Desktop and Application Streaming

Using Amazon WorkDocs with Amazon AppStream 2.0

April 25, 2024: New customer sign-ups and account upgrades are no longer available for Amazon WorkDocs. For migration options, see How to Migrate Content from Amazon WorkDocs on the AWS Business Productivity blog.

Amazon AppStream 2.0 administrators can integrate their own user storage solutions with AppStream 2.0. To do this, they install a storage client on the image builder as they’re setting up their users’ application environment. Then they join their AppStream 2.0 fleets to their Active Directory domain, so that the storage client can sign in the user by using Windows domain credentials. As a result, AppStream 2.0 users can access their files as soon as they start a streaming session.

One storage solution that supports this is Amazon WorkDocs. WorkDocs is a fully managed, secure enterprise file storage and sharing service with administrative controls and feedback capabilities. Your user’s files are visible only to them and their designated contributors and viewers. Other members of your organization cannot access to other user’s files unless they are granted access. Users can easily share their files with other members of your organization for collaboration or review. Also, WorkDocs provides a storage client you can install for your users.

This blog post integrates Amazon WorkDocs Drivewith AppStream 2.0. WorkDocs Drive provides users with on-demand access to all of their files on WorkDocs through a mounted drive that does not store files locally. If you are new to WorkDocs, you can get started with a 30-day trial at no cost with 1 TB of storage per user for up to 50 users.

Prerequisites

Before you get started, you need the following:

If you are joining your AppStream 2.0 resources to an Active Directory domain, WorkDocs Drive authenticates your users when a user starts a streaming session. Your users can start accessing their WorkDocs files right away and use it with their applications.

This post discusses the following steps:

  • Launch an image builder and install Amazon WorkDocs Drive
  • Configure the default WorkDocs site that your users connect to
  • Test the integration

Step 1: Launch an image builder and install Amazon WorkDocs Drive

 To install Amazon WorkDocs Drive:

  1. Sign in into the AppStream 2.0 console.
  2. From the left navigation menu, choose Directory Configs. For information about how to create a Directory Config object that represents your Active Directory domain, see Create a Directory Config Object.
  3. Choose Images, Image Builder, Launch image builder. Follow the wizard to create a new image builder. Choose the Directory Config object created earlier to join the image builder to your Active Directory domain.
  4. Once the image builder is ready, connect to the image builder. Choose Directory User,and log in with your domain administrator credentials.
  5. Install your applications as you would do normally. Download Amazon WorkDocs Drive client for PC and install it on the image builder. To get the download, see Apps & Integrations for Amazon WorkDocs.

Step 2: Configure the default WorkDocs site that your users connect to

After you install the Amazon WorkDocs Drive as an administrator or domain administrator:

  1. From the Admin Commands menu, choose Switch User.
  2. Choose Template User or log in with a domain user credential.
  3. Once you are logged in, launch the Amazon WorkDocs Drive client.
  4. When prompted for the WorkDocs site name, enter it (for example, exampleco.awsapps.com).
  5. In the Administrator account, launch Image Assistant.
  6. Proceed to the configure step and choose Save Settings.
  7. Choose the domain user ID that you used for configuring the WorkDocs site in the input next to Save Settings.
    This action copies the profile of the template user or domain user to the end user streaming sessions. When the user starts a streaming session, WorkDocs Drive automatically connects to your WorkDocs site.
  8. Add your applications, along with the Amazon WorkDocs Drive client, to your image.

Step 3: Test your integration

To test your integration:

  1. Once your image is available, assign it to your domain-joined AppStream 2.0 fleet. Associate the fleet to an AppStream 2.0 stack.
  2. Set up SAML federation to connect to a domain-joined stack. For more information about how to set up identity federation using SAML 2.0, see Setting up SAML 2.0.
  3. Start a streaming session by signing in with your domain user password.
  4. Choose the Amazon WorkDocs Drive application. The client authenticates you and lets you access your WorkDocs content.

This blog showed how you can integrate Amazon WorkDocs with AppStream 2.0 to provide your users access to their files in WorkDocs during the streaming session. For more information about the services, see: