Skip to content

Installing the Standard Agent for Linux on RHEL or CentOS

Important: Required ports will be automatically opened

The Standard Agent for Linux installer will add firewall exceptions for the following required PCoIP ports during installation: TCP 443, TCP 4172, UDP 4172, and TCP 60443.

Important: IP Configuration Considerations

For the Anyware Agent installation to complete successfully, the RHEL/Rocky 8 host machine must be configured to use both IPv4 and IPv6.

  1. Download and install the repository via the shell script provided here.

  2. Install the EPEL repository:

    sudo yum install epel-release 
    
  3. Optionally install USB dependencies, if you intend to support USB devices other than keyboards, mice, and pointer devices. If you skip this step, USB redirection will be completely disabled and bridged USB devices will not work.

    sudo yum install usb-vhci
    
    Install the Anyware Standard Agent for Linux:

    sudo yum install pcoip-agent-standard
    
  4. Note your machine's local IP address. Clients connecting directly to the host workstation will need this number to connect.

  5. Enter the license registration code you received from us.

    Note: These instructions are for Cloud Licensing

    These instructions assume you are using Anyware Cloud Licensing to activate your PCoIP session licenses. If you are using the License Server instead, see Licensing the Standard Agent for Linux.

    For unproxied internet connections, type:

    pcoip-register-host --registration-code=<XXXXXX@YYY-YYYY-YYY>
    

    For proxied internet conections, type:

    pcoip-register-host --registration-code=<XXXXXX@YYY-YYYY-YYY> --proxy-server=<serverURL> --proxy-port=<port>
    
  6. Reboot the desktop.

GNOME Display Manager Support

GNOME Display Manager (GDM) is now supported by the Standard Agent for Linux as a credential authenticator when gdm-runtime-config is available. This allows PCoIP sessions to be locked and unlocked within the remoted session. When the PCoIP service starts, GDM is configured to run without obstructing access to the GPU. This configuration is reverted when the PCoIP service stops. This behavior is always on and requires no configuration on the Anyware agent. For more information on GDM, see the GNOME Display Manager Reference Manual.

Installing the Standard Agent for Linux in a Dark Site

The Standard Agent for Linux can be installed in dark site environments, also referred to as offline environments, that do not have a connection to the public internet. We provide archived bundles (tar.gz archives) for each supported operating system, which includes the core application and all dependencies.

  1. From an internet-connected machine, open a browser and navigate to HP's documents and downloads site. Look in the sidebar for documentation and download links.

  2. Click the Downloads and scripts button.

    Downloads and scripts

    Note: An account is required

    If you are not logged in, you will see a log in prompt instead:

    Log in to download

    You can create an account when you click this button if you do not already have one.

  3. Read and accept the End User License Agreement.

  4. Under Darksite packages, find the download that matches your operating system, and click to download it. The installer is downloaded as a TAR file.

    For brevity, this example shows only the Centos 7.8 package; all supported operating systems have an available download.

    Darksite download screenshot

  5. Transfer the downloaded file to the production Linux machine using any acceptable method, such as a USB drive.

  6. On the production machine, open a console window and navigate to the directory where you placed the installer.

  7. Extract the installation files by running this command:

        sudo tar xvf <file path>/pcoip-agent-offline-rhel8.6_<pcoip version>.tar.gz 
    

    where is the version of the Anyware Agent.

  8. Install the agent by running the following command:

    sudo ./install-pcoip-agent.sh
    
  9. Provide the following when prompted:

    • Agent type: choose Standard Agent for Linux.

    • USB device support: If you will be allowing USB devices (other than keyboards, mice, and pointers), accept this option. If you install the agent without USB device support, only keyboards, mice, and pointers will work, and more sophisticated devices like Wacom tablets will act as pointing devices without any advanced functionality.

  10. Update the kernel when prompted.

  11. When prompted, reboot the machine.

    Tip: specifying installation parameters inline

    You can provide the required parameters inline instead:

    • To install with USB device support:

      sudo ./install-pcoip-agent.sh pcoip-agent-standard usb-vhci
      
    • To install without USB device support, omit the usb-vhci parameter:

      sudo ./install-pcoip-agent.sh pcoip-agent-standard
      
  12. Register your Standard Agent for Linux's license with your License Server. See Licensing Anyware Agents With a Local License Server for details.

Reboot the desktop.

Installing USB Drivers on Secure Boot Enabled Linux Machines

If Secure Boot is enabled on a Linux host machine deployed on an ESXi resource, USB drivers cannot be installed on the host machine. This prevents the client-side USB devices from getting bridged to the host machine. To prevent this from occurring, perform the following steps, provided that you have access to the UEFI Firmware Menu.

Note: If You Do Not Have UEFI Firmware Menu Access

If you do not have access to the UEFI Firmware Menu, either disable Secure Boot or deploy the Virtual Machine without Secure Boot.

  1. Connect to the remote host machine via SSH.

  2. Run the following command:

    sudo mokutil --import /var/lib/dkms/mok.pub
    
  3. If the Machine Owner Key (MOK) is not set, the mokutil utility will prompt you to create one.

  4. Reboot the machine.

  5. Enroll the MOK in the UEFI firmware menu.

  6. Reboot the machine again.

  7. Run the following commands:

    lsmod | grep usb
    dmesg | grep vhci
    

The output of this command indicates that usb-vhci is installed on the host machine.

After Installation

Once you've installed the software, you can configure it, register licenses, or connect to it.

Note: Desktop user interfaces will only be available using PCoIP

Once installed and running, the Anyware Standard Agent for Linux takes over the graphics subsystem which is then unavailable to hypervisors. You can only view the graphical user interface when connecting with a Anyware client.

For example, you cannot view an ESXi virtual machine console through VSphere; you must connect to the machine using PCoIP.