The following conventions are used in this guide:

• X.Y.Z-W indicates the version of the NX Server Manager package. E.g. nxmanager-X.Y.Z-W.i386.rpm.

 

• Commands to be executed on command line via xterm or similar are tagged with a '#'.

 

• Commands to install, update and remove packages on Linux and Solaris are using the sudo utility. If you don't have the sudo utility installed, log on as superuser ("root") and run the commands without sudo.

 

The NoMachine Web site, http://www.nomachine.com, provides you with a variety of on-line resources in conjunction with the software and its usage:

The NX Packages
You can download the latest available version of the NX packages suitable for your O.S.at: http://www.nomachine.com/download

Latest News
Updated in real time with the most recent release of the NX software. You may also subscribe to the NX Announce ML: https://www.nomachine.com/mailing-lists

Leave feedback about this guide
Our goal is provide comprehensive and clear documentation for all the NX products. If you would like to send us your comments and suggestions, you can use the Web contact facility available at: https://www.nomachine.com/contact-request and choose Web Quality Feedback as your option.

NX Server Manager puts at your disposal:

• An administrative interface to configure and administer the NX Server Manager Web application, for example by defining the user level access to the Web application and creating the pre-defined list of NX Servers to be administered.

 

• 3 levels of Web users: the NX Server Manager administrator who can access the Manager's administrative interface, the manager users who can create their permanent list of NX Servers and the guest manager users who can create their own temporary list of NX Servers to be administered during the life of the NX Server Manager Web session.

 

• An administrative interface to manage NX Server, sessions and users once logged to the server. Note that there are 2 levels of users for the NX Server: the NX administrator, who has full control over the server functionalities and can administer NX sessions and users, and the user who can administer his/her own sessions through the NX Server Manager interface.

The NX Server Manager package, named nxmanager, includes:

• The nxmanager binary written in Perl.
• The NX Server Manager front-end.
• A configuration file, manager.conf, to be included in the Web Server configuration file for deploying the application on the Web.
• A configuration file, manager.cfg, to be updated in order to fit the installation environment.

NX Server Manager is installed in the /usr/NX location, where:

• Binary, nxmanager, is placed in the /usr/NX/bin directory.

 

• The front-end set of images, templates and stylesheets is stored in the /usr/NX/share/htdocs/nxmanager/ directory.

 

• The configuration files, manager.conf and manager.cfg are available in the /usr/NX/etc/ directory.

The following NX Server Manager packages are available:

• RPM, DEB i386/AMD64 for Linux

 

• Compressed TAR i386/AMD64 for Linux

 

• SPARC.GZ for Solaris SPARC

 

For a complete and updated list of the currently supported Platforms and Operating Systems, you may refer to the download page: http://www.nomachine.com/download

Before going ahead with the installation of NX Server Manager, please be sure you have installed a Web Server on your NX Server Manager host machine. Apache HTTP Server is suggested.

Installation environment

Operating System

• Linux kernel 2.2/2.4/2.6 (i386 or AMD/64) for SuSE, RedHat, Mandriva, Debian and a number of other Linux distributions
• SunOS kernel 5.8/5.9/5.10 (SPARC) for Solaris 8, 9 and 10.

Hardware requirements

• 400 MHz processor
• 128 MB RAM
• 15 MB free disk space on your hard drive
• Network connection (either a LAN, or Internet link: dial-up (minimum 33.6 Kbps modem), broadband, cable, DSL, etc...)

Software requirements

• Apache HTTP Server 1.3.x/2.x or a compatible Web server
• The SSH server daemon (SSHD)
• NX Client
• NX Node
• NX Server

End-user environment

Any browser supporting JavaScript.

Once the installation of NX Server Manager has been completed, it is necessary to configure NX Server Manager to fit your environment and make the application accessible from the Web. Please refer to the 'Making NX Server Manager Operative' section of this guide.

• Open an xterm terminal or similar, move to the directory where you have downloaded the package from the NoMachine Web site.

 

• Install the package using the rpm utility:

  # sudo rpm -ivh nxmanager-X.Y.Z-W.i386.rpm

  Alternatively you can use the graphical package manager provided by your Linux distribution.

• Open an xterm terminal or similar, make a backup of your current NX installation and protect sensitive information that may be present inside the TAR archive by making the backup readable only by the 'root' user:

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

 

• Move to the directory where you have downloaded the package from the NoMachine Web site and run:

  # sudo rpm -Uvh nxmanager-X.Y.Z-W.i386.rpm

• Open an xterm terminal or similar and run:

  # sudo rpm -e nxmanager

 

• Move to the directory where you have downloaded the package from the NoMachine Web site and run:

  # sudo rpm -Uvh nxmanager-X.Y.Z-W.i386.rpm

• Open an xterm terminal or similar, move to the directory where you have downloaded the package from the NoMachine Web site.

 

• Install the package using the dpkg utility:

  # sudo dpkg -i nxmanager_X.Y.Z-W_i386.deb

• Open an xterm terminal or similar, make a backup of your current NX installation and protect sensitive information that may be present inside the TAR archive by making the backup readable only by the 'root' user:

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

 

• Move to the directory where you have downloaded the package from the NoMachine Web site and run:

  # sudo dpkg -i nxmanager_X.Y.Z-W_i386.deb

  The dpkg utility will automatically unsinstall the old version present on the system and install the new one.

• Open an xterm terminal or similar and uninstall the package using the dpkg utility:

  # sudo dpkg -r nxmanager

• Open an xterm terminal or similar. You should have downloaded the tar.gz package to the /usr directory. If not, move the package to the /usr directory:

  # sudo mv nxmanager-X.Y.Z-W.i386.tar.gz /usr
  # cd /usr

 

• Extract the archive:

  # sudo tar xvzf nxmanager-X.Y.Z-W.i386.tar.gz

 

• And install NX Server Manager:

  # sudo /usr/NX/bin/nxmanager --install

• Open an xterm or similar, make a backup of your current NX installation and protect sensitive information that may be present inside the TAR archive by making the backup readable only by the 'root' user:

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

 

• Ensure that the downloaded package is in the /usr directory and extract the archive:

  # sudo tar xvzf nxmanager-X.Y.Z-W.i386.tar.gz

  This operation will preserve the previous NX Server Manager configuration file.

• Set proper ownership and permissions on the NX Server Manager back-end:

  # sudo /usr/NX/bin/nxmanager --update

This operation will also remove the NX Client, the NX Node and the NX Server installations. Please note that it is advisable to uninstall the NX Server before removing the /usr/NX directory. This will ensure a clean installation of any successive NX Server version.

• Open an xterm or similar and remove the installation directory:

  # sudo rm -rf /usr/NX

 

• Open a terminal and move to the directory where you have downloaded the package from the NoMachine Web site.
• Expand the package archive and install it using the pkgadd utility:

  # sudo gunzip nxmanager-X.Y.Z-WW.sparc.gz
  # sudo pkgadd -d nxmanager-X.Y.Z-WW.sparc

• Open a terminal, make a backup of your current NX installation and protect sensitive information that may be present inside the TAR archive by making the backup readable only by the 'root' user:

  # sudo gtar cvzf /root/nx-BACKUP.tar.gz /usr/NX
  # sudo chmod 0600 /root/nx-BACKUP.tar.gz

 

• Then remove the previous installation, otherwise the installation will fail because only a single instance of the package is supported at one time on the same system:

  # sudo pkgrm NXmanager

 

• Expand the package archive and install it using the pkg utility:

  # sudo gunzip nxmanager-X.Y.Z-WW.sparc.gz
  # sudo pkgadd -d nxmanager-X.Y.Z-WW.sparc

• Open a terminal and remove the NX Server Manager installation using the pkgrm utility:

  # sudo pkgrm NXmanager

 

• You have configured the Web Server to run NX Server Manager.
• You have configured NX Server Manager to fit your environment.
• You have set the proper permissions for the NX Server Manager back-end.

The NX Server Manager package provides a configuration file, namely /usr/NX/etc/manager.conf, containing the directives for the Web Server required to run the application. This file should be included in the Web Server configuration file. In the case of Apache Web Server, the configuration file is usually the httpd.conf file. It can be updated by adding the following directive before the "Global Environment" section:

Include /usr/NX/etc/manager.conf

Then restart your Web Server.

Some possible locations for the Apache configuration file, depending on the Operating System and Apache Web Server version, are:

• Fedora release 8, Apache/2.2.8 /etc/httpd/conf/httpd.conf
• SuSE Linux 9.1, Apache/2.0.49 /etc/apache2/default-server.conf
• SUSE LINUX 10.1, Apache/2.2.0 /etc/apache2/default-server.conf
• Solaris Sparc 10, Apache/1.3.41 /etc/apache/httpd.conf

The manager.conf file provides the following directives:

Alias /nxmanager/ "/usr/NX/share/htdocs/nxmanager/"
ScriptAlias "/nxmanager" "/usr/NX/bin/nxmanager"

<Directory "/usr/NX/">
AllowOverride None
Options None
Order allow,deny
### ADDRESS RESTRICTIONS START ###
Allow from all
### ADDRESS RESTRICTIONS STOP ###
</Directory>

The NX Server Manager package provides a configuration file, namely /usr/NX/etc/manager.cfg, containing the configuration variables needed by the Manager to work properly in the hosting environment. Among them, there are defined username and group for the Web Server (namely Apache) user, which are necessary to set correct permissions for files constituting the NX Server Manager back-end.

In particular, you should ensure that the following keys are set according to the configuration of the Web Server on your system:

#
# Specify user name of Apache owner.
#
ApacheUname = "nobody"

#
# Specify group name of Apache owner.
#
ApacheGname = "nogroup"

#
# Specify the Apache reload command.
#
ApacheHTTPDReloadCommand = "/etc/init.d/apache2 graceful"

In order to make the new settings applied in the manager.cfg file effective, you need to run the NX Server Manager update procedure which will set the proper permissions on the NX Server Manager back-end.

Based on values set in the manager.cfg file for the Web Server user, the NX Server Manager update procedure sets proper ownership and permissions on the NX Server Manager back-end. This procedure can be executed by running:

# sudo /usr/NX/bin/nxmanager --update.

NX Server Manager is a Web application based on perl CGI. You can run it by pointing your browser to the proper URL according to the CGI directory you have specified in the configuration file of your Web Server:

e.g. http://localhost/nxmanager/

The administrative interface of the NX Server Manager allows you to:

• Create Web accounts to access the NX Server Manager Web application with or without privileges for administering the NX Server Manager Web application.
• Apply restrictions to allow only a set of IP Addresses to access NX Server Manager.

The NX Server Manager application is provided with a default Web administrator user. You can enter the application the first time by using the following default credentials

Username: nxmanager
Password: nxmanager

The following paragraphs mainly refer to administrative operations on NX Server.

Open an xterm or similar on your NX Server host machine and execute the nxserver --useradd command with the --administrator option.

To create a new system account with administrative privileges:

# /usr/NX/bin/nxserver --useradd USERNAME --system –-administrator

To give administrative privileges to an existing account:

# /usr/NX/bin/nxserver --useradd USERNAME –administrator

If your NX Server supports profiles, you can specify rules via NX Server Manager to set profiles on a per-system and/or on a per-user basis. When rules are set for the whole system, they apply to all user logins to NX Server. In the case of profiles set on a per-user basis, a different set of rules may be defined for each user.

The 'System Profile' section in the NX Server Manager interface allows for the definition of rules to be applied to the whole system.

In order to create a profile for the user, you should select the user from the NX Users list and create proper rules which are specific for that user.

The number of rules that can be set to create a profile can be grouped in the following classes:

• Session - to allow/forbid the starting of a specific type of session (unix-kde, unix-gnome etc...)
• Service - to allow/forbid to run services such as media, printing and audio.
• Feature - to control features such as copy&paste or available bandwidth.
• Node - to allow/forbid the starting of sessions on a specific node.
• Startup script - to specify path of X window system startup script.

In order to produce statistics via NX Server Manager, you need to start the nxsensor daemon on the NX Node host and the nxstat daemon on the NX Server host. The nxsensor daemon is in charge of producing data that is then elaborated by nxstat and provided to the Manager. To start nxsensor, you need firstly to edit the node configuration file on the NX Node host. Enable the EnableSensor key in the node.cfg file and ensure that values set for the following keys do fit your environment:

StatisticsHost = "127.0.0.1"
The hostname or IP address where the nxstat daemon, in charge of collecting and elaborating data provided by nxsensor, will be assumed to be running.

NodeSensorPort = "19250"
The port where the NX server will contact nxsensor daemon to collect the statistics data. The key is also used by nxsensor to know the network interface where it will listen for incoming connections.

The commands to handle the nxsensor daemon, in charge of producing data related to the node host, are:

nxnode --sensor start
nxnode --sensor restart
nxnode --sensor stop

In order to activate the nxstat daemon, edit the server configuration file available in the default installation at /usr/NX/etc/server.cfg to activate the EnableStatistics key and configure the following key to fit your environment:

ServerSensorPort = "19250"
Specify the port where the server will contact the nxsensor daemon to collect the statistics.

The commands to handle the nxstat daemon, in charge of elaborating the data provided by the nxsensor daemon running on the node host, are:

nxserver --statistics start
nxserver --statistics restart
nxserver --statistics stop

The NX Server Configuration keys are grouped into the following categories:

General
To set general behaviour of the NX Server, as for example the authentication method to be used (System or NX authentication), enabling/disabling of advanced capabilities (multi-node support, profiles ...) and so on.

Session
To define settings specific for session management, such as log level, maximum number of concurrent sessions, desktop sharing and session shadowing behaviour and so on.

Custom scripts
To specify path to the scripts to be executed upon NX Server events such as: before user login, after user login, before session start-up, after session start-up etc...

Guest
To specify settings for the automatic creation of guest accounts. Note that these settings can be applied only if the server supports provision of guest users.

Command
To specify the 'sessreg' command needed for tracking user's operations into utmp/wtmp files.