FastX Upgrading from 2.1
Changes have been made from FastX 2.1 to 2.2 to increase performance and simplify configuration.
Changes to FastX Network Configuration
Gateway and Cluster Servers Communicate via Websockets
Version 2.1 communicated using http polling. This change drastically reduces the latency when in a gateway or cluster configuration. This change makes 2.1 servers incompatible with 2.2 servers. Upgrading the 2.1 to 2.2 server will fix the issue
See Network Configuration for more information
Web Server restarts are no longer needed to change settings
FastX 2.2 introduces “hot swap” configurations. Web Servers can now change their Network Configuration from Gateway Servers, to Clusters to Standalone systems on the fly. You no longer need to restart the service. In order to achieve this, changes have been made to the configuration files. Admins who configure their systems by editing the json files in /usr/lib/fastx2/config/ should be aware of the changes that are made to the files
See FastX Configuration Overview for more information
Network Configuration has changed
FastX no longer sets servers into different modes (“Gateway”,”Session”,”Cluster”,”Default”). Rather Servers are configured based on the properties of Accepting Connections and Broadcasting to other servers. This simplifies the communication process and allows for the hot swap configurations mentioned above. The server configuration is now stored in one file called network.json. Admins can still configure these modes. Documentation has been updated to explain the new setup
See Network Configuration for more information
See FastX Configuration Overview for more information
Changes to Session Sharing
Sharing disabled for sessions started using a 2.1 server
The sharing protocol has changed in order to implement offline sharing. Sharing is disabled on existing 2.1 sessions. Upgrade to 2.2 and start a new session to enable sharing.
Web Server must be installed to share sessions
Session sharing makes use of several web technologies to give a more seamless experience. The Web Service is now a requirement to share sessions
Offline Sharing implemented
Admins can configure offline sharing. Session owners no longer need to be present for others to connect. This is an optional feature that is disabled by default.
See Session Sharing for more information
Out of band sharing enabled
Users can now start sharing their sessions without connecting to their sessions first. Sharing can be enabled and disabled through the fastx api Session owners no longer need to be present for others to connect.
See Session Sharing for more information
Users must be logged in to turn on session sharing
2.2 implements offline sharing and out of band sharing. In order to achieve this, sharing is now implemented through the fastX api rather than only through an Xrdp channel. In order to share a session, the user must have a valid token. This is different than in 2.1 when sharing was available through the running xrdp session
Sharing Client UI removed from the Desktop Client
At the release of 2.2 users who connect to a shared session must connect via the web client. Logging in via ssh and connecting to a shared session is no longer supported
Changes to the Client UI for Developers
Push notifications are available through websockets
FastX will now use websockets to get information from the server. This allows for near real-time updates of information. The FastX REST api is still supported
See Push Notifications for more information
/xrdp is now the base client location
In previous versions users could connect to an xrdp session using /connect or /share. Version 2.2 has created a basic client page called /xrdp. /xrdp takes a query parameter that is base64 encoded JSON of all the connection information needed. When developing a custom client, gather all the required information from an /api/connect or /api/share call and then connect to the following url from an iframe
See Xrdp Web Client for more information