14.1. Starting the Web Desktop Server

Owned by Jenni Wallin
Last updated: May 16, 2023 by Former user (Deleted)

Run the following command to start the Web Desktop Server:

$ mzsh webdesktop [configuration file]

Example - Starting the Web Desktop Server with default settings

$ mzsh webdesktop

Note!

The host that will run the Web Desktop Server must have a display output. To start the server on a headless host, you can use e g Xvfb for this purpose.

Example - Setting display to Xvfb

$ export DISPLAY=:99
$ Xvfb :99 &

Custom Settings

To start the Web Desktop Server with custom settings, you may pass a configuration file in the argument to the mzsh webdesktop command or set environment variables in the shell. The settings in the configuration file will override the values in the environment variables.

File SettingEnvironment VariableDescription

mz.webdesktop.http-port

WEBDESKTOP_HTTP_PORT

Default value: 9999

The port where you want to access the Desktop in your browser.

mz.webdesktop.http-host

WEBDESKTOP_HTTP_HOST

Default value: 0.0.0.0

The host where you want to access the Desktop in your browser.

mz.webdesktop.allowed-clients

WEBDESKTOP_ALLOWED_CLIENTSDefault value: 4

The number of clients that are permitted.

mz.webdesktop.total-memory

WEBDESKTOP_TOTAL_MEMORY

Default value: 1024

The total amount of memory permitted in MB for all of the connected clients. You allocate the amount of memory per client in the memory-options setting.

mz.webdesktop.memory-selection

WEBDESKTOP_MEMORY_SELECTIONDefault value: true

This setting determines if a Memory dropdown is provided in the Desktop login dialog where you can select the amount of memory permitted for the current client. If you set the value to false, the Memory field is not visible and a default value of 256 MB is used for each connected client. If you want to set another value, you can configure a single value in the memory-options setting and this value will be used.

mz.webdesktop.memory-options

WEBDESKTOP_MEMORY_OPTIONS

Default value: 256, 512, 1024

The memory options available for selection for the current client in MB.

If you want to set the memory to the same value for each client, enter a single value. If you then set the value for memory-selection to true, only this value is displayed in the Memory dropdown. If it is set to false, the Memory field is not visible.

If a value exceeds the total-memory setting, it will be excluded from the Memory dropdown.

Note!

Bear in mind that the number of clients permitted and the amount of memory permitted per client must be within the total memory that you set. For example, the default value of 1024 MB would allow 4 clients using 256 MB to be connected simultaneously, or 1 client with 512 MB and 2 clients with 256 MB.

mz.webdesktop.space-selection

WEBDESKTOP_SPACE_SELECTIONDefault value: false

This setting determines if a Configuration Space dropdown is provided in the Desktop login dialog where you can select to login to a configuration space.

Example - Example - Starting the Web Desktop Server with custom settings

$ mzsh webdesktop webdesktop.properties

webdesktop.properties:

mz.webdesktop.http-host=0.0.0.0
mz.webdesktop.http-port=9999
mz.webdesktop.allowed-clients=4
mz.webdesktop.total-memory=1024
mz.webdesktop.memory-selection=false
mz.webdesktop.memory-options=256
mz.webdesktop.space-selection=true

Starting the Desktop

Start the Desktop by entering the URL in a web browser in accordance with your configuration: 

http://<http host>:<http port>/auth

or 

https://<http host>:<http port>/auth

For information about enabling HTTPS, see 4.3.3 HTTP Standard Setup.


Next:

14.2 Configuring the webdesktop Service