Configuring smart card caching - Amazon DCV

Configuring smart card caching

The smart card caching feature enables the Amazon DCV server to cache smart card values. When this feature is enabled, the Amazon DCV server caches the results of recent calls to the client's smart card. Future calls are retrieved directly from the server's cache, instead of from the client. This reduces the amount of traffic that's transferred between the client and the server and improves performance. This is especially useful if the client has a slow internet connection.

By default, smart card caching is disabled. Clients can manually enable smart card caching for each application they run by setting the DCV_PCSC_ENABLE_CACHE environment variable. For instructions, see Using a Smart Card in the Amazon DCV User Guide. Or, you can configure the Amazon DCV server to permanently enable or disable smart card caching, regardless of the value specified for the DCV_PCSC_ENABLE_CACHE environment variable.

Linux Amazon DCV server
To permanently enable or disable smart card caching on a Linux Amazon DCV server

  1. Navigate to /etc/dcv/ and open the dcv.conf with your preferred text editor.

  2. Locate the enable-cache parameter in the [smartcard] section. To permanently enable smart card caching, enter 'always-on'. To permanently disable smart card caching, enter 'always-off'.

    If there's no enable-cache parameter in the [smartcard] section, add it manually using the following format:

    [smartcard]
enable-cache='always-on'|'always-off'

  3. Save and close the file.

  4. Stop and restart the Amazon DCV server.

Windows Amazon DCV server
To permanently enable or disable smart card caching on a Windows Amazon DCV server

  1. Open the Windows Registry Editor.

  2. Navigate to the HKEY_USERS/S-1-5-18/Software/GSettings/com/nicesoftware/dcv/smartcard/ key and select the enable-cache parameter.

    If the parameter doesn't exist, use the following steps to create it:

    1. In the left pane, open the context (right-click) menu for the smartcard key, and choose New, String Value.

    2. For Name, enter enable-cache and press Enter.

  3. Open the enable-cache parameter. For Value data, enter always-on to permanently enable smart card caching, or enter always-off to permanently disable smart card caching.

  4. Choose OK and close the Windows Registry Editor.