Introduction
The RealVNC Connect On-Prem Zone is an optional component of the RealVNC Connect On-Prem Management Console that lets customers with more complex network topologies to implement the Management Console in a more structured manner.
Each installed On-Prem Zone will act as a broker for communication between Viewers & Servers and the central On-Prem Management Console.
Each Zone will be installed with its own set of certificates (as per the install of the On-Prem Management Console) and will present itself as a ‘local version' of the On-Prem Management Console for that network zone.
It will then be responsible for routing all On-Prem Management Console related traffic between Viewers & Servers in that zone to the central On-Prem Management Console. This means that the Viewers & Servers in each zone don’t need a network path to the On-Prem Management Console, only to the On-Prem Zone that they are registered too.
On-Prem Zone is only responsible for routing On-Prem Management Console related traffic. VNC Traffic will remain direct between Viewers & Servers. On-Prem Zone requires a network path to the On-Prem Management Console in order to function correctly.
Zone Creation
Before you can install and configure your On-Prem Zone you must first create the a Zone within the On-Prem Management Console. This can be done by navigating to the Zone section of the On-Prem Management Console and pressing the ‘Add a new zone’ button.
This will open the Zone creation page, where you can specify the Zone name, Description and the URL that will be used within the Zone for access and connectivity to Viewers & Servers. All of these fields are mandatory.
This will generate a unique Access Key for that zone that will then be used during the Installation process.
Installation
To install the On-Prem Zone, first download the MSI installer from within the RealVNC Connect Portal (https://manage.realvnc.com). If a customer doesn’t have access to this resource, the installer can be provided manually.
The On-Prem Zone is designed to run on Windows Server 2022, and in order to function correctly, there must be a network route supporting HTTPS traffic between On-Prem Zone and the the RealVNC Servers and RealVNC Viewers that customers wish to use in this deployment.
As part of the installation, customers must provide certificates that are used to encrypt the traffic between the On-Prem Zone and the On-Prem Management Console (these will be the same certificates used when installing the On-Prem Management Console) and between the On-Prem Zone and RealVNC Servers and RealVNC Viewers.
Details of the certificate requirements can be found here.
Once the MSI installer has been downloaded and the certificates are available, installation can be completed.
Step One
Please provide the file/folder location of the certificates you wish to use with this deployment. Once you have provided this, please enter the password specified when the SSL certificate was created, once the password has been entered, please enter the URL, that you wish for the On-Prem Zone to be served at, please note, this should match the domain name specified within your SSL certificate and entered during Zone registration.
Step Two
Then enter the certificate of the On-Prem Management Console that this On-Prem Zone will be interacting with.
Step Three
Next you will need to enter the Access Key provided by the On-Prem Management Console during Zone Creation.
Step Four
The On-Prem Zone will then be installed alongside its required dependencies including Java Runtime environment. Depending on your server administration setup you may be asked to elevate and approve the install of these dependencies.
Once the dependencies have been installed, the core installation process is now completed and the Zone Installation & Registration will be completed. If you visit the Zones section of the On-Prem Management Console you will now see your new zone is marked as Registered, confirming the process has been completed.
Once successfully registered, you can also use the Zone URL to access the On-Prem Management Console ‘via' that zone.
When doing so you will also be granted access to an extra menu item entitled My Zone, where you can validate the configuration of the Zone you are currently on.
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