Setting Up Clients In Kiosk Mode - VMware View Manager 4.5 Admin Manual

Setting Up Clients in Kiosk Mode

You can set up unattended clients that can obtain access to their desktops from VMware View.
A client in kiosk mode is a thin client or a lock-down PC that runs View Client to connect to a View Connection
Server instance and launch a remote session. End users do not typically need to log in to access the client device,
although the desktop might require them to provide authentication information for some applications. Sample
applications include medical data entry workstations, airline check-in stations, customer self-service points,
and information terminals for public access.
You should ensure that the desktop application implements authentication mechanisms for secure
transactions, that the physical network is secure against tampering and snooping, and that all devices
connected to the network are trusted.
Clients in kiosk mode support the standard features for remote access such as automatic redirection of USB
devices to the remote session and location-based printing.
View Manager uses the Flexible Authentication feature in VMware View 4.5 to authenticate a client device in
kiosk mode rather than the end user. You can configure a View Connection Server instance to authenticate
clients that identify themselves by their MAC address or by a user name that starts with the characters
"Custom-". If you configure a client to have an automatically generated password, you can run View Client on
the device without specifying a password. If you configure an explicit password, you must specify this
password to View Client. As you would usually run View Client from a script, and the password would appear
in clear text, you should take precautions to make the script unreadable by unprivileged users.
Only View Connection Server instances that you enable to authenticate clients in kiosk mode can accept
connections from accounts that start with the characters "cm-" followed by a MAC address, or that start with
the characters "Custom-". View Client in VMware View 4.5 does not allow the manual entry of user names that
take either of these forms.
As a best practice, use dedicated View Connection Server instances to handle clients in kiosk mode, and to
create dedicated organizational units and groups in Active Directory for the accounts of these clients. This
practice not only partitions these systems against unwarranted intrusion, but also makes it easier to configure
and administer the clients.
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