Easily Connect And Manage Host Terminals with ZIEWEB VT Display

Introduction

VT Display Session can be used to connect to the host machine and communicate to it through the terminal. It connects to the host based on the configuration provided. These configurations can be found under the Properties section.

Brief Description

VT Display sessions provides a terminal screen for users to connect and communicate with the host machine. Users can fetch necessary details from the host by passing appropriate commands through the terminal screen of VT.

Flow of Events

(a) Creating VT session:

1. Users can create VT sessions using deployment wizard.
   
2. ZIEWEB-VT Support only SSH Protocol. SSH (Secure Shell) is a protocol for conducting a secure session over a non-secure network. VT-SSH supports Password and Public Key Authentication.
   • Password Authentication: For Password authentication, a user can give a username and password to log in.
   • Public key Authentication: The user must enter the following values to perform VT-SSH Public Key Authentication.
     • KeyStore Password
     • Public Key Alias
     • Keystore File
       Note: The above information will appear only for public key authentication
3. Once the page is created successfully in Deployment Wizard, access the page in browser.
   
4. Once the page is accessed, click on the VT Display icon to start the session.
   
5. Click on the Start Session, to launch a session.
6. The Login authentication box appears, enter the Username and Password.
7. Click the Login button to access the session.
   

   Note: The above screen appears if the Password Authentication is selected.

8. Once the session is established, the VT screen appears as shown below.
   

   Note:

   • If the backend port is not started the following screen will appear after login.
     
   • The session will wait for 60-70seconds for the user to connect to backend before closing the session with the following error message.
   • Once the session connection error message is shown the session connection cannot be established.
     
9. If Public Key Authentication is enabled while creating the session the following screen apprears on starting the session. Provide the following details for connecting:
   • KeyStore Password
   • Public Key Alias
   • Keystore File
     
10. The properties of a VT session can be accessed from the main page.

    Note: If you click on the Properties, the Properties window will appear. This window, displays the following information:

    • Session Name
    • Destination Address,
    • Destination Port
    • Protocol
      
11. For VT protocol, select SSH from the Protocol dropdown field.

Whatever you will select in the Deployment Wizard while creating the page it will appear in the Properties dialog.

Note: For VT session all toolbar icons other than Copy session will be disabled.

(b) VT-Functionalities:

VT session provides the following functionalities:

• Connect/Disconnect – To connect or disconnect the session.
• Copy session – To create a copy of the session.
• Close – To close the session.
  

If you click on the Disconnect, this will disconnect the session.

Once session is disconnected, a Connect option to connect back to the session.

On clicking Connect, the Login Authentication dialogue box appears, and we can reconnect to the session.

If you click on Copy Session, this will create a copy of the current session.

Close will disconnect and close the session.

(c) VT terminal properties:

VT Display provides the following terminal properties:

• New-Line operation
• Backspace
• Reverse Screen Image
• History Log

New-Line Operation

Specifies where the cursor will move when you press the New Line key.

• Click CRLF if the cursor must move to the left margin on the next line.
• Click CR if the cursor must move to the left margin on the same line.

Backspace

Defines the default behaviour of the backspace key; however, the actual action of the key is determined by the host application.

• Check the button corresponding to Delete to perform delete operation. This deletes the last character.
• Check the button corresponding to Backspace to perform backspace operation. This moves the cursor one space to the left.

Reverse Screen Image

Select this option to reverse the foreground and background colors.

HistoryLog

Select this option if you want to scroll through text that has moved off the screen. If history log is enabled, you will be able to scroll in the screen using scrollbar.

If it is disabled, we won’t be able to scroll to the contents that have moved off the screen.

(d) VT Backend

VT Backend service can be started using Admin Console “Service” tab. User can perform start and stop operation here.

Note: If user want to restart the NCServiceManager,VT service should be stopped first before restarting the NCServiceManager.

To configure the VT Backend the user must specify some configuration detail in the prodConfig.properties.

• port: Port on which the VT backend (Node js) is running.
• URL: User can add multiple app server URLs separated by comma (,) and this is used for CORS mechanism. Only specified URLs are authenticated to access VT backend.
  • Syntax: http://AppserverMachineIp:AppserverPort
  • Example: http://10.134.54.99:8080
• secure: Boolean variable is used to enable the https in backend server.
• keystore_path: By default, the value for this property is “default” which means it will take
  /bin/ServerKeyStore.jks file for https. If user wants to use different jks, they should provide complete path of the jks.
• keyAlias: Alias to the key that needs to be used for https.
• passphrase: Passphrase for the keystore.

Note: Make sure that user adds VT backend URL in “vtBackend” params in web.xml of ZIEWEB client.

Syntax: http://VtBackendIP:VtBackendPort

Example: http://127.0.0.1:3001