Installing tarentella

We have reviewed tarantellaEnterprise 3, an application to manage applications running on network nodes in a large enterprise, in our Reviews section this month. Here is how you can configure and install it. 

The CD that we received had two shx (SHell eXecutable) files. One for RedHat 7.1 and the other for Solaris. We tested the software, which has a text-based installation, on PCQLinux 8.0 running Apache. You have to run the ttai3li.shx (for Linux) file and follow the instructions. By default, it installs tarantella in /opt directory and the installation takes around 10 mins on an AMD 2200+ laptop having 256 MB RAM. After the installation it prompts to create a document root in the Web Server which will direct to /opt/tarantella/var/docroot and /cgi-bin which should direct to /opt/tarantella/var/ docroot/cgi-bin. Just after doing so and restarting the WebServer (Apache in our case) tarantella should be available on your intranet.

To use the Web interface you have to just sit on any node of the Internet/intranet and use the browser or the native client to open the URL, http://yourserver/tarantella. After a splash screen it will prompt you for a username and password. By default, tarantella uses the Unix users to access the Web interface and maps the Unix user root as Administrator with full rights. But, it can also validate users from many other sources such as LDAP and NT Domain. 

After logging in with the administrator user, one will see the Webtop for administrator, which has a list of links on the left-hand side. Clicking on the links will result in the starting of the application associated with it. By default, you will find that the Gnome terminal, KDE desktop, VT420 and XClock are shared for Administrator.

The administrator can always add new applications for himself and for other users. In our case, to test it we added the Open Office Writer. For this, first click on the Object Manager Link. It will then open up a new window. Now click on the Browse tab at the top and then right click on the Organization group under the Organizational Hierarchy. Now click on the New menu and it will you show a list. From here select X Application and a new application will be created under the Organization group. Give it a proper name such as Open Office Writer (localhost) and double click on it. It will then show the properties on the right-hand side of the window. Now in the Application Field give the actual path of the command in the server, which you want to run. In our case it will be /usr/bin/oowrite. Now select the Display type by clicking on the Display Using menu. This defines how your application will be displayed in the client’s machine. Let’s say Kiosk. Now your Application is ready to be linked to any user’s

webtop.

To add this application to any user’s (suppose administrator) webtop, first open the drop-down list under the ‘tarantella system objects’ group. Here you will see all users and groups listed. Double click on cn=Administrator link and then click on the Link tab on the right-hand side. It will then show you a list of objects. Now drag-and-drop the newly created application under the Organization/Application group and exit the Object Manager. Now re-login to your administrator’s webtop and you will find a new link on the left-hand side, called Open Office Writer (localhost). Clicking on it will open the Open Office Write in the client’s machine.

Anindya Roy