Virtual ViewX - handling external files error

[StanleyK]

Hi,

I can't resolve how to open external files (PDF, JPG, WORD, EXCEL, ...) in Virtual ViewX klient, local or network files.

I also set up read/write permission for Everyone for testing file.

If I click on a hyperlink to any type of external file I get an error (see attachment).

Installed version of Virtual ViewX server is Geo SCADA 2019 81.7522.1 Update July 2020.

Thanks.

[geoffpatton]

I tried to hyperlink to a files folder also and got the same error. My guess is Virtual ViewX is run in a kind of sandbox and this has nothing to do with ViewX settings and is the permissions it has from the software the VVX runs on.

I wanted to let people in the intranet access a folder of pictures.

[StanleyK]

For me a solution is to access folders in VVX via HTTP hyperlink (configure IIS server).

[BevanWeiss]

I've uninstalled the VirtualViewX so unfortunately I can't easily check this for you.

My understanding was that on installation VirtualViewX created a local (non-privileged) user account in which it would run the ViewX application.  It's likely that this account wouldn't have valid credentials outside of the machine running VirtualViewX (e.g. against a corporate intranet site, or a shared drive etc).

It might be worth having a look at Microsoft RDS, in particular there is a Web Client available that is supports pure HTML5 clients.

There are also native clients for Android, iOS, macOS (and obviously Windows OS).  If using a published RemoteApp, it's just like running ViewX locally (on whatever device you have).  My last experience with it was also that opening things like additional windows (like Internet Explorer via hyperlink) would also 'just work', but this might have changed recently).

The applications would also be launched with the credentials of the client, so if you ran ViewX, it would be running as your user account, and would hence have all the security permissions of your user account.

[geoffpatton]

@BevanWeiss

My VVX is on Windows 10, which doesn't have the user VVX creates. On windows 10 it uses the logged in user or one you assign it to use.

My user was full admin. So while that user it creates on a server may have some limitations as you mentioned, there is something else preventing access when using another standard windows user.

[StanleyK]

I got an answer from support team that this VVX feature will be available in GeoSCADA 2020, but for now it isn't.

[BevanWeiss]

@geoffpatton 

I did try to configure VVX to use the credential of the remote client, but didn't get it to work in my attempts, so it always used the local user that it created at install to run the ViewX instance on the server (which is then presented to the VVX client).

I suspect that to allow it to use something like SSO credentials it would probably need to have been allowed for kerberos delegation or something similar, and I didn't go down that path.

Did you have to do something similar to get it to use the VVX client credentials when running the ViewX application on the VVX server?

I'm not sure how the VVX Server would be under Windows 10.  As a single (active) user session OS then it would be quite a strange combo I think.  It certainly wouldn't be that nice if multiple clients were trying to access it (and in fact goes against the Windows non-server OS EULAs)...

It might be running the VX session under elevated credentials, in which case remote paths are locked down by Windows.

It should be possible to see if this is the case in Task Manager.

[geoffpatton]

All I did was set it up for testing on a windows 10 system. I did the default setup which uses the logged in user and then set it to use a specific user, just to see that that worked also. Both were admin accounts I wasn't doing any serious testing.

I would not suggest using Windows 10 for production. It would probably work fine if you only had two, maybe three connections licensed.

[BevanWeiss]

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@geoffpatton wrote:

It would probably work fine if you only had two, maybe three connections licensed.

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Windows 10 EULA allows a single user to be designated as the 'remote user' for the installation, there are limitations on when that 'remote user' is allowed to be changed.  I'd argue that if only a single person was using the terminal at a time (either remotely, or locally), that should be within the license (however, IANAL, and whilst I'd argue this, this is not the wording in the EULA).

Having more than one person accessing the Windows 10 installation at the same time (unless in an IT support role) would definitely go against the EULA terms.  For any multi-user access environment, I would very much recommend a Windows Server license.

https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/Useterms/Retail/Windows/10/Useterms_Retail_Windows_10_English.htm

c. Restrictions. The device manufacturer or installer and Microsoft reserve all rights (such as rights under intellectual property laws) not expressly granted in this agreement. For example, this license does not give you any right to, and you may not:

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(v) use the software as server software, for commercial hosting, make the software available for simultaneous use by multiple users over a network, install the software on a server and allow users to access it remotely, or install the software on a device for use only by remote users;

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d.      Multi use scenarios.

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(v)Remote access. No more than once every 90 days, you may designate a single user who physically uses the licensed device as the licensed user. The licensed user may access the licensed device from another device using remote access technologies. Other users, at different times, may access the licensed device from another device using remote access technologies, but only on devices separately licensed to run the same or higher edition of this software.

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