Installing and Configuring the Cisco Webex Meetings Web App for Virtual Desktop Environments

About the Cisco Webex Meetings Web App for Virtual Desktop Environments (Beta)

Cisco Webex Meetings Web App for Virtual Desktop Environments (Beta) now supports Browser Content Redirection (BCR) for Citrix Visualization platforms. This allows users on virtual desktops to join meetings from the Web App and get amazing audio and video depending on the local computer and network conditions. Users can join meetings using the Web App on virtual environments without BCR, but if they join with BCR then the media traversal happens between user's local machine and Cisco Webex cloud providing the optimization. Currently, BCR is supported on Citrix Virtual Desktops and App version 7.15, 7.18, and 7.19


Note

Due to limitation of the Citrix's Browser Content Redirection protocol, user on Web App cannot share their screen, but can see the screen share from other users.

Citrix Browser Content Redirection Set up


Note

Citrix BCR for VDI only supports Windows in the current release as Webex Meeting web client is WebRTC based. For more information, see Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops.

Set up the environment to make the client fetch and client rendering work with VDI 7.18.

Procedure

Step 1

Install Citrix VDI version is 7.18 or higher. Make sure that the virtual machine has Citrix Virtual Delivery Agent 1811.1 or higher, as a lower version doesn't support Google Chrome.

Step 2

Install the Citrix Workspace on a local machine with the version 18.12.0.12(1812) or higher.

Note 

Don't install the Citrix Receiver.
Step 3

Install the BCR extension for Chrome on the remote virtual machine for Chrome. The extension is, Browser Content Redirection Extension.

Step 4

Enable the policy, Browser Content Redirection > Policies in Citrix Studio. By default, the BCR is set to Allowed.

Step 5

Edit the Browser Content Redirection ACL Configuration > Policies in Citrix Studio.

This is an allowed list which contains the sites that allow VDA to perform BCR. Add the meeting sites having the thin client BCR feature. For example, add https://go.webex.com/*. The wildcard '*' can't be used for protocol and domain names.

Step 6

Optional, allow HTML5 Video redirection in Citrix Studio > Policies.

Set up the Environment

Set up the environment to make the client fetch and client rendering work with VDI 7.15

Procedure

Step 1

The Citrix VDI version is 7.15 LTSR CU3 on both the Delivery Controller and VDA.
Step 2

Install the Citrix Workspace on a local machine with the version 18.12.0.12(1812) or higher.

Note 

Don't install the Citrix Receiver.
Step 3

Install 7.15 LTSR CU3 on VDA by using command line and disabling the HTML5 option, VDAWorkstationsSetup_7.15.exe /FEATURE_DISABLE_HTML5.

Step 4

Install BCR.msi that is available on the Citrix download page.

Step 5

Download the group policy template from Citrix here. Edit the Group Policy using the admin account on VDA.

Note 

You can also edit the Group Policy in Windows Registry.
Step 6

Adding other configurations, for example: the chrome extension, wss://127.0.0.1:9001 is the same as in VDI 7.18.

For more information about setting up the VDI 7.15 environment, see Compatible Components for VDI 7.15

Verify that the Client Fetch and Client Render Work

Procedure

Step 1

Connect to a VDA system from the local machine. Currently Windows is the supported operating system.
Step 2

Launch Chrome on VDA and join a Webex meeting using the thin client. You can send and receive audio and video.
Step 3

Check that the network package works on a local machine using the server address. The packages are present on the local and MMP servers and few of the control package are present local and on the VDA servers.

Notes in the Setup

Before you begin

To ensure best resolution and performance:

Procedure

Step 1

Click Citrix Workspace in your task bar and select Advanced Preferences.

Step 2

Select High DPI > Yes > Save.

Step 3

Check the resolution and scale ratio of your local machine.

Limitations of the Webex Meetings Web App for Virtual Desktop Environments

  • If you are using the Webex Meetings Web App for Virtual Desktop Environments client on a virtual desktop with BCR enabled, you can't switch to native client.

  • The Webex Meetings Web App for Virtual Desktop Environments only works with Google Chrome on Windows.

  • The Playback feature for recordings is not available for Webex Meetings Web App for Virtual Desktop Environments.

  • The share functionality in not available on Webex Meetings Web App for Virtual Desktop Environments as Citrix has not implemented the related WebRTC interface.