Terminal Server Logging Blog Articles | Remote Desktop

Three New Ways to Report on Remote Desktop Performance

December 15, 2014 By admin Leave a Comment

Last week we explored the addition of the Remote Desktop Reporter Agent and Analysis Client available in Remote Desktop Reporter 2.7. But wait! There’s more when it comes to this most recent release of Remote Desktop Reporter.

New Reports Target Remote Desktop Performance

We’ve also added three new – and frequently requested – reports to our stable of over 60 reports encompassing all aspects of user session activity and performance metric tracking. These three specifically focus on Remote Desktop performance.

Program Run Times By User

This report offers a breakdown of how long different applications are run by different users. Pairing this report up with filters on process names and users, you can quickly determine how long specific programs are being run in sessions compared to others. MSPs can also use this report to create metered billing solutions for the use of specific programs.

Session Reconnect Attempts

Now you can quickly highlight specific users from specific clients that have had frequent reconnection tries to servers in specific hours of the day. Review this report regularly can highlight connectivity issues either on specific servers, or more likely, on specific clients.

CPU and Memory By Session

Ever need to quickly highlight CPU and memory consumption by user session on each server? If not, you will. This report mimics a dashboard in the new Analysis Client, which shows average, maximum, and minimum CPU and memory usage for each recorded session. Use this report to spot outliers (such as high CPU or memory use), which you can further investigate in the Analysis Client to find out what behaviors or applications caused high utilization of CPU and/or memory, in order to prevent them from taking place in the future.

CPU And Memory Use By Session Report — Screenshot from the CPU And Memory Use By Session report.

See These Reports in Action For Yourself

In addition to these three Remote Desktop performance reports, there is so much more now appearing in Remote Desktop Reporter 2.7 and later. Free trial software is available for download from our web site, and pricing remains highly competitive. Do you have a question about other reports available in Remote Desktop Reporter? Just ask below.

About Our Remote Desktop Reporter Agent and Analysis Client

December 10, 2014 By admin Leave a Comment

The centerpiece of Remote Desktop Reporter 2.7 is the addition of the brand new Remote Desktop Reporter Agent, coupled with the new Analysis Client. Past versions of the software have been agentless, and that capability is preserved in the new release for those who do not need the new expanded feature set.

What the Addition of the Remote Desktop Reporter Agent Means

In the past, with its agentless architecture, Remote Desktop Reporter collected and warehoused user session information from Remote Desktop servers, VMWare Horizon View servers, and Citrix XenApp servers.

But, the Remote Desktop Reporter Agent enables the gathering of an enhanced set of metrics as well as collecting the same types of metrics from physical desktops and any desired virtual desktops.

For Example, Remote Desktop Reporter Can Now . . .

The new capabilities made possible by both the Remote Desktop Reporter Agent coupled with the Analysis Client are expansive.

CPU and Memory

Remote Desktop Reporter can now show administrators how much of the CPU and memory individual sessions are consuming. This can be shown both in aggregate and by the minute.

Memory and CPU By Session Dashboard as shown in Remote Desktop Reporter.

Screen Captures

Periodic screen captures can be recorded for later review, so that administrators can see what programs in sessions are connecting to what sites and over what ports they are connecting.

TCP/UDP Connections By Session and By Process

The Remote Desktop Reporter Agent can be configured to capture all open TCP/UDP connections made by applications running in user sessions. Administrators can then search for sessions with activity over a specific port number, and find out exactly what application was the culprit.

Tested, Reliable Database Storage

All of this data is indexed in a database so administrators can search for sessions that match chosen criteria – application name, port usage, or application window title, for example. And just like previous versions, you can leverage the free, built-in Microsoft SQL Server Express DB instance for smaller deployments or scale up to limitless data retention with the full version of Microsoft SQL Server.

Time Tracking Data

Management can get valuable time tracking information based on computing resources that are being used – whether on-premises or cloud.

Root Cause Performance Analysis

Administrators can quickly prepare a root cause analysis on problems that crop up on multiple SBC platforms – enabling them to drill down to a specific program in a user session.

Remote Desktop Reporter Capabilities Expand While Pricing Stays Within Reach

RDPSoft remains committed to putting quality tools in the hands of the SMB community. All the while, pricing remains well within reach. And, free trial software is always available.

Have you worked with the new release of Remote Desktop Reporter yet? Do you have questions about what Remote Desktop Reporter can do for you? Share your thoughts with us . . .

RDP On Windows Server 2012: Tracking RDP Bandwidth

August 14, 2014 By admin Leave a Comment

In two previous posts during 2014 (Part 1 and Part 2), we disclosed that due to the integration work related to RemoteFX technologies in Windows Server 2012, it was no longer possible to obtain RDP bandwidth information on a session by session basis on Windows Server 2012, Windows Server 2012 R2, Windows 8, and Windows 8.1.

Microsoft Generates Two Hotfixes

Fortunately, after our identification of this bug and follow-on advocacy, Microsoft agreed to generate two Hotfixes to restore this functionality. As a result, the first Hotfix was released and is available for download!

Note well that this first Hotfix only will work on the Windows Server 2012 and Windows 8 codebase. At the time of writing this article, a subsequent hotfix was to be released later for the Windows Server 2012 R2 and Windows 8.1 codebase.

The Symptoms . . .

In the article ID, Microsoft explains the symptoms corrected by this hotfix:

When you try to use the WTSQuerySessionInformation Remote Desktop Services API function to obtain information about incoming bytes (WTSIncomingBytes) or outgoing bytes (WTSOutgoingBytes) for a Remote Desktop session on Windows 8 or Windows Server 2012, the return value is always zero bytes.

Thanks Microsoft Support and Development Teams!

We’d like to give a hearty thanks to the support and development teams at Microsoft that made this happen. Good job, guys!

Remote Desktop Reporter Helps Gain Insight On RDP Bandwidth Consumption With Windows Server 2012

Given this hotfix, consider deploying our Remote Desktop Reporter tool to gain insight on RDP bandwidth consumption in your RDS farm and find out which users are the heaviest consumers.

Updated: October 2020.

Automating Microsoft SPLA Reporting With SPL Tracker – Part 4

June 18, 2014 By admin Leave a Comment

In the final post of our series on automating Microsoft SPLA reporting, it’s time to show how reports get automated and how you gather in-depth analysis from the usage and inactive user data generated by SPL Tracker in Steps 3 and 4.

Three Different Report Types for Automating Microsoft SPLA Reporting

When you build reports with SPL Tracker, whether they are run manually, or on a scheduled basis, you can create up to three different report types.

Concurrent License Assessment

The Current License Assessment Report is always generated by SPL Tracker. This report details the specific users who had access to particular license types in the preceding reporting period (e.g. prior month), and is suitable for sending to your licensing authority.

SPL Tracker's Current License Assessment Report helps in automating Microsoft SPLA reporting. — The Current License Assessment Report in SPL Tracker.

License Utilization Report

The License Utilization Report is an optional report for internal use, which contrasts the number of users with access to a certain license type, versus those who actually used a particular class of license in the preceding reporting period.

This report is excellent at displaying waste percentages per license type, and then showing you in detail the particular inactive users who represent the waste.

The Current License Utilization Report in SPL Tracker by RDPSoft — The Current License Utilization Report in SPL Tracker can solves a huge part of the problem in automating Microsoft SPLA reporting.

License Control Adjustment Report

Finally, if you decided back in Step 4 that you wanted to remove some inactive users representing waste for the upcoming reporting period, you can elect to generate a License Access Control Adjustment Report. This report documents the group membership adjustments you made to remove access to one or more license types for a specific set of users.

License Access Control Adjustment Report in RDPSoft's SPL Tracker — Don’t forget those inactive users. The License Access Control Adjustment Report in RDPSoft’s SPL Tracker.

In addition to selecting the reports you want to build, the SPL Tracker has numerous adjustable preferences so you can tune it for the specific needs of your environment.

For instance, you can have SPL Tracker create and email the reports to you on a scheduled basis, and you can distinguish those emailed reports by the domain they originate from (which is very useful for MSPs with multiple client domains).

And, yes, you can also personalize the logo used in the reports.

Running a Report in SPL Tracker — Time to confirm and finish your plan for automating Microsoft SPLA reporting with SPL Tracker.

A Master Report For Automating Microsoft SPLA Report Needs

Finally, it’s worth noting that the Current License Assessment Report is always generated in CSV format (as well as the other formats like PDF, Microsoft Word, or Excel). The CSV format allows you to combine all of your different domains’ license assessments into one master report you can submit to your licensing authority.

We’ll take a look at how to set this up in our upcoming “SPLA Reporting Tips and Tricks” blog posts.

Get notified of new posts. Follow us on Twitter @RDPSoft.

Automating Microsoft SPLA Reporting With SPL Tracker – Part 3

June 10, 2014 By admin Leave a Comment

We’ve covered a bit of ground in this blog series on Microsoft SPLA reporting with SPL Tracker. We’ll get into more nitty gritty details below, but first, a review . . .

The Need for Microsoft SPLA Reporting

Back in Part 1 of this blog series, we explored how SPL Tracker targets the widely recognized need for more effective tracking of Microsoft SPLA – and related – licensing.

In Part 2 of our blog series, we reviewed how to associate defined license types with Active Directory groups using SPL Tracker.

Now, in Part 3 of this series, you will witness firsthand the power of correlating actual license usage with the groups that control access to the license types.

Looking Back at Actual Licensing Usage

Once you have associated license types with groups in the Associate Groups section of the SPL Tracker, click on Step 3 – Assess Actual Usage.

In this section, you will need to define the activity lookback period that SPL Tracker uses to determine whether or not specific accounts have been actively using certain license types, such as Remote Desktop Services SALs or Microsoft Office SALs. Typically, this is 30, 45, or 60 days. Enter your preferred lookback period, and then click “Fetch/Refetch Usage Data.”

Effective Microsoft SPLA Tracking Requires That You Assess Actual License Usage - Shown Here in SPL Tracker — Assessing actual license usage over a period of days in SPL Tracker. At this stage, you’re well on your way to automating your Microsoft SPLA usage reports.

Active Users vs. Inactive Users

Once the SPL Tracker consults Remote Desktop Reporter’s database to determine usage for all license types, it will display the active users and inactive users for each type in a list. Inactive users are defined as the user accounts which had permission to use the license type (via membership in the associated Active Directory group), but for whatever reason did not use that class of license within the lookback period.

Managing Inactive Users in SPL Tracker and Automating Microsoft SPLA Reporting — Inactive users are users that had permission to use a certain license type but didn’t. Recognizing trends among active and inactive users can translate into significant savings in a Microsoft SPLA situation.

Moving on to Step 4 – Restrict Access, you can determine which inactive users will be denied access moving forward, by removing them from the corresponding Active Directory group. Even more importantly, you can determine how the user has access to the particular license type, via direct group membership, or via a nested group relationship.

In the next blog article in this series, we’ll see how you can automate this process so that “auto pruning” of inactive users takes place automatically on a monthly basis. Those removed users, if access is not restored during the next monthly reporting period, will result in an ongoing cost savings to your organization. Watch for our next blog article in this series.

And remember, SPL Tracker is downloaded with RDPSoft’s Remote Desktop Reporter. You can download a free 30 day trial today.