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Configuring Access to Serial Ports

Secure Global Desktop Administrators can give users access to client serial port devices from Windows applications accessed using SGD. You configure access to serial ports as follows:

  1. Configure the Microsoft Windows application server.
  2. Configure the client device.
  3. Enable access to serial ports.

Configuring the Microsoft Windows Application Server

You can only access serial ports in Microsoft Windows Server 2003 Terminal Services sessions.

To give users can only access serial ports, COM port mapping must be enabled on the application server. It is disabled by default.

Configuring the Client Device

To determine the serial ports that are mapped in the Windows Terminal Services session, you might have to configure the client device.

On UNIX and Linux client platforms, users must have read and write access to any serial device that is mapped. SGD uses the first match of the following:

  1. The serial ports listed in the SUN_MAP_SERIALPORTS environment variable.

    Each serial port in the list is separated with a semi-colon and has the format serial device=com_port_name.

    Skip past command syntax or program code/dev/ttyS0=COM1;/dev/ttyS4=COM8

    The =com_port_name is optional, but if it is omitted the serial port is mapped to COMx in the Windows application session where x is the position of the serial port in the list.

  2. The serial ports listed in the user's client profile.

    The <serialports> entry in the <localsettings> section of the user's client profile lists the serial ports to be mapped. The <serialports> entry has to be added manually.

    The serial ports are listed in the same format as above.

  3. The serial port listed in the SUN_DEV_SERIAL environment variable.

    This is a single serial device, for example /dev/ttyS2. This is always mapped to COM1 in the Windows application session.

On Microsoft Windows client platforms, SGD uses the first match of the following:

  1. The serial ports listed in the user's client profile.

    The <serialports> entry in the <localsettings> section of the user's client profile lists the serial ports to be mapped. The <serialports> entry has to be added manually.

    Each serial port in the list is separated with a semi-colon and has the format serial device=com_port_name.

    Skip past command syntax or program codeCOM1=COM5;COM2=COM8

    The =com_port_name is optional, but if it is omitted the serial port is mapped to COMx in the Windows application session where x is the position of the serial port in the list.

  2. Any available COM1 to COM9 ports.

    The SGD Client attempts to open ports COM1 to COM9. If a COM port is found, it is mapped to the same COM port number in the Windows application session.

Enabling Access to Serial Ports

Access to serial ports is enabled for all users by default. If it is disabled, you enable it as follows:

  1. In the SGD Administration Console, click the Global Settings » Client Device tab.
  2. Select the Serial Port Mapping check box.
  3. Click Save.

    Note The change only takes effect for new user sessions.

To enable or disable access to serial ports for particular users:

  1. In the SGD Administration Console, click the User Profiles tab and select either an organization, an organizational unit, or a user profile object.

    Note If you configure an organization or organizational unit object, this affects all the users in that organization or organizational unit.

  2. Click the Client Device tab.
  3. Select the Override Parent's Settings or Override Global Settings check box.
  4. To enable access to serial ports, select the Enabled check box.
    To disable access to serial ports, deselect the Enabled check box.
  5. Click Save.

    Note The change only takes effect for new user sessions.

When a user starts a Windows application, SGD checks the user profile for the user and then any parent object further up the organizational hierarchy to see whether access to serial ports is enabled or disabled. If all the objects checked are configured to use the parent's setting, then the global setting is used.

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