What’s New in Propalms VPN 3.7?
New Application Launcher in VPN Client
The Application launcher of VPN Client is improved to add more applications with a better user interface. After login, the Application Launcher is shown to the user with the list of applications the user has access to. Following applications are shown to the user:- Propalms TSE applications
- Virtual desktops from Propalms VDI
- Web applications
- Remote Desktop Connections
- Remote Meeting
Online License Server
A new online license activation service is added in this release. Now license acquisition is a real time, secure automated system. With the VPN software image/virtual appliance, the customer will get a Serial Key which will be used to retrieve the actual license. Before the administrator can use the Serial Key to get a new license, the administrator must register himself/herself and the organization with Propalms License Server. After registration is successful, administrator can click on “Retrieve License” to retrieve the license details from Propalms License Server.Tight Integration with Propalms VDI
In this release, if a user is provisioned a virtual desktop from Propalms VDI he/she can see the virtual desktop directly on VPN Portal and the new application launcher screen. There is no need for any additional VDI client configuration on the users’ device as all features are provided by the VPN Portal and the VPN Client. VPN Administrator must configure an application rule for Propalms VDI access. For single sign-on to work the credentials for VPN must be same as credentials for Propalms VDI for each user. This can be achieved if VPN is configured to use the same domain controller for authentication as VDI. Administrators can see which virtual machine is assigned to the user on the VPN management console. There is a new screen added under VPN Status section on VPN Management console.New Propalms OS 3 (CentOS Distribution)
The new VPN runs on CentOS based Linux distribution. CentOS is the most commonly used free distribution derived from RHEL distributions. The new 3.7 VPN ISO contains the new hardened OS with an improved graphical installer.64-Bit Hardware Support
The new VPN ISO based on CentOS is available for both 32bit as well as 64bit hardware platforms. There are two different ISOs available and the customer must install the correct ISO on their specific hardware. The ISO for 32bit hardware can be installed on 64bit hardware though. With support for 64bit platform a large amount of RAM and CPU power can be made available to VPN gateway for scalable deployments.Device Authentication
Device Authentication is a newly integrated two factor authentication feature in Propalms VPN. Device authentication requires user to register their device with Propalms VPN Gateway. Each user receives an activation code in their email that they can use to register their device. Propalms VPN integrates with EZMCOM authentication server which stores a unique identification of the user device. User must also create a device PIN which user must remember and use again during login process. During login process, user needs to enter their domain username, domain password and device PIN. If the device PIN matches with the device PIN created during device registration, the VPN Portal generates a unique one-time-password using the user registration information. The domain username, password and the one-time-password is then sent to Propalms VPN gateway which verifies the details with EZMCOM server. If all the details are correct, user can login.
VPN Portal – Kiosk Mode
Kiosk mode is a new mode on the VPN portal such that users can access applications without requiring installation of the VPN client which requires user to have admin rights for first time. Kiosk mode supports following type of applications published over VPN Portal:- Remote Desktop Connections
- FTP Applications
- VNC Applications
- File Share
- SSH/Telnet
- Propalms VDI/TSE
- Citrix Web (inc ICA)
- Remote Meeting
- MyDesktop
In current release, after login into VPN, the Portal detects the type of applications user has access to. If user has access to applications supported by Kiosk Mode, then the portal starts working in Kiosk mode. In case user has access to any other application out of those mentioned above, the portal works in full access mode. In that case full VPN client will be downloaded and installed if the latest compatible VPN client is not installed already.
