Groups

Groups are used to define roles for specific sets of users in Kasm Workspaces. By default there are two groups created by the system, the Administrators group and the All Users group, the All Users group is the default group for every user where statewide settings can be set.

Groups can be used to specify Kasm images and settings for different sets of users. For example, you may have a custom image for developers with pre-installed developer tools. You can tie that image to a group. You can define settings for that group, such as enabling bi-directional clipboard.

Create Group

Steps to create individual groups for sections of users.

• Select Access Management > Groups tab from navigation menu

• Select Add Group from the top right of the table

• Specify Group properties listed below

Group Properties

Name	Provides the name of the group
Description	Provides the description of the group
Priority	Sets the priority of the settings over other groups
Is System	System level group that cannot be deleted

Note that group name and priority number must be unique. For help identifying what group priority numbers are available, use the Filters tool in the Group view to sort by Priority.

Sort by Priority

There is a Users tab in the edit group page that allows for the selection of its users.

Users in Group

Group Settings

Group settings may be changed for the specific group by selecting the groups tab, clicking the edit icon on the desired group and the Add Settings button in the Group Settings card. There are delete setting and edit setting icons to the right of the Setting. If a user belongs to mulitple groups, the setting on the group with the lowest priority takes effect. For settings like volume_mapping, all settings are combined from all groups a user is a member of.

Here is a video that has an overview Groups and Group settings.

To configure group settings:

• Log into the UI as an administrator.

• Select Groups

• Next to the desired group select View from the actions menu.

Edit Group

• Scroll down to the Group Settings panel. Update settings as desired.

Group Settings

allow_2fa_self_enrollment	Allow users to self enroll two factor devices in the profile settings page when enabled.
allow_kasm_audio	Allow audio streaming for a Kasm.
allow_kasm_clipboard_down	Allows users to paste text from the Kasm to their local computer.
allow_kasm_clipboard_seamless	Allows users to copy and paste text without using Kasm control panel. This feature is only available on Chrome and Chromium-based client browsers
allow_kasm_clipboard_up	Allow users to paste from their local computer to the Kasm.
allow_kasm_delete	If enabled, users are allowed to delete their running sessions.
allow_kasm_downloads	Allow users to download files from a Kasm. On RDP local client workspaces this has no effect see allow_kasm_rdp_client_file_transfer_clipboard.
allow_kasm_gamepad	Allow users to pass local gamepads into the Kasm session. See Gamepad Passthrough for more details.
allow_kasm_microphone	Allow microphone passthrough to a Kasm. When enabled, users can pass their local microphone through to the Kasm session. On RDP local client workspaces this only works with desktop editions of Windows.
allow_kasm_rdp_client_file_transfer_clipboard	This setting only applies to RDP client Kasm sessions. In RDP file transfers are part of the clipboard and independent directional control of file transfers is not possible. This setting will enable file transfer in the directions that text clipboard has been enabled via allow_kasm_clipboard_down and allow_kasm_clipboard_up.
allow_kasm_rdp_map_local_drives	Allow sessions using the RDP Gateway to map client local drives into the RDP target. This setting is an all or nothing setting. When enabled it will map all client drives into the rdp session.
allow_kasm_rdp_smart_card_passthrough	Allow sessions that use the RDP Gateway or web native client(on ChromeOS) to pass smart cards through to the RDP target. This setting is required for smart card auth to RDP sessions using Smart Card Passhtrough.
allow_kasm_rdp_webauthn_passthrough	Allow sessions using the RDP Gateway to pass webauthn requests from the RDP target to the client. This only works for Windows clients running the builtin mstsc.exe RDP client.
allow_kasm_webcam	Allow webcam passthrough to a Kasm. When enabled, users can pass their local webcam through to the Kasm session. On RDP local client workspaces this only works with desktop editions of Windows.
allow_kasm_printing	Allow printing of documents using local printers
allow_kasm_pause	If enabled, users are allowed to pause their running sessions.
allow_kasm_sharing	Allow the user to share access to their session with other users. See Session Sharing for more details.
allow_kasm_stop	If enabled, users are allowed to stop their running sessions.
allow_kasm_uploads	Allow users to upload files to a Kasm. On RDP local client workspaces this has no effect see allow_kasm_rdp_client_file_transfer_clipboard.
allow_persistent_profile	Allow the use of persistent profiles if configured on the Workspace. See Persistent Profiles for details
allow_point_of_presence	Allow the user to use point of presence features for certain Workspaces.
allow_totp_2fa	Allow for TOTP tokens (e.g.: Google Authenticator) to be used as a two factor authentication method for the group.
allow_user_storage_mapping	When enabled the user is allowed to configure their own Storage Mappings via their profile. When disabled, new user configurations will not be allowed, nor will using any previously configured mappings be allowed when new sessions are created.
allow_webauthn_2fa	Allow for WebAuthn devices (e.g. YubiKeys) to be used as a two factor authentication method for the group.
allow_zone_selection	Allow the user to specify the deployment zone when creating a session. A dropdown will appear on the user dashboard with the available Zones. Auto represents the default behavior which is to provision in current Zone. If a Zone is specified, the request will not search alternate zones if no resources are available in the requested Zone.
auto_add_local_user	When enabled, local users will automatically be added to this group when created and upon each authentication.
auto_login_to_kasm	Sends users directly to kasm using default workspace after login
chat_history_messages	The number of chat history messages to show when a new user connects to a shared Kasm. Set this value to 0 to disable showing chat history.
control_panel. advanced_settings. show_game_mode	Whether the game mode option is present in the advanced menu on the Kasm Session control panel.
control_panel. advanced_settings. show_ime_input_mode	Whether the ime input mode option is present in the advanced menu on the Kasm Session control panel.
control_panel. advanced_settings. show_keyboard_controls	Whether the keyboard controls option is present in the advanced menu on the Kasm Session control panel.
control_panel. advanced_settings. show_pointer_lock	Whether the pointer lock option is present in the advanced menu on the Kasm Session control panel.
control_panel. advanced_settings. show_prefer_local_cursor	Whether the prefer local cursor option is present in the advanced menu on the Kasm Session control panel.
control_panel.show_fullscreen	Whether the fullscreen option is present on the Kasm Session control panel.
control_panel. show_delete_session	Whether the delete session option is present on the Kasm Session control panel.
control_panel. show_display_manager	Whether the display manager is present on the Kasm Session control panel. The display manager allows the user to add and remove additional displays.
control_panel.show_logout	Whether the logout option is present on the Kasm Session control panel.
control_panel. show_return_to_workspaces	Whether the return to workspaces option is present on the Kasm Session control panel.
control_panel. show_streaming_quality	Whether the show streaming quality workspaces option is present on the Kasm Session control panel.
control_panel.pwa_install_option	Whether the user must be presented with the option to install per-workspace PWAs.
dashboard_redirect	If configured, standard users will be redirected to the defined external website instead of being shown the main dashboard screen.
default_image	The default Workspace used when the /go url is called. This is also used for the auto_login_to_kasm setting. The system will create a Workspace if one does not exist. If the user already has a Workspace, the session is resumed
default_ui_language	The default UI language to set for the group. This is applied at next user login and is also overridden if the user sets the language in their profile.
display_ui_errors	If enabled, detailed information will be displayed on the client browser in the event of an error.
enable_ui_server_logging	If enabled, log messages will be sent from client browser to the Kasm Workspaces server.
expose_user_environment_vars	Expose KASM_USER and KASM_USER_ID environment variables inside the Kasm.
idle_disconnect	Disconnect the Kasm connection if idle for this long. Time specified in minutes.
inject_ssh_keys	When enabled the system will inject the user’s SSH public and private keys into new sessions automatically. Users can update their keys via the Profile.
kasm_audio_default_on	Default to audio enabled on Kasm start
kasm_ime_mode_default_on	Default to IME enabled on Kasm start
keepalive_expiration	The number of seconds a Kasm will stay alive unless a keeplive request is sent from the client.
keepalive_expiration_action	The action the system should take when a session expires according to the keepalive_expiration. Valid options are delete, stop, and pause. stop and pause actions are only valid for container based Workspaces. All other Workspaces will utilize delete regardless of what is defined.
keepalive_interval	The number of seconds in between keepalive requests from the client when the user is actively in a session.
lock_sharing_video_mode	Locks video quality to static resolution of 720p when sharing is enabled. Recommended for best performance.
max_kasms_per_user	The maximum number of simultaneous sessions a users is allowed to provision.
max_user_storage_mappings	The maximum number of Storage Mappings a user is allowed to have registered to their account.
read_only_user_storage_mappings	When enabled, any storage mappings configured on the user account will be forced to read-only.
require_2fa	Enables two factor authentication for group. Users will be prompted to set Key on next log on.
run_config	Specify arbitrary docker run params. The settings for run_config on a group will override the run_config settings on an image. See Docker Run Config for more details
session_time_limit	The amount of time (in seconds) a session will automatically expire. A countdown timer will be displayed to the user.
staged_session_language_and _timezone_preference_override	When launching a workspace Kasm will by default try to match the user language and timezone to a staged session. If a staged session does not exist that has the matching language and timezone then Kasm will create a new session with the specified language and timezone. If the override is set to true then Kasm will use a staged session for the selected workspace even if the language and timezone do not match. This overrides the user setting in the user profile.
usage_limit	Limits the total number of hours a user or group can have running sessions. See the usage_limit documentation below for more details. Type Per User - Each user of the group has their own limit. Per Group - All members share the usage limit. Interval Daily , Weekly , Monthly , Total. Hours The number of hours allowed during each interval.
volume_mapping	Map a local server directory to Kasm. Details available in the Volume Mapping Guide
web_filter_policy	Enabled web filtering and sets the Web Filter Policy to be used. Policies can also be set or force disabled on Workspaces. Policies assigned to Workspaces take priority over those defined via Group Settings.

Session Time Limits

There are a multiple settings in the table above that control Kasm session lifetime. We will go into more detail about them and their relationship to each other below:

keepalive_expiration

This can also be described as the session timeout. This value determines how long Kasm will wait before destroying, stopping or pausing a session if no keepalive is received from the client. Keepalives are sent whenever a user is connected to a Kasm session even if the user is not actively using the Kasm Session. This value should be at least twice the keepalive_interval. This setting is 1 hour by default in the “All Users Group”. The action taken is determined by the keepalive_expiration_action Group Setting.

keepalive_expiration_action

Administrators can decide what happens to sessions once they expire. Valid options are:

• delete - The session is destroyed.

• pause - The session is paused, preserving the disk, process and memory state. Paused sessions will still consume resources in physical memory and/or swap. Sessions resumed from a paused state will still have the previous programs launched and active. This action is valid for container-based sessions only. All other types will utilize the delete action.

• stop - The session is stopped, preserving the disk state. Sessions resumed from a stopped state will have the previous files intact, but previously running programs will need to be restarted. This action is valid for container-based sessions only. All other types will utilize the delete action.

Note

When sessions are stopped or paused, the CPU/RAM resources on the Agent become available for other requests to create new sessions. This may lead to a user not being able to resume a paused/stopped session if the Agent’s resources become consumed by other running sessions. When using Cloud Autoscaling, the system will not destroy Agents that have stopped/paused sessions and will similarly allow other sessions to be provisioned on the Agent. If this is undesirable, the admin can ensure users are not given the allow_kasm_pause and allow_kasm_stop permissions.

keepalive_interval

The keepalive_interval is how often the client will send a keepalive request to Kasm when the user is actively using a session. This setting is 300 seconds by default for the “All Users Group”.

idle_disconnect

This setting is the number of minutes Kasm will wait when the user is idle before taking an action. This action will depend on the user context. If the user is in a Kasm session when the idle timeout expires the user is disconnected from the Kasm session and sent back to the dashboard. Any Kasm sessions that the user was connected to will be disconnected and those sessions will be subject to the keepalive_expiration. If the user is at the dashboard when the idle timeout expires the user is logged out of Kasm. This setting is set to 20 minutes by default in the “All Users Group”. This setting must be higher than the keepalive_interval setting to function properly.

usage_limit

The usage_limit setting is a highly flexible option allowing the administrator to configure a maximum usage number of hours either for each user in the group or for the entire group collectively to use over a set time period. This setting is a decimal value. When using the usage_limit setting all time that a Kasm session is running is counted against the total, this includes when the user is not actively connected to the session but the session is still running. This setting is for use cases where user workspace access should be metered. This setting is not enabled by default.

Note

Accounting for paused/stopped sessions are left as is. Users are “charged” for the full duration of the session, even if the session is paused or stopped.

The user can see how much time they have used/have remaining on the user dashboard:

Session Time Usage

Clicking on this icon will bring up a more detailed display.

Detailed Session Time Usage

session_time_limit

The session_time_limit is a set amount of time that a workspace will be allowed to run once that workspace is created. This time limit is irrespective of whether the user is actively using the session or if the session is disconnected and running in the background. When session_time_limit is configured, the keepalive_expiration setting is not used. This setting is not enabled by default

Session Time Limit Countdown

Group Permissions

Groups have an optional list of permissions attached to them. When a user logs in, all permissions across all groups the user is a member of are aggregated and determine what actions a user is authorized for. There are two built in groups, Administrators and All Users. The Administrators group has the Global Admin permission while the built-in All Users group has the User permission. All users are automatically a member of the All Users group.

To configure group settings:

• Log into the UI as an administrator.

• Select Groups

• Next to the desired group select Edit from the actions menu.

Edit Group

• Select the Permissions tab to view and edit the permissions applied to the group.

Group Settings

The following table lists the permissions and descriptions of each permission.

Name	Description
User	Default level of permissions for normal users.
Global Admin	Global Administrator with all permissions.
Users View	View users and user information.
Users Modify	Modify existing users.
Users Create	Create new users.
Users Delete	Delete exiting users.
Users Modify Admin	Modify users with Global Admin permissions.
Users Auth Session	Login and logout on behalf of another user.
Groups View	View groups, group members, and group settings.
Groups Modify	Modify group members and settings.
Groups Create	Create new groups.
Groups Delete	Delete existing groups.
Groups View IfMember	View groups you are a member of, excluding system groups.
Groups Modify IfMember	Modify groups you are a member of, excluding system groups.
Groups View System	View groups, group members and group settings of system defined groups.
Groups Modify System	Modify group members and settings of system groups.
Groups Delete System	Delete a system group.
Agents View	View agents and agent settings.
Agents Modify	Modify agent settings.
Agents Create	Create agents.
Agents Delete	Delete existing agents.
Staging View	View staging list and stage configuration settings.
Staging Modify	Modify existing staging settings.
Staging Create	Create new staging configurations.
Staging Delete	Delete existing staging configurations.
Casting View	View casting list and casting configuration settings.
Casting Modify	Modify existing casting settings.
Casting Create	Create new casting configurations.
Casting Delete	Delete existing casting configurations.
Sessions View	View all user sessions.
Sessions Modify	Perform modifications to a session of another user.
Sessions Delete	Delete the session of another user.
Session Recordings View	View user session recordings.
Images View	View images
Images Modify	Modify image configurations.
Images Create	Create new images.
Images Delete	Delete existing images.
Images Modify Resources	Modify image resource settings, such as CPU and Memory settings.
DevAPI View	View developer API list.
DevAPI Modify	Modify developer API configurations.
DevAPI Create	Create a new developer API key.
DevAPI Delete	Delete an existing developer API key.
Webfilters View	View webfilters
Webfilters Modify	Modify existing webfilters
Webfilters Create	Create a new webfilter.
Webfilters Delete	Delete an existing webfilter
Brandings View	View branding configurations.
Brandings Modify	Modify existing branding configurations.
Brandings Create	Create new branding configurations.
Brandings Delete	Delete existing branding configurations.
Settings View	View global settings.
Settings Modify	Modify global settings in all categories.
Settings Modify Auth	Modify global settings in the authentication category.
Settings Modify Auth Captcha	Modify global settings in the authentication captcha category.
Settings Modify Cast	Modify global settings in the casting category.
Settings Modify Images	Modify global settings in the images category.
Settings Modify License	Modify global settings in the license category.
Settings Modify Logging	Modify global settings in the logging category.
Settings Modify Manager	Modify global settings in the manager category.
Settings Modify Scale	Modify global settings in the scale category.
Settings Modify Subscription	Modify global settings in the subscription category.
Settings Modify Filter	Modify global settings in the filter category.
Settings Modify Storage	Modify global settings in the storage category.
Settings Modify Connections	Modify global settings in the connections category.
Settings Modify Theme	Modify global settings in the theme category.
Auth View	View LDAP/OIDC/SAML configurations.
Auth Modify	Modify LDAP/OIDC/SAML configurations.
Auth Create	Create LDAP/OIDC/SAML configurations.
Auth Delete	Delete LDAP/OIDC/SAML configurations.
Licenses View	View licenses.
Licenses Create	Add new licenses.
Licenses Delete	Delete licenses.
System View	View system information.
System Export Schema	Export system schema.
System Import Data	Import system data.
System Export Data	Export system data.
Reports View	View system reports and logging. Warning: Providing access to logs can provide a lot of potentially sensitive information.
Managers View	View the managers.
Managers Modify	Modify existing managers.
Managers Create	Create a new manager.
Managers Delete	Delete existing managers.
Zones View	View Zones and Zone settings.
Zones Modify	Modify Zone settings.
Zones Create	Create new Zones.
Zones Delete	Delete existing Zones.
Companies View	View companies.
Companies Modify	Modify existing company.
Companies Create	Create a new company.
Companies Delete	Delete an existing company.
Connection Proxy View	View connection proxies.
Connection Proxy Modify	Modify connection proxies.
Connection Proxy Create	Create a connection proxy.
Connection Proxy Delete	Delete an existing connection proxy.
Physical Tokens View	View physical 2FA tokens.
Physical Tokens Modify	Assign/Unassign physical 2FA tokens.
Physical Tokens Create	Import or create physical 2FA tokens.
Physical Tokens Delete	Delete a physical 2FA token.
Servers View	View servers.
Servers Modify	Modify existing servers.
Servers Create	Create new servers.
Servers Delete	Delete servers.
Server Pools View	View server pools.
Server Pools Modify	Modify server pools.
Server Pools Create	Create a new server pool.
Server Pools Delete	Delete a server pool.
Autoscale View	View auto scale configurations.
Autoscale Modify	Modify an existing auto scale configuration.
Autoscale Create	Create a new auto scale configuration.
Autoscale Delete	Delete auto scale configurations.
VM Provider View	View VM Provider configurations.
VM Provider Modify	Modify VM Provider configurations.
VM Provider Create	Create new VM Provider configurations.
VM Provider Delete	Delete VM Provider configurations.
Autoscale Schedule View	View an auto scale schedule.
Autoscale Schedule Modify	Modify an auto scale schedule.
Autoscale Schedule Create	Create an auto scale schedule.
Autoscale Schedule Delete	Delete an auto scale schedule.
DNS Providers View	View DNS provider configurations.
DNS Providers Modify	Modify DNS provider configurations.
DNS Providers Create	Create new DNS Provider configurations.
DNS Providers Delete	Delete DNS Provider configurations.
Registries View	View Workspace Registries.
Registries Modify	Modify existing Workspace Registries.
Registries Create	Add new Workspace Registries
Registries Delete	Delete a Workspace Registry
Storage Providers View	View Storage Providers.
Storage Providers Modify	Modify existing Storage Providers.
Storage Providers Create	Create new Storage Providers.
Storage Providers Delete	Delete an existing Storage Provider.
Egress Providers View	View Egress Providers.
Egress Providers Modify	Modify existing Egress Providers.
Egress Providers Create	Create new Egress Providers.
Egress Providers Delete	Delete an existing Egress Provider.
Egress Gateways View	View Egress Gateways.
Egress Gateways Modify	Modify existing Egress Gateways.
Egress Gateways Create	Create new Egress Gateways.
Egress Gateways Delete	Delete an existing Egress Gateway.
Egress Credentials View	View Egress Credentials.
Egress Credentials Modify	Modify existing Egress Credentials.
Egress Credentials Create	Create new Egress Credentials.
Egress Credentials Delete	Delete an existing Egress Credential.

Permission Changes

A user’s permissions are embedded in their session token, which is generated on login. A user’s token lifetime is controlled by the Session Lifetime global setting. The UI will get a new session token every 5 minutes. The fastest way to get new permissions to apply, is to have the user log out and log back in, otherwise, the change will apply generally within 5 minutes.

Permission Dependencies

While most permissions can stand alone, there are dependencies between some permissions. Generally, a Modify, Create, and/or Delete permission will need the corresponding View permission. The following are additional permission dependencies, which means you will need to grant multiple permissions to have the desired effect.

• Licenses View requires System View

• Permissions View requires Groups View

• Registries View requires Images View, System View, and Agents View

• Autoscale View requires Server Pools View

• Autoscale Schedule View requires Server Pools View

• DNS Providers View requires Server Pools View

• VM Providers View requires Server Pools View and Autoscale View

• Users Delete requires Sessions Delete if the target user has running sessions and Users Modify

• Users Delete requires Users Modify Admin to delete a user that has the Global Admin permission

• Egress Gateways Create, Egress Gateways Modify, Egress Gateways Delete, Egress Credentials Create, Egress Credentials Modify and Egress Credentials Delete require Egress Providers Modify.

There are many cases where multiple permissions are not required, however, certain UI elements will be hidden if the user does not have the permissions to view them. For example, a user may have permissions to View Images, however, they may not have permissions to View Servers. If the user goes to view an individual Workspace Image that targets a Server, they will not see the drop down to view or edit the server the image is targeting.

Special Permissions

There are more available permissions around groups, beyond the basic View, Create, Modify, and Delete. The Groups View IfMember and Groups Modify IfMember allow a user to view or modify a group if they are a member of that group. This does not extend to built-in system groups (All Users and Administrator). To edit or view System groups, they will also need the Groups View/Modify System permission.

There is an additional permission that protects modification of users with the Global Admin permission. In order to modify a Global Admin, the user requesting the modification must themselves be a Global Admin or have the User Modify Admin permission.

There are two permissions that allow modifications to Workspace Images, Images Modify and Images Modify Resources. The Images Modify allows modification of all Image settings except those that would modify the physical/virtual compute resources. The following settings require the Images Modify Resources permission to edit:

• GPU Count

• Cores

• Memory

• CPU Allocation Method

• Uncompressed Image Size

• Docker Registry

• Docker Registry Username

• Docker Registry Password

• Hash

• Volume Mappings

• Docker Run Config Override

• Docker Exec Config

Group Workspaces

Administrators can define which Workspaces are available to each group. By default newly created workspaces are automatically assigned to the All Users group. This behavior can be changed by modifying the Add Images To Default Group global Settings.

Group Workspaces

SSO Group Mappings

Administrators can configure the system to automatically map users that authenticate with an SSO provider (e.g SAML, OpenID, LDAP) into Kasm Groups.

If Assign All Users is selected, any user that authenticates with the defined SSO provider will be added to the Kasm group. Otherwise, only users that have the defined Group Attributes passed in by the SSO provider will be added to the group.

These group mappings are evaluated and updated at each user login. If a mapping is defined and a user does not have the group attributes listed, the user will be removed from the group.

SSO Group Mappings

SSO Group Mappings Config

Group File Mappings

File Mappings allow the administrator to manage files to be mapped to the inside of a user’s container based Workspace session. File Mappings can be defined on a User, Group, and/or Workspace. See the primary documentation on File mappings for more details.

Note

When a user belongs to multiple Groups that define a File Mapping with the same destination, the group with the lowest priority value gets mapped into the user’s container.

File Mappings Table

The following is an example File Mapping of a Chrome Managed Policy to define bookmarks in Chrome.

File Mapping Definition