Enable Authentication of Clients in Kiosk Mode

You can use the vdmadmin command to enable authentication of clients that attempt to connect to their remote desktops via an Omnissa Horizon Connection Server instance.

You must run the vdmadmin command on one of the Horizon Connection Server instances in the group that contains the Horizon Connection Server instance that clients will use to connect to their remote desktops.

Although you enable authentication for an individual Horizon Connection Server instance, all Horizon Connection Server instances in a group share all other settings for client authentication. You need only add an account for a client once. In a Horizon Connection Server group, any enabled Horizon Connection Server instance can authenticate the client.

If you plan to use kiosk mode with a session-based desktop on an RDS host, you must also add the user account to the Remote Desktop Users group.

Procedure

1. Enable authentication of clients on a Horizon Connection Server instance.

   vdmadmin -Q -enable [-b authentication_arguments] -s connection_server [-requirepassword]
   

   Option	Description
   -requirepassword	Specifies that you require clients to provide passwords. Important: If you specify this option, the Horizon Connection Server instance cannot authenticate clients that have automatically generated passwords. If you change the configuration of a Horizon Connection Server instance to specify this option, such clients cannot authenticate themselves and they fail with the error message Unknown username or bad password.
   -s connection_server	Specifies the NetBIOS name of the Horizon Connection Server instance on which to enable authentication of clients.

   The command enables the specified Horizon Connection Server instance to authenticate clients.

2. If the published desktop is provided by a Microsoft RDS host, log in to the RDS host and add the user account to the Remote Desktop Users group.

   For example, say that on the Omnissa Horizon server, you entitle the user account custom-11 to a session-based desktop on an RDS host. You must then log in to the RDS host, and add the user custom-11 to the Remote Desktop Users group by going to Control Panel > System and Security > System > Remote settings > Select users > Add.

Example: Enabling Authentication of Clients in Kiosk Mode

Enable authentication of clients for the Horizon Connection Server instance csvr-2. Clients with automatically generated passwords can authenticate themselves without providing a password.

vdmadmin -Q -enable -s csvr-2

Enable authentication of clients for the Horizon Connection Server instance csvr-3, and require that the clients specify their passwords to Omnissa Horizon Client. Clients with automatically generated passwords cannot authenticate themselves.

vdmadmin -Q -enable -s csvr-3 -requirepassword

What to do next

Verify the configuration of the Horizon Connection Server instances and the clients.

Previous topic:Add Accounts for Clients in Kiosk Mode

Next topic:Verify the Configuration of Clients in Kiosk Mode

Related information

Configuring Clients in Kiosk Mode Using the ‑Q Option

vdmadmin Command Usage

vdmadmin Command Authentication