-format widely supported by browsers.

Oher video codecs like VP8 and H.264, require a browser which supports WebRTC and HTML5.

NoMachine web sessions use the H.264 video streaming when the following requirements are all met, otherwise VP8 is used. In practice, when WebRTC is enabled, the H.264 or VP8 encoding will be used, otherwise MJPEG will be the codec:

(*) Server packages provide the H.264 libraries necessary to support the SW H.264 encoding.

HW H.264 encoding is possible when the server host machine has an hardware accelerated video cards (GPU) with any of the supported microarchitectures: Nvidia Kepler microarchitecture onward and Intel Quick Sync processors. Enabling HW acceleration by Quick Sync requires however a manual configuration as explained here: https://www.nomachine.com/AR09O00938

Optimizations
Optimizations can be done in two ways: (I) by adjusting display settings in the session or (II) by enabling WebRTC.

TIP

You may verify which encoding method is in use from the NoMachine menu inside the session: press ctrl+alt+0 or click on the page peel in the upper right corner of the window to open it. Then click on the 'Display' button and finally on 'Display settings'. The codec actually on use is reported at the bottom left of the menu.

Sessions run by NoMachine client use a combination of video and image encoding based on standard codecs and a number of techniques developed by NoMachine. Frames are encoded into a video stream optimized by means of a compression and decompression algorithm of real-time image and audio data. VP8, H.264 and MJPEG encoding are supported.

In general VP8 and H.264 are suitable for all situations, while MJPEG can be an alternative when the end-user's computer is less powerful and the user is experiencing slow responsiveness.

The display encoder can be changed on the server:

from the GUI
In the GUI in the Server Performance panel.

or in the node configuration file
Enable the use of a specific codec by editing the node configuration file and enabling the following two keys:

EnableDisplayServerVideoCodec 1
DisplayServerVideoCodec CODEC

where CODEC can be: 'vp8','h264' or 'mjpeg'. For example:
EnableDisplayServerVideoCodec 1
DisplayServerVideoCodec mjpeg

The configuration files for the nxserver and nxweplayer/nxwebclient programs is server.cfg. The configuration file for the nxnode program is node.cfg.

They are placed in the:
BaseDirectory/NX/etc directory on Linux

BaseDirectory/NoMachine/etc directory on Windows

/Applications/NoMachine.app/Contents/Frameworks/etc/ directory on Mac.

For example on Linux:
/usr/NX/etc/server.cfg
/usr/NX/etc/node.cfg

The Default Configuration
NoMachine Enterprise Desktop comes with a default configuration that is sufficient to grant a working setup in the majority of environments. NoMachine administrators can tune their installation at any moment and according to their specific needs by setting the related configuration keys. In some cases this will require to restart all NoMachine services.

Edit the Configuration Files
NoMachine configuration files are text files made up of a number of key-value pairs. All the configuration files can be edited manually by a text editor. For example 'vi' can be used on Linux and Mac, and 'notepad' on Windows. On Windows it can be necessary that you copy the cfg file in a different place, edit it and move it to the etc directory.

Be sure to uncomment the configuration key (i.e., remove the '#' pre-pended to the key) to set a value different from the default.

When a configuration key supports an on/off status, set value to '0' to disable it and to '1' to enable it.

Make Changes to the Default Configuration Effective
Changes will be effective with the next new connection without the need to restart the server if not otherwise specified.

Installation and upgrade procedures take care of configuring and starting all the necessary services to make NoMachine Enterprise Desktop ready to accept connections to its physical desktop. The necessary services are configured to be restarted at each reboot of the host machine.

You can stop and start accepting new connections via:

the GUI
from the Server status GUI click on 'Stop the server' and 'Start the server' respectively: this will prevent users from running new connections

or from command line
to disable accepting new connections from the command line, run:

All NoMachine services can be stopped via:

the GUI
all NoMachine services can be stopped by the Server status GUI ('Shutdown the server'). When doing so, you will be asked if services must be started at the next reboot or not. You can restart services also from the Server status GUI ('Start the server').

or from command line.

Stopping all the NoMachine services

Starting NoMachine server and services

Specifying the start mode
It's possible to set the 'start mode' (if services will be started automatically at boot or not) by using:

Stopping and restarting NoMachine server and services

The NoMachine networks services available for NoMachine Enterprise Desktop are nxd, nxhtd (both installed on all platforms) and nxsshd (installed on Windows only):

You can stop a single service:

via the GUI
in the Server status -> Server preferences -> Network services GUI. You can choose there also the start mode: if the service must be started automatically at the next boot or not.

or from command line.

Stopping a service

where SERVICE can be:
nxd, the Network Server for accepting connection by NX protocol
nxhtd, the NoMachine web server for web sessions
nxsshd, the SSH server for Windows

Starting or restarting a service

Specifying the start mode
By default each service is automatically restarted at the next boot. You can configure that on a per-service basis by running:

Commands above operate on the configuration keys listed below. You can change them manually in the server configuration.

For each session, NoMachine uses ports that are used only locally on the server host and network ports.

Some ports are mandatory and must be free, e.g. the session display number and the connection port. Other ports are used for services that can be disabled (e.g. USB forwarding, UDP communication).

It is possible to hide or show the !M (the Monitor) icon in the system tray. When the icon is hidden, notification messages will still be displayed when users are connecting. This can be configured:
from the GUI:
In the Server status -> Server preferences -> Server options GUI. When the icon is hidden, notification messages will still be displayed when users are connecting.

or in the node configuration file
This setting is ruled by the DisplayMonitorIcon key in the node configuration file. If you change them manually by editing the file, you then need to restart the server to make changes effective.

To hide the !M in the system tray set:
DisplayMonitorIcon 0

To display the !M in the system tray set:
DisplayMonitorIcon 1

In both cases, then restart the server:

By default NoMachine issues a ballon message to notify about events like user's disconnection or user's requests for connecting. You can disable notification messages by setting the following key in the node configuration:
DisplayMonitorNotifications 0

TIP

If the displaying of monitor's notification messages is disabled, the desktop owner will be unable to accept connection's requests by other users. Configure trusted users if you need to permit the connection without explicit authorization.

If you want to disable the possibility of launching the Whiteboard from the Monitor menu, edit the node configuration file to have:
EnableWhiteboard 0

Then restart the server:

By default NoMachine Enterprise Desktop broadcasts information to let other NoMachine computers to discover it on the local network. You can disable this feature via:
the GUI
in the Server status -> Server preferences -> "Network services" GUI

or in the server configuration file
set the following key in the server configuration:

EnableNetworkBroadcast 0

Then restart the server to make changes effective:

NoMachine provides an instant messaging tool, named whiteboard which allows also drawing and sharing files with connected users and fast-track access to file transfer. To access it, connect to the user's desktop and from the Monitor (!M icon) in your system tray click on 'Show the whiteboard'. Note that if multiple users are connected at the same time, they will all see the message.

As an alternative, it's possible to issue a dialog in the connected sessions to show a custom message by sending it from command line.

Sending a message to all running sessions:

NX Protocol
connections by default use the NX protocol which is its own protocol for secure communication over the network. Encryption in the NX protocol is implemented using OpenSSL TLS/SSL, based on ECDHE-RSA-AES128-GCM-SHA256 as the default cipher suite. ECDHE-RSA-AES128-GCM-SHA256 is an AES (Advanced Encryption Standard) block cipher with 128 bits key in GCM (Galois/Counter Mode). RC4 (ECDHE-RSA-RC4-SHA cipher suite) is used as a backward compatibility when connecting from or to versions 4.0.

When using the NX protocol, NX data can travel on TCP and UDP streams, even at the same time. The client and server can decide dynamically what transport to use, based on the type of data and the network conditions. Client and server negotiate the UDP transport at session startup, after having negotiated the main TCP link. UDP uses symmetric Blowfish encryption, with key negotiated on the secure TCP link. UDP is presently not available when using the SSH tunneling, to ensure that all data goes through the same SSH link, as it was in legacy version 3. UDP protocol can be also disabled.

SSH Protocol
NoMachine Enterprise Desktop also provides tunneling of connections using SSH and full integration with any authentication backend supported by the host SSH server. On Windows systems, NoMachine provides a built-in SSH server, nxsshd.

Authentication methods
These are the authentication methods supported by NoMachine when connections use the NX protocol or the SSH protocol:

Protocols are defined in the ClientConnectionMethods key in the server configuration. They are specified as a comma-separated list of values:

ClientConnectionMethods NX,SSH,HTTP

This key is automatically populated during the installation or the update of the package. It is possible to exclude any of the available protocols to force users to connect by the desired protocol.

For example, to use only NX protocol, set this key to:
ClientConnectionMethods NX

and restart the server to make changes effective:

TIPS
I	If your server supports SSH but it still reports that SSH is not available, check the ClientConnectionMethods key and ensure that the SSH values is set. Then restart the server.
II	Removing 'HTTP' from the ClientConnectionMethods key will disable the starting of the NoMachine HTTP server and prevent connections via web.

Administrators may decide how the user should authenticate on the server by defining which authentication method(s) is/are available. Authentication methods can be set in the server configuration file by editing this key:

AcceptedAuthenticationMethods all

By default all methods are accepted. They can be restricted by providing a comma-separated list of values, they will indicate which authentication method is permitted.

Accepted values for connections by NX protocol are:
NX-password to allow password authentication.
NX-private-key to allow key-based authentication.
NX-kerberos to allow Kerberos ticket-based authentication.

while for connections by SSH protocol:
SSH-system to allow all methods supported for the system login. SSH authentication methods for the system login have to be set on the system for example in the PAM configuration.

For example, to accept key-based and Kerberos ticket-based authentication for the NX protocol:

AcceptedAuthenticationMethods NX-private-key, NX-kerberos

Settings in the client GUI
Users can select the authentication method in their connection settings from the NoMachine GUI in the Advanced panel for the NX protocol and SSH protocol settings respectively.

They correspond to the following options in the client GUI:

Protocol and authentication methods can be set when creating a new connection via client GUI:

or changed later by modifying the connection settings (right mouse click on the connection icon in the client GUI to edit it).

The default setting of NoMachine is to run connections via the NX protocol on port 4000. On server side, the Network Server, nxd, is listening on port 4000. It's mandatory that this port is open between client and server to allow connections by NX protocol.

If you change the listen port for nxd, connecting users will have to specify the new value in their connection settings in the client GUI.

It's possible to modify the port for nxd
from the GUI
in the Server status -> Server preferences -> Network services GUI

or in the server configuration file by editing this key:
NXPort 4000

Restaring the nxd service is necessary to make this change effective:

When NX protocol is used, UDP communication for multimedia is enabled by default. UDP traffic uses a range of ports between 4011 and 4999. These ports must be open between client and server. If they are not available, traffic will fall back to TCP communication. You can change port range, define a comma-separated list of ports or a single port by changing value set for the following key in the server configuration:
UDPPort 4011-4999

Users can disable UDP in their connection settings from the NoMachine GUI in the Advanced panel for the NX protocol settings.

The default port used for the SSH protocol is 22 on Linux and Mac. On such platforms NoMachine relies on the SSH server installed on the system. If your SSHD is configured to listen on a port different from 22 you need to align the NoMachine server configuration accordingly. Connecting users will have to specify such value in their connection settings in the client GUI.

If your SSH server is listening on a port different than 22, change the SSH port in the NoMachine configuration

in the Server status -> Server preferences -> Network services GUI

or in the server configuration file by editing this key:
SSHDPort 22

On Windows, NoMachine provides the SSH server, nxsshd, listening on port 4022. As explained above, this port can be changed from the GUI or in the server configuration file (SSHDPort 4022).

Restaring the nxsshd service is necessary to make this change effective:

Automatic discover of the NoMachine Enterprise Desktop host is possible only when the server and the user's machine are on the same LAN. When the user connects over the internet or from a different network, it's mandatory to know the public (or external) IP of the Enterprise Desktop.

When the server is behind a firewall, you have to configure the router to forward external port to the nxd service (to use the NX connection protocol), to the SSH server (to use the SSH protocol) and to the nxhtd service (to connect by the web). By default the required ports are TCP ports: 4000 for NX, 4080 and 4443 for HTTP/HTTPS and UDP ports in the 4011-4999 range. Note that users will have to specify the external port in their connection settings in the client GUI.

If the router on the server side supports UPnP/NAT-PMP, you can let NoMachine try to enable port forwarding in the router automatically. External ports will be selected randomly from the 20000 - 30000 range. Also in this case users will have to specify the external port in their connection settings in the client GUI.

For connections by NX protocol, at session startup NoMachine will also try to map UDP ports by using UPnP.

Enabling the automatic port forwarding
Step 1: Set in the server configuration:
EnableFirewallConfiguration 1

Step 2: Specify for which service the port forwarding must be enabled by listing them in the following key:
EnableUPnP NX,SSH,HTTP

Step 3: Specify the port where the NX service will be redirected by editing respectively:
NXUPnPPort ""; SSHDUPnPPort "" and HTTPUPnPPort ""

TIP

To permit only connections by SSH (on external port 20048 for example) and use the automatic port forwarding, set in the server configuration: ClientConnectionMethods SSH EnableFirewallConfiguration 1 EnableUPnP SSH SSHDUPnPPort "20048" and restart the server.

You can enable port forwarding for connections by NX and HTTP/HTTPS protocol also from the GUI
via the Server preferences -> Network services GUI by selecting the service and enter its settings (click on 'Configure'). Then check the Gateway port option.

Retrieving information about UPnP port mapping
When the automatic port mapping is enabled, you can retrieve information about UPnP port mapping, e.g. IP of the gateway device, external port and port mapped by running:

Use of NoMachine DBs can be configured by editing the server configuration. The table below reports which configuration key value has to be set to enable or disable specific behavior as defined in the 'Target' field:

You can manage (create, delete and modify) user accounts by using tools provided by your Operating System or the NoMachine server commands as explained below.

Creating Accounts
The Enterprise Desktop is able to handle two types of accounts: system accounts and NoMachine accounts. The latter allows to separate the system password from the NoMachine password.

Creating a System Account
The system account will be created with the default system settings. The new user will be also added to the NoMachine Users db:

Creating a NoMachine Account
Use this command when the user already has a system account:

TIPS
I	To assign a password different from system password to a system user, enable NoMachine Password DB ( EnablePasswordDB 1) in server.cfg.
II	To verify if the user's authentication is based or not on NoMachine Password db:
nxserver --userauth USERNAME
III	If this Enterprise Desktop is federated under a Cloud Server, each user must have the same system account on the Cloud Server host and on this Enterprise Desktop. Password can be different.

Enabling and Disabling access for a NoMachine User
Prerequisites are:

i)The user has run at least one session or have been added to NoMachine dbs by means of 'nxserver --useradd' command.

ii) NoMachine Users DB is enabled (EnableUserDB 1 is set in server.cfg)

You can enable/disable a user and allow/forbid his access to the Enterprise Desktop by running:

Modifying the User's Password
You can modify user's system password by running:

Listing the NoMachine Users
All users who have run at least one session or have been added to NoMachine dbs are stored in the Users db. You can retrieve the complete list by running:

The output of this command provides the following fields:
Redirected to: IP/hostname of the server to which the user's connection is redirected (by means of the 'nxserver --redirect' command when supported).
Trusted for: it shows if the user is trusted and therefore allowed to connect to the physical desktop of this host (only specific user are permitted to do that).
Screen Sharing: it shows which user has the sharing of their physical screen disabled.
Access: it shows if the user is enabled or not to access the NoMachine system. This works in conjuction with the use of the NoMachine Users DB: when enabled (EnableUserDB 1 in the server configuration), it's possible to enable/disable user's access to the whole NoMachine system.
Forwarded to: this field is applicable only when the server is a NoMachine Cloud Server, so it's always empty in case of Enterprise Desktop.

Removing Accounts
To remove an account from the system:

Configuring user's ability to accept or not connections

To switch off/on screen sharing for a given user, use the following server commands. The user, however, will be still able to change it from the !M Monitor menu:

By default, NoMachine allows the running of sessions as privileged system user ('root' on Linux and Mac and an administrator on Windows). You can however configure the NoMachine Server to disallow it. Do it by disabling the following server configuration key:

EnableAdministratorLogin 0

To re-enable the possibility to log in as root or administrator, set:

EnableAdministratorLogin 1

By default when the connecting user is different from the owner of the physical desktop, the desktop owner has to authorize the user for the connection.

It is possible to define in advance a number of trusted users who don't need the specific owner's permission.

In order to create a list of trusted users, administrators should use the nxserver commands for creating and editing users. These commands provide the --trusted option to define if the user is trusted for connections to the physical desktop or not.

To create a new trusted user on the system:

To make a user trusted for specific users' desktops
This feature is available since v. 6.4.6. You can assign the 'trusted' flag and make the user trusted only for those desktops owned by a specific user or list of users. For example, if a new user (userB) should be created on the system and made trusted only for desktops of userA:

To list only trusted users:

The Enterprise supports the possibility to generate guest accounts on demand. The automatic generation of guests accounts is available on all platforms, i.e. Linux, Windows and Mac. This feature however is not enabled by default and must be activated via a profile rule.

Once enabled, the Enterprise Desktop will accept the request to log-in as and automatically create a system account. Time of validity and other features can be set for guest users by editing the server configuration

To enable guest accounts:

TIP

Guest users don't know their username and password and cannot unlock the remote screen if screen locking is enabled. It's therefore necessary to disable it on the system.

Configuring guest accounts

Define range of names for guest accounts
The server creates guest accounts by adding a progressive number as a postfix to the base guest name. The range used for incrementing the postfix varies from a minimum and a maximum value. Base name and range for the postfix are configurable:

BaseGuestUserId 10
GuestUserIdLimit 200

Define group for guest accounts
GuestUserGroup guest

Define where the server has to create the guest accounts' homes
GuestUserHome /home (e.g. for Linux)

Define for how long guest accounts have to be kept before being expired
Default is 30 days:
GuestUserAccountExpiry 2592000 (This value has to be set in seconds)

Define if guest accounts have to be deleted once expired
EnableGuestWipeout 1

Setting Disk Quota for Guest Accounts on Linux
The following server configuration keys allow to set disk quota for guest accounts:
GuestQuotaProtoname protoguest
GuestQuotaInodeHardlimit 0
GuestQuotaBlockSoftlimit 0
GuestQuotaBlockHardlimit 0
GuestQuotaInodeGracePeriod 0
GuestQuotaBlockGracePeriod 0
GuestQuotaFilesystems all

Define the maximum number of guests allowed to be created on this server
GuestUserLimit 10

Define the maximum number of sessions a guest can run on this server before the account expires
GuestUserConnectionLimit 5

Define for how long (in seconds) a guest can run the session before the account expires
GuestConnectionExpiry 0 (If value is set to 0, a guest's session is never terminated.)

Each session on the same server is uniquely identified by a session id (which can look like: B253864E822F5A235825F3AB8853AF00) and a display id (e.g.,1002).

A session on the NoMachine Enterprise Desktop can be in any of the following statuses:
Connected - when it's connected to the remote display.
Finished - the session has been closed in a clean way and all NoMachine processes have been shut-down smoothly.
Failed - Any of the NoMachine processes has failed to start or it has been "un-cleanly" terminated.
Transitional statuses are Connecting and Terminating.

NoMachine Enterprise Desktop is able to manage only connections to the remote physical desktop. You can see the complete list of supported session types by running the following command, which will report 'physical-desktop yes':

You can monitor sessions from command line tools. Below are the server commands to be run from xterm or console.

Listing Running Sessions
To list all the running sessions, their display, session owner, remote IP of the connected client, session ID and session host:

The number of active connections on the server corresponds to the number of sessions in status Connected. Session status is shown in the output of session history command.

Session History
History is preserved for a certain amount of time as set in the server configuration (SessionHistory key). To see the complete list of sessions, including those that have been cleanly terminated or failed, run:

Debugging a Failed Session with Session History
If a session is marked as failed in the session history output, the following command should provide information about the reason of the failure. Since v. 6.7 the output of the following command has been extended to provide a short report helpful for a preliminary debug of the problem:

Retrieving Statistics about Sessions with Session History
This feature is available since v. 6.7. It elaborates a number of information about sessions, contained in the current session history. For example the number of sessions started, terminated, running and failed and their average startup time. The command to retrieve statistics is:

Clearing Sessions History
You can reset the history backlog by running the following command.

Configuring the Session History Backlog
Data is preserved for 30 days. You can modify that in the server configuration file by uncommenting and setting a different value for the following key:
SessionHistory 2592000

This key accepts the following values:
< 0 Never delete data from NX session history.
0 Disable NX session history.
> 0 Keep data in session history for this amount of seconds.

Terminating Sessions Automatically
If you need to terminate a remote desktop session after a certain time of inactivity, you can specify it by uncommenting and adding the '-timeout s' (s stays for seconds) option to the DisplayAgentExtraOptions key in the node configuration file.

For example, if you want to terminate sessions after 10 minutes of inactivity you need to set:
DisplayAgentExtraOptions "-timeout 600"

If the NoMachine display agent doesn't receive any input from the user in the given timeout, it will terminate the session.

Terminating the Session from Command Line
To terminate a remote desktop session you can run:

Limit the number of concurrent connections The maximum number of concurrent connections to the physical desktop is defined in the server configuration (twenty by default). Set a different value in this key to increase or decrease the limit:
ConnectionsLimit 20

The server configuration provides a number of keys that can be activated to execute a custom script upon a certain event. According to the event, a number of parameters can be specified for each script. In a similar way, a number of keys is present in the node configuration file to allow to execute a custom script on a certain NoMachine node event. In both cases and according to the event, a number of parameters can be specified for each script. Keys and parameters not supported by the Enterprise Desktop are omitted in the table below.

Note that order of parameters is relevant. For example, a custom script to be run on node event 'UserScriptBeforeSessionStart' should use the $2 variable to retrieve username and $4 to retrieve display.

A further key in the node configuration file (available since v. 6.3.6), allows to run a custom script triggered on change resolution events (resize of the remote screen). The related key is: UserScriptAfterRemoteResize

Pre-requisites to run custom scripts
Custom scripts must be executable. Custom scripts set-up in server.cfg are common to all the users who are accessing the server and are executed by the nxserver program. Since nxserver is running as the nx user, you have to grant this user the necessary permissions in order to execute the custom script.

Custom scripts set-up in node.cfg are executed by the nxnode program, which is run as the connected user. Place the script in a directory that is accessible by the node, i.e. accessible by the connected user(s).

By default if the execution of the scripts fails, the nxserver and nxnode will terminate. This means that the user's session will not start. You can override this behavior by forcing exit 0 inside the custom script and let the session start even if the custom script is failed.

TIP

If NoMachine Enterprise Desktop is federated under a Cloud Server consider that custom scripts have to be placed in server.cfg or node.cfg file on the Enterprise Desktop host, not on the Cloud Server.

By default users can connect to the remote physical desktop of the Enterprise Desktop host. When the desktop owner is different from the connecting user, he/she is always required to authorize the incoming request for connection.

Authorization is not requested when the incoming user and the desktop owner are the same.

Rather than allow all users to connect without desktop's owner authorization or click accept for every single user which would like to connect, it is possible to define in advance a number of trusted users who don't need the specific owner's permission.

Request for desktop owner's authorization and interaction level can be configured
from the GUI
You can configure how users will connect to a desktop owned by another user from the Server status -> Server preferences -> Desktop access GUI. You can basically determine if users can connect or not without asking the desktop owner's permission and if users will be able to interact with the desktop.

or in the server configuration as explained in detail in the next paragraphs.

TIPS
I	Disabling the request for desktop owner's authorization before connecting can be useful in case of remote administration of headless machines.
II	Allowing connections in interactive mode grants the user full access to the desktop resources and applications. View-only mode is suggested for example when making presentations or teaching a lesson.
III	When the Enterprise Desktop is federated under a Cloud Server, each user must have the same system account on the Enterprise Desktop host and on the Cloud Server host. Password can be different.

NoMachine Enterprise Desktop supports also the screen blanking (the physical monitor is obscured until somebody is connected from remote) and the automatic lock of the remote screen when the last NoMachine user disconnects.

NoMachine Enterprise Desktop supports the screen blanking feature: when active, the local user will see a black screen on the physical monitor while somebody is connected from remote to the physical desktop. Operations made on the physical screen are not shown and the local user cannot interact with the desktop until the remote user logs-out. Control is given back to the local user once the remote user has logged off. Screen blanking is available for physical hosts, it is not supported on virtual machines since it has effect on the physical monitor

You can activate the screen blanking feature on the Enterprise Desktop host machine
from the GUI:
in the Server preferences -> Security panel select the 'Blank the physical screen when somebody connects' option

or in the server configuration file, server.cfg.
Uncomment and set:
EnableScreenBlanking 1

To disable screen blanking, set:
EnableScreenBlanking 0.

Then restart the server to make this change effective:

The screen blanking feature can be used in conjunction with the automatic lock of the remote screen. Even if the user didn't lock the screen before disconnecting by NoMachine, as soon as the screen is unblanked, the system lock screen will be activated automatically to keep the remote desktop protected even when the computer is running unattended.

You can enable the automatic remote screen lock from the GUI
In the Server preferences -> Security panel select the 'Lock the physical screen on disconnect' option

or in the server configuration file, server.cfg.

Uncomment and set:
EnableLockScreen 1

To disable the automatic screen lock, set:
EnableLockScreen 0

Then restart the server to make this change effective:

TIP

For versions previous than v. 6.1: The option to manage the screen blanking from the server User Interface was named 'Lock the physical screen when somebody connects' and the server configuration key was: EnableScreenLock. The possibility to automatically lock the remote screen when the user disconnects was not available.

To forbid users to interact with the desktop once connected set in the server configuration:
PhysicalDesktopMode 0

In this way, the connected user will access the physical desktop in view-only mode.

To allow interaction instead, ensure to have:
PhysicalDesktopMode 1

Always request the desktop owner's authorization (default)
To request for the explicit authorization of the desktop owner before connecting the user, be sure that the following key is set in the server configuration. The authorization is requested when the connecting user is different from the desktop owner and is not a trusted user.
PhysicalDesktopAuthorization 1

Make a user trusted
To allow a restricted number of users to connect to the physical desktop without explicit authorization, assign the 'trusted' flag to a new system user:

Restrict access to specific users
It's possible to limit the access to the physical desktop to the desktop owner, system administrators, NoMachine administrators and trusted users by setting in the server configuration:
PhysicalDesktopSharing 2

Never request the desktop owner's authorization
To allow all users connecting to the physical desktop without explicit permissions, set in the server configuration:
PhysicalDesktopAuthorization 0

By default, the owner of the physical desktop, either sit in front of the computer or connected to the physical desktop via NoMachine, has the possibility to switch off/on the sharing of the screen at any moment.

This can be done via the NoMachine Monitor (click on the !M icon in the system tray to open it) and the 'Accepting connection is enabled/disabled' item in the menu.

When 'Accepting connection' is disabled, nobody can connect to that desktop by NoMachine. This setting lasts until the desktop owner changes it again. It persists also when the user physically is logged-out or closed the NoMachine connection. It's therefore strongly advisable to be very careful when disabling accepting connections from remote, since it will be no longer possible to reconnect to the desktop via NoMachine once the current session is closed.

As administrator, you can override user's settings and forcibly enable or disable the screen sharing for the given user. The user, however, will be still able to change it from the !M Monitor menu:

TIP

If 'Accept connection' is disabled and you cannot reconnect to the desktop via NoMachine, re-enable accepting connections by command line:

/etc/NX/nxserver --useredit USERNAME --screensharing yes

Removing the 'Accept connection' item from the !M menu
To prevent users from being able to switch 'Accept connection' off and disable the sharing of their screen, set the following key in the node configuration file:
EnableAcceptingConnection 0

This will hide the 'Accepting connection' item from the Monitor menu.

The Enterprise Desktop permits users to access and share their devices and resources from local to remote and vice-versa. Disks, printers, USB devices and more can be connected inside the session to easily access them from both client and server side. At present device sharing is not available with web sessions and requires to connect by NoMachine client.

Two-ways copy and paste is fully supported. Web sessions implements the NoMachine virtual clipboard provides for copying text from/to the session running in the browser and the local computer.

Download/upload files from the session to the local computer and vice-versa is also fully supported in client and web sessions, as well as drag and drop of a file from remote to local and from local to remote.

By default device sharing, copy&paste and file transfer are always permitted. You can however completely disable any of these services or disable it only partially, for example to prevent users from sharing their local printer in the NoMachine session but permitting them to use the remote printer.

NoMachine implements a self-contained infrastructure for making available physical and logical devices over the network from local to remote or vice-versa.

The NoMachine infrastructure for device sharing ensures that all services work out of the box without the need for any additional change or configuration. It is possible to connect disks, printers, USB devices, network port and smartcards.

Connecting devices is supported only by NoMachine client (web sessions don't support that). Devices can be connected through the NoMachine menu within the session (ctrl+alt+0 to open it). Connected devices can be disconnected during the life of the session and reconnected later. If option 'Export this deviceName at session startup' is checked in the menu panel, this device is automatically reconnected at the next session start-up.

Disabling device sharing
You can disable selectively the possibility to share a device

from the GUI
in the Server GUI -> Devices panel

or in the node configuration file
by editing the corresponding keys. The manual configuration permits also to limit only oneway of service, for example forbid to connect a local printer to remote. The next paragraphs deal with manual node configurations in detail.

The available devices are:

NoMachine allows access to local and remote file systems from within the session through the SSHFS file-sharing protocol and by means of FUSE, a technology to implement a fully functional filesystem in a userspace program.

Connected folders and disks can be disconnected during the life of the session or left as they are.

By default, all disks from the server are available to be connected to the end-user's machine. However you can specify a set of disks and folders by editing a proper value for the DiskSharingList key in the node configuration file. The default value is: all. Alternatively, you can specify a list of comma-separated directories. Note that $(HOME) and $(USER) are accepted values.

For example on Mac you might edit the node configuration file and specify:
DiskSharingList $(HOME),/Volumes/TimeMachine

Connecting public disks
Disks from the end-user's machine can be connected on the server in 'Public' or 'Private' mode.
By default public disks are exported from player to "$(PUBLIC)" directory on the server, where $(PUBLIC) is:
/Volumes on Mac
/media on Linux
C:\Users\Public on Windows Vista/7/8/8.1/10
%ALLUSERSPROFILE% on Windows XP

You can specify a different path by un-commenting and editing the DiskSharingPublicBasePath key in the node configuration file.
Note that $(USER) is an accepted value that can be also concatenated to specify the path to a directory, for example "/tmp/$(USER)".

The target directory must exist on the system!

Disabling Disks' Connection
To forbid disk and filesystem sharing, uncomment and set a proper value for the EnableDiskSharing key in the node configuration file:
client The filesystem on the client can be connected to server side and accessed from the session.
server The filesystem on the server can be connected to the end-user's machine and accessed through the whole life of the session.
both Client and server filesystem can be connected to remote and local sides respectively.
none Neither client or server filesystem can be connected.

For example, to forbid connecting disks from remote to local side, set in the node configuration:
EnableDiskSharing client

The printers sharing infrastructure integrates client-side printers with the server-side printing subsystem and vice-versa. Printers available on the client machine can be shared and used within the session as well as printers on the server side which can be made available on the end-user's machine.

Connected printers can be disconnected during the life of the session or left as they are. In this case, they are automatically shared at the next session start-up.

On Linux and Mac this service uses the CUPS infrastructure present on the system.With CUPS 1.4 or later, to ensure that users are able to connect a printer from local to their NoMachine session on Linux or Mac, it's necessary that the user already belongs to the CUPS System Group on the NoMachine server host. That's because, to add a printer to the CUPS system, the 'lpadmin' command line tool has to be executed by a user who belongs to the CUPS's System Group, which can be for example 'lpadmin' on Ubuntu, 'sys' on Fedora, RHEL and CentOS distributions and _lpadmin on Mac.

Disabling Printers' Connection
To forbid printer sharing it is necessary to uncomment and set a proper value for the EnablePrinterSharing key in the node configuration file:
client Printers on the client can be connected to server side and made available within the session.
server Printers on the server can be connected to the end-user's machine.
both Client and server printers can be connected to remote and local sides respectively.
none Neither client or server printers can be connected.

For example, to forbid a server-side printer to be connected to the end-user machine, set in the node configuration:
EnablePrinterSharing client

This service creates a USB tunnel between client and server to forward devices over the network such as hard disk, web cams, barcode readers, and pen drives from local to remote desktops and vice-versa.

Disabling USB Forwarding
To forbid USB device sharing it is necessary to uncomment and set a proper value for the EnableUSBSharing key in the node configuration file:
client USB devices on the client can be forwarded to server side and made available within the session.
server USB devices on the server can be connected to the end-user's machine.
both Client and server USB devices can be connected to remote and local sides respectively.
none Neither client or server USB devices can be connected.

For example, to avoid that users can forward a USB devices from the server to its own machine, set in the node configuration:
EnableUSBSharing client

NoMachine can create virtual network interfaces and establish a bridge between local and remote sides or vice-versa to provide transparent access to network resources.

This service allows access to any of the default network servers like Samba, CUPS, FTP, SSH and Telnet or any other type, for example a MySQL server.

Connecting a Samba server allows access to resources on that server host via the SMB/CIFS protocol. Connecting a local CUPS server to the remote side allows mounting of printers (local to the user) on that remote CUPS subsystem so that files can be printed on the remote side via the IPP protocol.

Some typical examples of usage:
Print to remote printers from the session
If you have a Linux or Mac machine you can add the local CUPS server via the player toolbar. Choose to add a local server and select CUPS. In this way all printers that are available on your side will be available also on the server and you can print all your documents via the native CUPS (IPP) protocol.

Access a remote host not in your Network Neighborhood
If the remote host has a Samba server, you can add it via the player toolbar. Choose to add a remote server and select Samba as server type. Once that Samba server is added, the remote host shows up in your local Network Neighborhood. You can then connect to remote folders via SMB/CIFS protocol as if that host was in your local network.

Make available a client side HTTP server
You can add your local HTTP server via the player toolbar and make it available on the remote host where your session is running. In this way you can develop and test your web application directly inside the session, without the need for sharing or moving files from remote to local.

Connect to MySQL server behind a firewall
You can choose to add a remote server via the player toolbar. Select 'Custom' and specify MySQL and the port for the MySQL server, by default 3306. Once done, you can connect to that MySQL server via the MySQL client installed on your PC.

Disabling Network Port Forwarding
To forbid network server sharing it is necessary you uncomment and set a proper value for the EnableNetworkSharing key in the node configuration file: client Network servers on client side can be connected and made available within the session.
server Network server on the server side can be connected and made available on the end-user's machine.
both Network servers from client and server side can be connected to remote and local sides respectively.
none Neither client or server side network servers can be connected.

For example, to forbid users from connecting their local ports to the server, set in the node configuration:
EnableNetworkSharing server

When the smartcard reader plugged into the enduser's host is forwarded to the server host, the smartcard authentication is made available inside the session. It can be integrated on with Kerberos Ticket system for example for implementing single sign-on (SSO).

Disabling Smartcard readers' Forwarding
You can enable or disable support for smarcard forwarding by uncommenting and setting the EnableSmartcardSharing key in the node configuration to 1 or 0 respectively.

To disable it set in node configuration file:
EnableSmartcardSharing 0

By default users can copy and paste from local to the session and vice-versa.

You can configure the server to limit such operations by setting proper values in the configuration file as explained below.

Limiting copy & paste operations
To forbid copy & paste partially or totally, uncomment and set a proper value for the EnableClipboard key in the server configuration file:
client Content copied on the user's side can be pasted inside the session.
server Content copied inside the session can be pasted on the user's side.
none No copy and paste operations are allowed.
both Two-way copy and paste operations are allowed.

Limiting the Clipboard Buffer
By default, the clipboard buffer is unlimited. If you want, for example, to limit the clipboard buffer to 4MB, you have to uncomment and set the following key (value is espressed in bytes) in the node configuration file:
ClipboardBufferLimit 4194304

When a user is connected to the desktop, they have the possibility to transfer files by using the Connection Monitor tool from the system tray within the session. The user can transfer a file from their own PC to the remote host where the session is running and vice-versa. If multiple users are connected, each of them can send a file to a specific user or to all connected users. Drag and drop of a file is also supported

You can manage file transfer
from the GUI
In the Server GUI -> Transfers panel

or via node configuration.

Disabling File Transfer
To forbid file transfer you have to uncomment and set a proper value for the EnableFileTransfer key in the node configuration file:
client Files can be transferred from client machine to the server.
server Files can be sent from the server to clients.
both Client and server files can be transferred on remote and local respectively.
none Neither client or server files can be transferred.

For example, to forbid users from transferring a file from the server to their PC:
EnableFileTransfer client

On Linux, NoMachine audio framework is integrated with PulseAudio sound server. If PulseAudio is not available on the system, NoMachine is able to use ALSA (Advanced Linux Sound Architecture). This is automatically managed by the NoMachine server so that multimedia support can work out of the box without the need for any configuration. If both PulseAudio and Alsa are available, the administrator might want to configure the node to use one or the other.

On Windows 10,8,7 and Vista NoMachine's audio system perfectly integrates with the Windows media framework. On XP instead, NoMachine relies on its own driver, the NoMachine Audio Adapter. For microphone support NoMachine always uses the NoMachine Microphone Adapter driver.

On Mac, NoMachine installs and uses its own virtual drivers to support audio and microphone seamlessly.

Disabling or Setting Audio Support
To disable audio and microphone support, uncomment and set the AudioInterface key to 'disabled' in the node configuration file:
AudioInterface disabled

On Linux it is possible to define whether PulseAudio Server or ALSA has to be used by setting AudioInterface key to 'pulseaudio' or 'alsa' respectively. For example:
AudioInterface pulseaudio

Accepted values on Windows and Mac are instead 'nxaudio' or 'disabled'.

NoMachine permits to record in a video all activities made inside the session or on the desktop. To start the recording of the session, users should open the NoMachine menu inside the session (ctrl+alt+0) and click on the 'Recording' button icon to access the Recording panel. From this panel it's possible to open the recording bar, change audio and video quality and open the recording directory to access all recorded files. Session recording is not available with sessions on the web.

To register activities made on the desktop, start the recording from the !M icon menu in the system tray of the Enterprise Desktop host and show the Recording bar from there. Desktop activities can be registered on the physical desktop without the need to be connected by NoMachine.

Recorded files are saved by default in WebM format and can be played back directly with NoMachine or any other player supporting that format. Video streams can be encoded only with VP8 or H.264 when supported. Recorded files are saved by default on the user's device in the NoMachine directory under the 'Documents' directory.

Disabling session recording
To prevent users from recording their session activities, edit the node configuration to set:
EnableSessionRecording 0

Disabling desktop recording
To prevent users from recording desktop activities, even when physically logged into the Enterprise Desktop host, edit the node configuration to set:
EnableLocalRecording 0

The Enterprise Desktop, as well as the other NoMachine client and server products, periodically checks NoMachine repositories (by default every two days) to verify if updates are available and will prompt a dialog informing the user that a new version is available.

It will never automatically update the current installation. Also the download in background of a new software version will not lead to an automatic update of the current installation.

A separate guide, available at: https://www.nomachine.com/all-documents deals specifically with all the possible options for the automatic software updates.

To retrieve logs by using the NoMachine tools, please refer to guides available in the Configuration section at: https://www.nomachine.com/all-documents.

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When debug mode is enabled, server logs may increase consistently. It's suggested to keep debug level only for the time necessary to reproduce the problem and collect logs.

By default the nxserver, nxwebplayer/nxwebclient and nxnode programs log to the file defined in the SystemLogFile key in their configuration files (server.cfg for nxserver and nxwebplayer/nxwebclient and node.cfg for nxnode).

It's possible to configure these applications to log to the system log file instead. Edit the server.cfg and node.cfg files, uncomment and set:

EnableSyslogSupport 1

Then restart the server and all services to make the change effective:

You can redirect logs of nxserver, nxwebplayer/nxclient and nxnode programs to a custom file by uncommenting and setting the path to that file in the SystemLogFile key available in the server and node configuration files. By default this key is set to:

SystemLogFile /usr/NX/var/log/nxserver.log

Change it to point to a different file, for example:

SystemLogFile /tmp/NX.log

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The custom file must be accessible (writable) to the 'nx' user and to the connected user.

In its default configuration, the Enterprise Desktop removes the session directory from the 'node' directory in the NoMachine var/log directory once the session has been correctly terminated. The 'node' directory is:
/usr/NX/var/log/node on Linux
%PROGRAMDATA%\NoMachine\var\log\node on Windows
/Library/Application Support/NoMachine/var/log/node on Mac.

You can preserve it, for example for log purposes, by uncommenting and disabling the following key in the node configuration file. In this case, the session directory in user's home/.nx is renamed as T-C*:

SessionLogClean 0

NoMachine supports log rotation for its log files since v. 6.5.6. Once activated, in the default configuration, logs are rotated once per month when they exceed 100MB. If not otherwise specified, NoMachine preserves up to seven rotated files and deletes the oldest ones.

Rotated logs are saved in the following directories:
/usr/NX/var/log/logrotate on Linux
%PROGRAMDATA%\NoMachine\var\log\logrotate on Windows
/Library/Application Support/NoMachine/var/log/logrotate on Mac.

To activate log rotation:

By default, log rotation is applied to all NoMachine log files. It's possible to specify which log file should be under log rotation:

To edit parameters set for log rotation:

Some examples:

It's possible to force log rotation at any moment. This doesn't require to enable it. To apply log rotation to all files or to a given log only:

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To debug a problem easily reproducible, it could be helpful to clean up logs with 'nxserver --logrotate', activate the debug log level with 'nxserver --debug --enable all', reproduce the problem, collect logs with 'nxserver --debug --collect' and finally restore informational log level with 'nxserver --debug --disable all'.

If you own multiple installations of Enterprise Desktop, you may need to provide a single point of access to all of these servers. This can be done by installing NoMachine Cloud Server on a dedicated host and add each Enterprise Desktop to it.

In this way, users will connect to the hostname/IP of the Cloud Server and will be redirected to the appropriate Enterprise Desktop or, depending on the Cloud Server configuration, will be able to choose it manually.

You may also configure the NoMachine centralized infrastructure to make each Enterprise Desktop to accept or refuse direct connections to its host.

To grant high available access to this centralized system, it's possible to add a second Cloud Server to the first one and set-up a failover cluster.

In order to federate an Enterprise Desktop under a Cloud Server, connect to the Cloud Server host as a NoMachine administrator and use the graphical interface to add the server.

Otherwise, execute on the Cloud Server host the 'nxserver --serveradd ' command.

For more advanced options, such as setting up the protocol (NX or SSH) and method to be used for forwarding the connection from client to the Enterprise Desktop, please refer to the NoMachine Cloud Server Guide available in the Document sections: https://www.nomachine.com/all-documents