Secure Global Desktop Administration Guide > Clients and webtops > Profiles and the Sun Secure Global Desktop Client

Profiles and the Sun Secure Global Desktop Client

A profile is a group of configuration settings that control the Sun Secure Global Desktop Client. The settings in a profile define:

How the Secure Global Desktop Client connects to a Secure Global Desktop server, for example the URL to connect to and the proxy server to use.
The operating mode of the Secure Global Desktop Client, for example whether to display a webtop (Webtop mode) or whether the list of applications that a user can run displays in the desktop Start Menu (Integrated mode).
How the Secure Global Desktop Client behaves, for example, if it loses a connection to a Secure Global Desktop server.

Note Profiles should not be confused with login profiles. Login profiles control webtop content and other Secure Global Desktop-specific settings, such as printing and secure connections.

Every time the Secure Global Desktop Client starts it uses a profile. Users have one profile (one group of settings) for each Secure Global Desktop server they connect to.

Creating, editing and deleting profiles

Secure Global Desktop Administrators can create, edit and delete profiles. Users can only edit their own profiles.

Administrators

Administrators create, edit and delete profiles with the Secure Global Desktop administration tool, Profile Editor. The Profile Editor is only available on an Administrator's webtop.

Administrators can create, edit and delete profiles for:

Organization objects.
Organizational unit objects.
Login profile objects available in the o=Tarantella System Objects organization, for example o=Tarantella System Objects/cn=LDAP Profile.

Each object can only have one profile. The default system profile on the o=Tarantella System Objects object can be edited but it cannot be deleted.

Users

Administrators can configure which users can edit their own profiles. This is configured as follows:

On the Array Properties panel of Array Manager, profile editing for the array as a whole can be enabled or disabled. By default, it is enabled.
Note If profile editing is disabled in Array Manager, it is disabled for all users, including Administrators. However, Secure Global Desktop Administrators can still create and edit profiles using the Profile Editor application.
The Profile Editing attribute on organization, organizational unit or person objects can be used to control which users in the organization are allowed to edit profiles. The setting for this attribute can be inherited from a parent object in the organizational hierarchy so that Administrators can enable or disable profile editing for many users without having to edit each person object. By default, profile editing is enabled for all users.

Users edit their own profiles from their webtop by clicking the Edit button in the Applications area of the webtop and then clicking the Client Settings tab. Users can only edit the profile for the Secure Global Desktop server they are currently connected to.

Note Anonymous users cannot edit profiles. This is because these users are temporary.

Profile settings

The following table lists the settings available in a profile with a description of what they do.

Setting	Description
Login URL	The Secure Global Desktop URL to use for the profile, usually `http://server.example.com/sgd`. In Webtop mode, the URL is loaded automatically in the user's default web browser so that they can log in and access their webtop. In Integrated mode, the URL is only loaded in the user's default web browser if the user needs to log in to Secure Global Desktop, or if the Secure Global Desktop Client needs to obtain proxy server settings. The URL in a profile can be overridden by a command line argument. The default Login URL is `http://server.example.com:80/sgd/index.jsp`.
Connect on System Login	If enabled, the Secure Global Desktop Client is started automatically with this profile whenever the user logs in to their client device. The Secure Global Desktop Client creates an application shortcut or symbolic link for itself in the startup folder for the desktop system. The links are created in the following locations: Microsoft Windows - the Windows startup folder for the current user, usually `C:\Documents and Settings\username\Start Menu\Programs\Startup`. KDE - `$HOME/.kde/autostart` Gnome - `$HOME/.config/autostart` Sun Java Desktop System - `$HOME/.config/autostart` This is disabled by default.
Automatic Client Login	If enabled, as soon as the Secure Global Desktop Client starts, it will attempt to log the user in using an authentication token. Only enable this option if the Add applications to Start Menu is enabled. This is disabled by default.
Add applications to Start Menu	Controls how users interact with Secure Global Desktop. If enabled, the applications a user can run display in the desktop Start Menu on the client device (Integrated mode). Users do not have any of the controls that are available on a webtop, for example controls for suspending and resuming applications. If disabled, the applications a user can run display on a webtop in a web browser (Webtop mode). This is disabled by default.
Alternative PDF viewer	The application command for an alternative PDF viewer to use with PDF printing. If the application is not on the user's `PATH`, type the full path to the application. This setting only applies to UNIX, Linux and Mac OS X client devices.
Logging	Controls the amount of information that is output to the Secure Global Desktop Client log file. The output is logged to a text file in the same directory as the Secure Global Desktop Client. The default is Errors only.
Preferred Language	The default language to use when the Secure Global Desktop Client is started from the command line, for example when the Secure Global Desktop Client is in Integrated mode. The language selected is used for messages displayed by the Secure Global Desktop Client, the login dialog, and the webtop. See Working with users in different locales for details. The default is en.
Check for Local X Server	If enabled, the Secure Global Desktop Client checks whether there is an X server running on the client device. Enabling this option can improve performance when launching X applications that are configured to display using an X server on the client device. If a local X server is not available, an independent window is used instead. This setting only applies to Windows client devices. This is disabled by default.
Proxy settings	Settings that control how the Secure Global Desktop Client determines what proxy servers to use. Use default web browser settings means use the proxy server settings configured in the user's default web browser. Manual proxy settings allows you to define the proxy server settings in the profile. You can specify either an HTTP or a SOCKS proxy server or both. In Integrated mode, if the proxy settings are determined from a web browser, the Secure Global Desktop Client has to start the web browser at least once in order to detect what the proxy settings are. If the proxy settings are determined from a web browser, the settings are cached and used the next time the Secure Global Desktop Client starts. If Establish proxy settings on session start is enabled, every time the Secure Global Desktop Client starts, the default web browser is started so that the proxy settings can be determined. The cached proxy settings are not used. The default is: Use default web browser settings. Establish proxy settings on session start is disabled.
Connection Failure	Settings that control what the Secure Global Desktop Client does if the connection to a Secure Global Desktop server is lost, whether to always reconnect, to never reconnect or to ask the user. If the Secure Global Desktop Client reconnects, these settings control how many attempts are made to reconnect and the time in seconds between each attempt. If the Secure Global Desktop Client is unable to reconnect, the webtop session ends and any running applications are ended or suspended, depending on the resumability setting of the application. The default settings are: Always attempt to reconnect, Number of attempts: 6, and Interval: 10.

The profile cache

Profiles created by Administrators are stored on the Secure Global Desktop server on which they are created and then copied to all the other members of the array so that they are available for editing on any Secure Global Desktop server.

When a user first logs in to Secure Global Desktop, the Secure Global Desktop Client downloads the profile to a profile cache on the client device. The profile that is downloaded is the first match of the following:

The profile defined for a system login profile object that is assigned to the user. For example, if the user was authenticated using the UNIX user login authority and a profile has been created for the .../_ens/o=Tarantella System Objects/cn=UNIX User Profile object, this is the profile that is downloaded.
The profile defined by an Administrator for the organizational unit or organization to which the user belongs. If there is no profile for the user's organizational unit, Secure Global Desktop checks any parent object further up the organizational hierarchy to see whether they have a profile.
The system default profile defined for the o=Tarantella System Objects object.

When a user edits and saves a profile, they override the profile defined by an Administrator (or the system default profile) and create a user-specific profile that is only saved in the profile cache on the client device.

Note Users must log out of Secure Global Desktop and log in again for changes to their profile to take effect.

The profile cache is specific to each user who logs in to Secure Global Desktop from the client device and is stored in the following locations:

On UNIX, Linux and Mac OS X client devices - $HOME/.tarantella/tcc/profile.xml
On Microsoft Windows client devices - C:\Documents and Settings\username\Local Settings\Application Data\Sun\SSGD\profile.xml

The same profile cache is used by the Secure Global Desktop Client whether it has been installed manually or automatically.

The profile cache is updated each time the user edits a profile or each time the user logs in if they are using the profile defined by an Administrator.

The profile cache contains one profile for each Secure Global Desktop server the user has connected to.

Users can restore a profile to the default settings by editing the profile and clicking the Reset button. This resets the profile to the settings defined for the system default profile on the o=Tarantella System Objects object.

Related topics
Working with the Sun Secure Global Desktop Client