ClearCube I/Port Quick Reference Guide - Manual (Page 13)

ClearCube I/Port User’s Guide, Rev. C ClearCube I/Port Overview • 9
Supporting Software
The following applications work together to enable and enhance I/Port functionality:
• Remote Desktop Protocol (RDP)
• ClearCube Sentral
• Neoware ezRemote Manager
• I83xx Driver and Admin Utility
Remote Desktop Protocol
Microsoft Remote Desktop Protocol (RDP) is a presentation protocol that allows the
I/Port to communicate with a PC blade. RDP works across any TCP/IP connection,
such as a local area network (LAN), wide area network (WAN), or virtual private
network (VPN) connection. RDP is the delivery mechanism for video, mouse,
keyboard, and USB communications between the I/Port and the PC blade.
When using Remote Desktop Protocol from the I/Port, many of the local I/Port
resources are available within the session, for example:
• Peripheral Redirection – RDP includes the capability to redirect a limited set of
peripherals to the user's PC blade. This means that peripherals plugged into the
local I/Port will appear as if they were actually plugged into the user's PC blade.
However, RDP only supports redirection on a limited set of peripherals.
Specifically, the only supported peripherals on I/Ports are mass storage, printers,
serial ports and smart card readers.
• Audio – The audio streams, such as .wav and .mp3 files, play through the I/Port’s
speaker connection. RDP provides downstream audio only. RDP only supports
audio out (i.e., from the blade to the I/Port) so speakers connected to an I/Port can
play sound generated by the PC blade. However, audio in (i.e., from the I/Port to
the blade) isn't supported by RDP so audio devices such as microphones cannot
transmit back to the PC blade.
ClearCube Sentral Software
ClearCube Sentral provides IT administrators with a comprehensive set of features and
functionality for managing their I/Port environments. Sentral can optimize hardware
utilization by dynamically allocating I/Ports to a defined pool of PC blades.
Sentral tracks blade loading statistics and automatically initiates a connection to the
least utilized blade when each user logs on. Power users can be mapped to an
individual blade ensuring maximum performance. Auto discovery of I/Ports and blades
makes it easy to inventory and manage assets. In addition, an update feature makes it
easy to update the Sentral Client on each I/Port when new software versions are
made available. Finally, Sentral delivers server-level availability to end users by
enabling Administrators to easily switch an I/Port user to a spare blade should they
experience a problem.
Neoware ezRemote Manager Software
Neoware ezRemote Manager is a remote management tool for keeping I/Ports
up-to-date and is used as a companion to Sentral. ezRemote Manager is based on a
straightforward, easy-to-use interface that allows administrators to remotely push
drivers, applications, and security updates via snap-ins, to a single I/Port or an entire