Installing And Configuring Cds; Setting Up Cds For A Campus; Optional Network Routing Cds Override; Configuring Network Routing Cds Override - Black Box Coalesce WC-COA-I User Manual

Coalesce Directory Service (CDS) User Guide

2. Installing and Configuring CDS

Install the CDS service on a windows PC connected to the network where your Coalesce displays reside. Next, open the Coalesce
Central and select the Coalesce display(s) near you that you want to make available/visible to Coalesce clients. In the
"Configuration and Security" tab, two settings must be configured correctly. First under "Enable Click to Connect,"' select the
option to "Publish display name to Coalesce Directory Service." This will tell your displays to list themselves with the CDS using
their currently set display name. Next, under "Network," the "Primary CDS Host (not required)" field must be populated with the
IP address of the Windows computer or server on the network with CDS installed on it. These two settings can also be updated
from the Coalesce display software Configuration Panel if you are configuring a single display at a time. Finally, in the "CDS" tab
of the Coalesce Central, click the button to "Configure Primary CDS Host" and enter the same IP address of the CDS host
machine. The CDS tab should show you more displays that are being served by CDS.
Coalesce clients will also look for an CDS server if one is configured. The set of displays being published by CDS will appear in the
application window allowing your users to simply click the intuitive name of the Coalesce display near you and connect. When a
user's device launches a client from their browser, their CDS entry will be set based on what is configured on the display. This
means that once a new user launches a client from a browser, their CDS will be set correctly, allowing that client to use the click-
to-connect feature from then on whenever the client is launched.
NOTE: For CDS to work, the client devices need to be able to connect over the network to the machine running CDS.

2.1 Setting up CDS for a Campus

A university campus has both wireless and wired networks that are bridged by routers that do not forward UDP broadcast discov-
ery packets. Instead CDS is installed on an IT server that is reachable by both networks. Each display is given an intuitive name for
the click-to-connect feature. For example, displays are named "Classroom1" though "Classroom100." The administrator then uses
the Coalesce Central to select all Coalesce displays clicking the "Publish Display Name to Solstice Directory Service" setting under
the "Enable Click-to-Connect" field.
When students arrive at campus, they are presented with a splash screen that informs them of both the display name and an IP
address. If a student doesn't have the Coalesce client app, they open a browser and type the display IP address to connect and
share to the display. Their new client app now points at the CDS host machine on the campus network. When the client app is
next opened, all classroom display names will be shown in a dropdown list. From now on, the student can use the click-to-con-
nect feature to connect to any display on the network.
NOTE: Click-to-connect does not circumvent on-screen security codes and passwords that may be enabled.

2.2 Optional Network Routing CDS Override

CDS and Coalesce clients have been engineered to support direct network routing so that the IP address of the CDS host machine
does not need to be configured. Although this requires modification to the DNS of the local network by the appropriate IT admin-
istrators, this approach has some advantages over a traditional CDS installation:
• Users are not required to enter an IP address to connect to a display, even the first time. Instead, any user with a Coalesce client
will see a dropdown list of Coalesce more displays and can click to connect.
• Guest users whose client CDS has already been set for/on a different network will still discover the CDS on a network that has
been configured with the CDS override.

2.3 Configuring Network Routing CDS Override

Option One: The DNS administrator creates a "Coalesce_customer_internal" domain zone and adds an "A" record that maps the
name "Coalescedirectoryservice.Coalesce_customer_internal" to the IP address of the machine where the CDS is installed.
Option two: Coalescedirectoryservice is an unqualified host name because it does not include a domain name such as "blackbox.
com" or "university.edu." By leaving off the domain name, we allow the client operating system the option of appending the
local domain name. This allows the IT department to add a CDS record to their name server using a proprietary domain name,
e.g. university.edu.
724-746-5500 | blackbox.com
Page 4