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Application

Corvina Cloud allows to define "Applications" that can be seen as a way to access an endpoint from the Corvina Cloud App using a third-party application installed on the client side.

For example an application can be defined to simplify connection to web pages exposed by an HMI, launching the computer's default web browser with the endpoint's IP Address.

Requirements

Following requirements needs to be satisfied to follow this guide:

     -Corvina Cloud App software (Download here)

     -User account with manage applications rights

Launch the Corvina Cloud App software to get access to the Corvina Cloud server. Once connected select the [APPLICATIONS] tab.

Creation of Applications

The page initially shows the Add application link and a table containing the applications available by default and other information:

     -The name given to identify the application.

     -The type of the application (see further on for more information).

     -A description of the application

     -The available actions for each application:

 Enable or disable the application
 Modify the application
 Remove the application

Above the table, on the right-hand side appears a filter, useful to search among all applications that have been defined in the Corvina Cloud.






















When clicking on the Add application link, the applications editor opens right above the table, giving the opportunity to define additional applications. Two tabs are present in this editor: Application and Advanced parameters. The latter appears only for some of the Application type available.























Application

Name

A name to identify the application.

Organization

The name of an organization to which the use of the appliance is reserved. At least an organization must have been defined in the Organizations section for this option to appear.

Description

A description of the application.

Application type

The type of the application, which can be selected from the drop-down menu.

Note The choice of the application type influences also the availability of some of the next options; also the options that appear in the Advanced parameters tab will depend on the application type chosen.

Protocol

The protocol that the application should use, chosen from the drop-down menu. It can be TCP, UDP, or TCP & UDP.

Port

The port used by the application.

URL to open

The URL to be used for the connection. This option is available only when the Application type above is either HTTP or HTTPS.

Enabled

Tick the checkbox to enable the application.

The next options appear only if the Application type above is Custom and allow to define the path on the workstation to launch the application and arguments to be passed to the program. Since a same application might be run on Microsoft Windows and Mac OS X, the path and the arguments can be specified twice. It is even possible to use placeholders, that will be replaced accordingly on the operating systems, see below for more details.

Command path

The full path to the program to use.

Command arguments

Additional arguments to be passed to the program.

The next options concern how the Corvina Cloud App launches the application to connect to the remote device. The options are available for Windows and Mac OS X.

Enable integrated application

By selecting this option, the Corvina Cloud App will use its integrated application for the remote connection.

Open external application

By ticking this checkbox, it will be possible to specify which external application will be launched to establish the connection to the remote device. Two more option will appear, Command path and Command arguments, that are exactly the same described above and for which it is possible to use the placeholders described next.

Advanced parameters

Depending on the application type chosen in the other tab, the following common options are available for all types except for Custom.

Username

The username used for the remote login.

Password, Confirm Password

The password that is used for the login, repeated twice for confirmation.

There is also the possibility to define advanced options for the following types:

*  SSH

Private key
Use the textfield to paste the private key used for the connection

Passphrase, Confirm Passphrase
Write here the passphrase that corresponds to the private key.

Terminal color scheme
Select from the drop-down menu the colors used in the SSH terminal.

Font
The font used in the terminal.

Font size
The size of the font.

*  RDP

There are a number of options that can be configured with this type of connection, but they are not required in most cases. These options allow to customise the authentication, the session, the audio support, some performance boost, and the RemoteApp.

*  VNC

Always request password
When the VNC application is used, a popup dialog will ask the password to use to get access to the remote HMI device. This functionality is useful to handle different devices with VNC server running on it with different password.

Number of connection retries
The number of times the connection should be attempted after an unsuccessful try.

Color depth
Choose the color depth used for the connection.

Swap red-blue
Invert the red and blue colors.

Cursor
Choose from the drop-down menu whether to use the local or remote cursor.

Read only connection
Tick the checkbox to disallow the client to make changes on the remote device.

Clipboard encoding

*  Telnet

Username regex
The regular expression that recognises the correct moment when to send the username to the remote device.

Password regex
The regular expression that recognises the moment when to send the password to the remote device.

Terminal color scheme
Select from the drop-down menu the colors used in the SSH terminal.

Font
The font used in the terminal.

Font size
The size of the font.

*  Custom

For custom applications, click on Add row to add a new parameter, and then fill in the following information:

Parameter name
The name of the parameter.

Value
The value of that parameter.

It is possible to add any number of options and their values, these will be passed on the command line to the application.



Creation of Profiles

Applications can be grouped together into Profiles and attached to single endpoints, tailoring the possibility to access them. In other words, it is possible to configure applications on a given endpoint so that it can be reached only via some given protocols (e.g., RDP, SSH or HTTP) or services (e.g., VNC). The choice of the applications can be influenced also by the endpoint’s running operating system and services.

The page contains the Add profile link, above the table carrying the list of all the available profiles and some information about each profile:

*  The name given to the profile.

*  The description of the profile

*  The applications that are part of the profile.

*  The available actions on each of them
 Modify the application profile
 Remove the application profile.

Note In case one or more profiles are deleted, the single applications will not be deleted: To remove an existing application, go to Applications.

Above the table, on the right-hand side appears a filter, useful to search among all profiles that have been defined in the Switchboard.























When clicking on the Add profile link, the editor opens right above the table.























Here, additional profiles can be created, by supplying the following information:

Name

A name to identify the profile.

Organization

Select for which organization the Profile will be available.

Description

A note about the profile.

Applications

Available applications are listed in this multiselect box. To add an application to the profile, click on the + next to the application’s name. To search for an application, use the textbox on top of the box. The Add all link can be used as a shortcut for moving all applications within the profile. An application can be removed from the profile by clicking on the - next to the application’s name in the right column.

 

Now the new profile, that contains the selected applications list, can be added to endpoints of the devices and the defined applications can be activate from the DASHBOARD page.





















Application types

There are some applications integrated into Corvina Cloud that are already configured and ready to use:

 

SSH

Secure Shell Connection

 

RDP

Windows Remote Desktop (on Windows XP, Vista, 7 and 2008 Server clients)

 

VNC

VNC Remote Desktop Session

 

Telnet

Telnet connection

 

HTTP

Web interface in a browser

 

HTTPS

Web interface over a secured connection in a browser

Selecting custom application type, user has to provide:

Command path

The full path to the program to use.

Command arguments

Additional arguments to be passed to the program.

As an example of application, suppose that each workstation equipped with Windows and the Corvina Cloud App has also the program JMobile Client installed in user’s program folder. To allow users to use JMobile Client, define a custom application with the following configuration values:

*  Name: JMobile Client

*  Description: Connect to HMI (command path could change based on your JMobile Suite version)

*  Application Type: Custom

*  Protocol: TCP

*  Port: 80

*  Command path: %PROGRAM_PATH%\Exor\JMobile Suite 2.0\runtime\Client_WIN32\hmiclient.exe

*  Command args: %DEVICE_IP%


Placeholders

The purpose of a placeholder is to allow the same application to be used on every device, independently of the varying configuration values of each device, like for example their (public) IP addresses.

Placeholders can be used in the HTTP, HTTPS, and Custom application types.

For HTTP and HTTPS types, these are the available placeholders:

*  %DEVICE_IP% the IP address assigned to the device.

*  %PHYSICAL_IP% the physical IP of the device.

*  %SERVER_EXTERNAL_HOST% the FQDN of the server’s public hostname.

*  %SERVER_INTERNAL_IP% for the internal, private IP address.

In the Custom application type, the available placeholders are:

*  %PROGRAM_PATH%: The default installation directory for applications (usually C:\Program Files).

*  %SYSTEM_DRIVE%: The drive containing the Windows root directory (C:\).

*  %SYSTEM_ROOT%: The Windows root directory (C:\Windows).

*  %HOME_PATH%: The user’s home directory (C:\Documents and Settings\`username`).


Direct Access

Direct access is a special configuration that allows you to configure a user to log on directly to a predefined device and start automatically a predefined application.

To configure a direct access:

*  User must have the “Direct access to application” permission

*  The device must have the user inside the user permission list. Note that is mandatory that a user with "Direct access to application" is not included on multiple devices.

*  Associate to the device a profile that contains only the application that you want to activate

The below pictures highlight the necessary steps to configure an account to get direct access to a particular device through the Internal VNC application

Step by step to configure a direct access user

Username: VNC-on-HMI1
Device: HMI1

1. Create the name of the user who will access the device























     2. Create a profile with only the application that has to be activated






















     3.Assign to the device the profile that contains the application to use

























     4.Assign the user, who was configured with "Direct access to the application", to the device




















You can now sign in using the VNC-on-HMI1 username to directly launch the VNC application on the HMI1 device




















Warning:

*  Direct Access is supported from gateway devices only when there are not endpoint devices.

*  Wrong configurations are not managed and could have unpredictable results