Peripheral rules
Peripheral rules control how cloud computers access local disks and USB peripherals connected to your on-premises device. You can configure disk redirection, peripheral redirection, exception rules, and fine-grained peripheral management.
Use cases
Access local files from a cloud computer — Enable local disk mapping to map a local disk on your on-premises device to your cloud computer. Choose read-only access to view and copy files, or read/write access to also modify files on the local disk.
Control peripheral access by category — Configure USB redirection to control whether cloud computers can access peripherals such as cameras, scanners, printers, and serial port devices connected to your on-premises device. Select a redirection method for each peripheral category.
Allow or block specific peripherals — Configure blacklist and whitelist rules to override the category-level redirection setting for individual peripherals. Use a blacklist to allow a specific peripheral even when its category is disabled, or a whitelist to block a specific peripheral even when its category is enabled.
Manage peripherals at the device level — Create custom rules that identify each peripheral by its vendor ID (VID) and product ID (PID) for fine-grained control over peripheral access.
Considerations
Before you configure peripheral rules, note the following platform and client requirements:
Cloud computer OS — Local disk mapping supports only Windows cloud computers. Camera redirection supports only Windows cloud computers that use the Adaptive Streaming Protocol (ASP). Linux cloud computers that use ASP do not support USB redirection or printer redirection.
Client applications — Local disk mapping requires the Windows client or the macOS client. The web client does not support USB devices and therefore does not support USB redirection.
Terminal version — Peripheral management rules (custom rules and recommended rules) require Alibaba Cloud Workspace terminals of V6.4.0 or later.
Effective time — Blacklist and whitelist rule changes take effect the next time you connect to the cloud computer.
Redirection methods
For peripherals such as cameras, two redirection methods are available:
USB redirection — Redirects the USB peripheral to the cloud computer. You must install the corresponding driver on the cloud computer. Requires the USB redirection switch to be turned on.
Device redirection — Redirects the peripheral through the client. You do not need to install a driver on the cloud computer, but you must install the driver on the on-premises terminal device.
Rule priority
Peripheral rules operate at three levels. Higher levels override lower levels:
Peripheral management rules (highest priority) — Custom rules and recommended rules manage access at the individual peripheral level, identified by VID and PID.
Blacklist and whitelist rules — Override the category-level USB redirection setting for specific peripherals.
Category-level USB redirection (lowest priority) — Enable or disable USB redirection for an entire peripheral category.
Local disk redirection vs. peripheral redirection
Local disk redirection maps a local disk to the cloud computer for file-level access. It does not support running applications installed on the on-premises device.
Peripheral redirection redirects specific hardware peripherals (cameras, scanners, printers, and other devices) to the cloud computer.
Configuration details
Local disk redirection
Local disk mapping maps a disk of an on-premises device to a disk of a cloud computer so that you can access data on the local disk from the cloud computer. The mapped disk is accessed over the network, does not consume the disk space of the cloud computer, and does not support automatic synchronization of files. To copy or upload files, manually open the mapped disk on the cloud computer.
Valid values:
Read-only: You can view and copy data on the local disk from the cloud computer, but you cannot modify the data.
Off: You cannot access data on the local disk from the cloud computer.
Read/write: You can view, copy, and modify data on the local disk from the cloud computer.
Use local disk mapping to access file data, not to run programs. Even if local disk mapping is enabled, you cannot run applications that are installed on the on-premises device from within the cloud computer. You can run local portable applications, which require no installation, within the cloud computer. However, this consumes bandwidth and affects the cloud computer experience. Proceed with caution.
Peripheral redirection
USB redirection switch — After you turn on this switch, you can use USB devices connected to the on-premises terminal on the cloud computer, and you can apply controls based on blacklists, whitelists, or device categories. Turning off this switch disables USB redirection for all peripherals.
Camera — Select a redirection rule for this peripheral type. Valid values:
USB redirection: Redirects a local USB peripheral to the cloud computer. You must install the corresponding driver on the cloud computer before you can use the peripheral. To select this method, you must turn on the USB redirection switch.
Device redirection: Redirects a local USB peripheral to the cloud computer. You do not need to install a driver on the cloud computer, but you must install the driver on the on-premises terminal device.
Disabled: Does not redirect the peripheral. You cannot use the peripheral on the cloud computer.
Only device redirection is supported.
Scanner — Only USB redirection is supported.
ADB — No limits.
Printer — For cloud computers that you connect to by using the Windows client, the macOS client, or the Web client, you can enable printer redirection to use a printer that is connected to the on-premises device on the cloud computer.If you connect to a cloud computer by using an Alibaba Cloud Workspace hardware terminal, you must configure USB redirection. For more information about how an end user configures peripherals, see Configure a USB printer.
If an end user uses an Active Directory (AD) domain account, you must set both the AD domain group policy and printer redirection to "Allowed" before the end user can use the printer on the cloud computer.
Serial port device — No limits.
Peripheral blacklists and whitelists
After you configure USB redirection rules by peripheral category, you can use blacklist and whitelist rules to configure specific peripherals as exceptions. Blacklist and whitelist rules take precedence over the category-level USB redirection rules.
The behavior of blacklists and whitelists in this context is the opposite of the common IT convention:
Blacklist — Acts as an allow exception. If you add a USB peripheral to the blacklist, access to the peripheral is still allowed even if USB redirection is disabled for the category of the peripheral.
Whitelist — Acts as a block exception. If you add a USB peripheral to the whitelist, access to the peripheral is still denied even if USB redirection is enabled for the category of the peripheral.
You can configure up to 100 blacklist and whitelist rules. The higher a rule is in the order, the higher its priority. You can adjust the order.
The vendor ID (VID) and the product ID (PID) must each be a 4-digit hexadecimal string, such as
a12c.The settings take effect the next time you connect to the cloud computer.
Peripheral management rules
Custom rules — You can create custom rules to manage redirection rules at the peripheral level, in which each peripheral is identified by its vendor ID (VID) and product ID (PID).
You can configure up to 100 custom rules.
The VID and the PID must each be a 4-digit hexadecimal string, such as
a12c.Only Alibaba Cloud Workspace terminals of V6.4.0 or later are supported.
Recommended rules based on best practices — The rules that are recommended based on best practices and provided by EDS.
You cannot modify these rules, and they have a lower priority than your custom rules.
Only Alibaba Cloud Workspace terminals of V6.4.0 or later are supported.