Elastic Desktop Service (EDS) provides convenience accounts and enterprise Active Directory (AD) accounts. Users that are created in convenience accounts are convenience users. Convenience users can connect to cloud desktops as end users. This topic describes how to create a convenience user.

Prerequisites

If you want to add a convenience user to an organization, make sure that the organization is created. For information about how to create an organization, see Create an organization.

Background information

Convenience accounts are dedicated user accounts of EDS that are suitable for scenarios in which you do not need to connect to enterprise AD systems. The information about a convenience user includes the username, initial password, email address, and mobile number. If you have requirements on other properties, you can manage convenience users by user property. For more information, see Manage convenience users.

Convenience users are classified into user-activated convenience users and administrator-activated convenience users. You can select a type of convenience user based on your business requirements.
  • User-activated convenience user: You must specify a username and enter the email address of the convenience user. The system sends notifications about the username and password to the email address of the convenience user.
    Note Make sure that the email address is valid. After you create the convenience user, the system sends notifications to the email address when you assign a cloud desktop to the convenience user, revoke permissions on cloud desktops from the user, or change the password of the user.
  • Administrator-activated convenience user: You must specify a username and password of the convenience user that is configured as the user administrator. By default, the username and password are forwarded to end users. After you specify the user administrator, notifications, such as password resets performed by end users, are sent to the email address of the user administrator.
The following figure shows how to create a convenience user.chart
Note If you create an administrator-activated convenience user, you must grant the user administrator permissions to a user-activated convenience user. This way, the user-activated convenience user can receive email notifications, such as information about the logon password.

Procedure

  1. Log on to the EDS console.
  2. In the left-side navigation pane, click Users.
  3. On the Manage User page, choose User > Create User
  4. In the Create User panel, use one of the following methods to import information about the user:
    • Manual entry
      1. Click the Manual Entry tab.
      2. For the User Type parameter, select User-activated or Administrator-activated based on your business requirements.
      3. Configure parameters based on the user type that you selected, and click Create User.
      4. Optional: Select an organization to which the user belongs.
      5. Optional: Repeat the previous step to create more convenience users.
    • Batch entry
      1. Click the Batch Entry tab.
      2. For the User Type parameter, select User-activated or Administrator-activated based on your business requirements.
      3. Use one of the following methods to prepare a user information file:
        • Click Download, open the downloaded template, enter the user information in the format provided in the template, and then save the file.
        • Use Microsoft Excel to enter user information and save the file as a CSV file.
        Note
        • If you select User-activated for the User Type parameter, usernames and email addresses are required when you enter user information. You must specify usernames in the first column and email addresses in the second column.
        • If you select Administrator-activated for the User Type parameter, usernames and passwords are required when you enter user information. You must specify usernames in the first column and passwords in the fourth column.
      4. Click Select File to select the CSV file that contains the user information.

        The system automatically imports the user information. After you import the CSV file, you can check whether the information about all users is imported. If the file failed to be imported, check whether the format of the user information in the CSV file is valid.

  5. Click Close.
    After you create the convenience user, you can view the user information on the Manage User page. The user status is displayed as Normal.

What to do next

After you create a convenience user, you can perform the following operations :

Enable the immersive mode

You can enable or disable the immersive mode in the EDS console. After you enable the immersive mode, the cloud desktop is displayed in full screen after it is connected by an end user and the end user cannot switch to another UI.

The immersive mode that is provided by Elastic Desktop Service (EDS) is now in the test phase. Before you use the immersive mode, take note of the following items:
  • The immersive mode supports only Windows clients and macOS clients.
  • After you enable the immersive mode, this mode takes effect the next time end users connect to cloud desktops. After you disable the immersive mode, this mode does not take effect for subsequent connections.
  • If security software is installed on a client of an end user, the immersive mode may be blocked and does not take effect when the end user connects to the cloud desktop by using the client.
  • The immersive mode takes effect on all end users in your organization. If you enable the immersive mode, the Windows registry lists of local computers of the end users are modified.
  • After you enable the immersive mode, end users cannot access the local Windows OSs after they connect to cloud desktops. In this case, the end users may be unable to use the following features:
    • Windows Control Panel
    • Wired or wireless network settings
    • Volume management
    • Task Manager
    • Local browsers
Important If you need to enable the immersive mode, submit a ticket for technical support.

Procedure: On the Manage User page in the EDS console, click the Logon tab and turn on Enable Immersive Mode upon Logon.

Enable the verification code logon feature

After you enable the verification code logon feature in Elastic Desktop Service (EDS), an end user can use the verification code that is sent to the associated mobile number to log on to a client.
Important
  • Before you use the feature, you must create an organization ID. For more information about specific operations, see Configure custom organization IDs.
  • This feature is implemented based on a mobile number. If an end user wants to try this feature, you must bind a mobile number to a convenience account that is used by the end user. Make sure that the mobile number is valid. Otherwise, the end user cannot receive the verification code.
    Methods to bind a mobile number:
    • Bind a mobile number when you create a convenience user.
    • For an existing convenience user, you can bind or change a mobile number in the Mobile Phone Number column on the Manage User page.
Procedure:
  1. On the Manage User page, click the Logon tab.
  2. Enable Logon By Using SMS Verification Code.
  3. In the Make sure that the mobile number that you entered is valid message, click OK.

    If you did not create an organization ID, create an organization ID as prompted before you enable the verification code logon feature.

Enable the timeout-triggered automatic logout feature

You can enable the timeout-triggered automatic logout feature based on your business requirements. After you enable the feature, automatic logout is triggered if end users do not establish sessions with EDS, Cloud Drive Service, or AppStreaming after the end users log on to clients. This feature effectively prevents resource waste.

For example, if an end user does not establish any sessions within 30 seconds after you enable the timeout-triggered automatic logout feature in the EDS console, a message indicating that the administrator has enabled the timeout-triggered automatic logout feature and the client will be automatically logged out in 30 seconds appears. The end user can confirm or cancel logout. If the specified timeout period elapses and the end user does not perform any operation, the client of the end user is automatically logged out.

Procedure:
  1. On the Manage User page in the EDS console, click the Logon tab.
  2. Below the Timeout-triggered Automatic Logout field, turn on swith.
  3. In the Timeout Interval dialog box, specify a period of time based on your business requirements.
  4. Below the Client Type field, select the type of client on which you want the timeout-triggered automatic logout feature to take effect.
  5. Click OK.
Important
  • The timeout-triggered automatic logout feature takes effect the next time your end users log on to their clients.
  • The timeout-triggered automatic logout feature can take effect only on the following types of clients: Windows clients and macOS clients.
  • The timeout-triggered automatic logout feature takes effect based on whether end users establish sessions with EDS, Cloud Drive Service, or AppStreaming.
  • After you enable the timeout-triggered automatic logout feature, you can click pen to modify the settings of the feature based on your business requirements.

Add the convenience user to an organization

You can add a convenience user to an organization when or after you create the user. After you add the user to the organization, you can view the structure of the organization.

Procedure: On the User tab of the Manage User page, use one of the following methods to add one or more convenience users to an organization:
  • Find the convenience user that you want to add to an organization and click Move in the Actions column. In the dialog box that appears, select an organization from the Parent Organization drop-down list.
  • Select one or more convenience users that you want to add to an organization and click Move User in the lower part of the tab. In the dialog box that appears, select an organization from the Parent Organization drop-down list.

Specify a user-activated convenience user as the user administrator

End users who use cloud desktops as administrator-activated convenience users must manually obtain usernames and passwords. To help end users obtain new passwords in a more efficient manner, you can select user-activated convenience users and grant the user administrator permissions to the user-activated convenience users. This way, the user-activated convenience users can receive notifications about passwords on behalf of the administrator-activated convenience users.

Procedure:
  1. On the User or Organization tab, select a user-activated convenience user.
  2. In the Actions column, click Grant Administrator Permission.
  3. In the message that appears, click Confirm.

Revoke local administrator permissions

If you grant the local administrator permissions to a convenience user, the convenience user can perform operations such as installing software that requires specific permissions and modifying specific system settings. Unauthorized convenience users cannot perform these operations. Take note that a local administrator is different from the administrator of the Elastic Desktop Service (EDS) console. By default, all convenience users have the local administrator permissions. You can revoke the local administrator permissions from a convenience user based on your business requirements.

Procedure:
  1. On the User or Organization tab, select one or more convenience users from which you want to revoke the local administrator permissions.
  2. Use one of the following methods to revoke the local administrator permissions:
    • Method 1
      1. Find the convenience user from which you want to revoke the local administrator permissions and move the pointer over Yes in the Local Administrator column.
      2. Click the 1 icon.
      3. In the message that appears, click Confirm.
    • Method 2:
      1. In the lower part of the User tab, select a user from which you want to revoke the local administrator permissions, and click Configure Local Administrator.
      2. In the dialog box that appears, select No from the Local Administrator drop-down list.
      3. In the message that appears, click Confirm.

Grant the local administrator permissions

By default, all convenience users have the local administrator permissions. You can grant the local administrator permissions to convenience users whose local permissions are revoked.

Procedure:
  1. On the User or Organization tab, select one or more convenience users to which you want to grant the local administrator permissions.
  2. In the lower part of the User tab, select a user to whom you want to grant the local administrator permissions, and click Configure Local Administrator.
  3. In the dialog box that appears, select Yes from the Local Administrator drop-down list.
  4. In the message that appears, click Confirm.