Surface Hub 2s Recommendations

[Ricardo Mendes]

Hi all,

We are new to Surface Hub´s and currently deploying several Surface Hub 2s. Several topics came up and I would like to ask for some thoughts about the following topics:

• Traffic shapping, network, firewall what is the best practise - For the research I done done, we should configure the QoS recomendations, be aware with any proxy in the network, configure the Hub´s in a vlan if that is a requirement for the customer and that´s about it. 
• Endpoint Security - Here the recommendation is to have the Hub always updated with the latest updates from Microsoft. The default AV is Defender and I did not see any other alternative. Also the bitlocker keys should be keept depending the setup (Local, AD or AAD).
• Connect MacBook Pro - I only know AirServer but the customer is having some issues with it.

Appreciate any thoughts you can share.

Rgs,

Ricardo Mendes

[#2 · Accepted solution]

Hi @Ricardo Mendes

We went down the route of putting our Surface Hubs into a VLAN that bypasses our proxy and firewall. We had quite an outdated proxy when we installed 3 years ago, and this was the easier solution. We used MAC address based IP reservation to ensure only the Surface Hubs got the IPs that put them into the VLAN.

QoS might be useful if you are limited on networking bandwidth, or if you don't have an efficient core network. We haven't implemented simply because we've never needed to.

Defended is your only option for Anti-virus for Surface Hub; it can't install/run win32 apps so other anti-virus is out of the question. That being said, not sure if it's necessary to have other anti-virus these days, Defender does a pretty good job and, due to the design of the Surface Hub's OS (Windows 10 Team) most traditional virus attack vectors are shut off.

If you're joining to AD or AAD, Bitlocker keys should autoamtically save to the relevant place. You'll rarely need these unless rebuilding the Surface Hub in my experience.

We had a similar requirement but for iOS devices. We tried AirServer but due to how our LAN is segregated we had alot of trouble getting devices to connect using it. Others with potentially simpler networks have said it works really well though.

In the end, we used an HDMI switch plugged into the Surface Hub with an Apple TV pugged into the switch to enable AirPlay/Screen Sharing. The switch also allowed us to them still have an HDMI cable for users to plug in laptops as well. A cheap £15-£20 switch from Amazon will do the job. AmazonBasics now do one!

Edit: Worth mentioning, if you have Surface Hub 2S, not only does it have HDMI in, but it also has USB-C with DisplayPort input, so you could use the HDMI port for an Apple TV, and have either a USB-C cable for laptops with USB-C support, or (and I haven't tried this, but should work) a USB-C to DisplayuPort/USB-C to HDMI cable or dongle to provide a secondary input for laptops.

[#3]

Hi Daniel,
Thanks for your sharing. Regarding the apple tv it will not work, since the customer has 30 devices and will not buy and spend more money on them. But I got the impression that using the AirServer app would not work, since when connecting to the Hub, they would not be able to use wifi. So they would need a wired cable to have internet.
Rgs,
RM