Greetings friends and current Remote Desktop Commander customers! We’ve just released Version 4.5 of the Remote Desktop Commander Suite. This new version has incredible new features focused around RDS security and Remote Desktop Gateway monitoring, so please read on!

In this RDPSoft E-Newsletter:

New Remote Desktop Commander 4.5 Features

RDS Performance Audits, Custom Report Design Work, Training, and White Glove Installation

Version 4.5 Upgrade, Purchase, and Demo Links

New features include:

• Consolidate All RDS Logins and Logon Failures, Regardless Whether Or Not They Occurred On Session Hosts Or On Remote Desktop Gateway Servers

• Geolocate RDS Logins and Logon Failures In the Brand New User IP Geolocation Dashboard – Find Out Where Your Users Are Working From, and Locate the Source Of Brute Force RDP Hack Attempts

• Schedule Daily User Login and Logon Failure Reports, With Six New Reports To Choose From

• See The Actual IP Address and Geolocation Information for User Sessions In Existing Time Tracking Reports

• Massively Reduce Database Storage Requirements With Performance Threshold Database Pruning

Consolidate All RDS Logins and Logon Failures, Regardless Whether Or Not They Occurred On Session Hosts Or Remote Desktop Gateway Servers

Our CEO, Andy Milford, has written at length about the challenges faced when attempting to correlate RDP logon failure data from session hosts at his PureRDS.org blog. Attempting to track successful RDP logins is no picnic either, as multiple log files from multiple different systems – the session host servers and remote desktop gateway servers – must be consulted and the information correlated.

Andy created a free RDS Log Viewer tool in an attempt to tackle some of these problems. That initial research effort allowed RDPSoft to build a full log collection and correlation engine into the Remote Desktop Commander Suite.

In version 4.5 of the Remote Desktop Commander Suite, the Remote Desktop Reporter Service automatically collects and correlates key events from event log files on Session Host servers and Remote Desktop Gateway servers. The result is a treasure trove of valuable login and logon failure data that it retains in its SQL database, allowing us to deliver the incredible new features described below.

Geolocate RDS Logins and Logon Failures In the Brand New User IP Geolocation Dashboard – Find Out Where Your Users Are Working From, and Locate the Source Of Brute Force RDP Hack Attempts

Remote Desktop Services login and logon failure data correlation from session hosts and gateways is a valuable feature in its own right, but the rich visualizations of this data is what sets Remote Desktop Commander Version 4.5 apart from the competition. The User IP Geolocation Dashboard combines IP geolocation data with interactive worldwide maps and tabular, filterable tables so administrators can zero in on both legitimate RDS users and hackers.

Our dashboard is completely extensible via PowerShell scripts, which are designed to receive selected server names, usernames, and IP addresses as input parameters. This is especially useful for the remediation of inbound hack attempts.

Instantly build reports from the filtered RDP login and logon failure data in the dashboard, or simply export the data to comma-delimited text.

Schedule Daily User Login and Logon Failure Reports, With Six New Reports To Choose From

Scheduled reports make it easy to keep track of both where your users are routinely connecting from, as well as the sources of hacking and penetration attempts. Group login and logon failure data by country or by user. With routine review of these reports, you can quickly spot geographic RDP login anomalies that could be suggestive of a compromised user account.

See The Actual IP Address and Geolocation Information for User Sessions In Existing Time Tracking Reports.

By default, the Microsoft Terminal Services client (MSTSC) does not report its actual global IP address when connecting to a terminal server. When connecting through a Remote Desktop Gateway system, no IP address information is transmitted at all. Many admins have requested that we transform the incorrect or missing IP address information with the actual global IP address of the user, whether or not they are connecting through a RD Gateway.

Based on this feedback, we have retrofitted several existing reports, such as the User Sessions – Session Details By User report family, to include the correct global IP of the user based on the correlated log data now collected by our central polling service. Also, when possible, the global IP address is accompanied with the geographic region of the user’s ISP

Massively Reduce Database Storage Requirements With Performance Threshold Database Pruning

Collecting in-depth performance data on a per-user and per-program basis with our agent service is great, but it’s easy to generate a lot of data in SQL by doing so. Version 4.5 has a nifty new feature that we’re calling “Performance Threshold Database Pruning.”

Now, in addition to purging out agent-based performance data based on date, you can elect to keep only the agent data associated with times of high load on session host servers. You can define what you consider to be high load both in terms of CPU usage or memory utilization, or a combination of both. Using this new feature can drastically reduce the amount of data stored in SQL over time, in many cases by over 80%.

Schedule an RDS Performance Audit, Request Custom Reports, or Book Training and White Glove Software Installation/Reconfiguration

Ever since we launched them earlier this year, our Remote Desktop Services consulting offerings have been a hit. From White Glove installation of our software, to troubleshooting RDS performance problems, we’ve enjoyed working with admins across the globe to get their RDS environments optimized. Here’s a quick recap of what we offer – contact us to request more details and to obtain a professional services quote.

• RDS Performance Audit

Administrator time is at a premium these days. Often, you may know there is a performance issue with your RDS farm, but you don’t have the time to figure it out on your own. Let RDPSoft do that for you. We will install our Remote Desktop Commander Suite software in your environment, and then gather up key performance metrics, including data from RDS-related event logs and installed Hotfixes. After gathering data for a week, we will build a comprehensive report that benchmarks performance in your farm and offers suggestions on how to improve it. You don’t even need to have your own instance of Microsoft SQL available for data collection – we can provide you with a secure connection to an Azure SQL database as part of this service. For more detailed information, and to request a quote, click here.

• Custom Report Design

Do you need a report that’s not available out of the box? Let the RDPSoft team build that for you. Using the free Microsoft Report Builder tool, we can design custom SQL queries and RDLC templates that connect into our Remote Desktop Commander database. Click here for more information and to request a quote.

• White Glove Installation

For only $99, an RDPSoft technician will establish a remote support session with you and install the Remote Desktop Commander Suite software. This service includes a.) installing the software, b.) linking it to a SQL Server Express, SQL Server, or Azure SQL database, c.) adding session hosts / workstations for monitoring, d.) verifying that data is being collected properly, and e.) verifying that the data is displayed properly in reports and the Remote Desktop Commander Client. Click here to purchase this service and schedule a time with an RDPSoft support expert.

• Training and Other Professional Services

Did you know we also offer training on our products, custom PowerShell development to extend Remote Desktop Commander’s capabilities, assistance with adjusting permissions so non-admin help desks can manage your RDS environment, and much more? Let us know what you need, and we’ll send you a quote.

Remote Desktop Commander 4.5 Upgrade, Purchase, and Demo Links

If you are an existing Remote Desktop Commander SUITE subscription licensee and/or active maintenance agreement holder, click here to request upgrade instructions.

If you’d like to learn more about the Remote Desktop Commander Suite, including its feature set and how to start a subscription for only $9.99 per server per month, click here.

Request a web demo with an RDPSoft solutions expert to see all our solution’s features in depth.