teleworkers

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 . . .

Tracking Attendance for Telecommuters and Local Users – Remote Desktop Reporter

April 19, 2014 By admin Leave a Comment

We recently made a few tweaks to our “Attendance By Day” and “Attendance By Hour” reports – appearing In Version 1.9.4 of Remote Desktop Reporter. This creates a new class of user attendance reports that also factor in console user sessions when building the reports. If you’ve been tasked with tracking attendance for telecommuters and local users, this will definitely help conserve time and money.

The “Console” Session and Why It Matters

Are telecommuters goofing off? Track attendance with Remote Desktop Reporter. — Bueler? Bueler? Telecommuters are generally more productive than office workers. Still, you may be tasked with tracking their attendance.

For the uninitiated, the “console” session is the local, interactive logon session a user creates when they sit down at a Windows workstation or server to do work.

There can only be one console session per computer running at any time. This is in contrast to Remote Desktop sessions, which are created when a user connects to a workstation or server remotely to do work.

More recent versions of Windows workstations (such as Windows Vista, Windows 7, and Windows 8) have some nifty user session techniques. These can automatically convert a previously logged on console session to a remote desktop session if the same user who established the console session starts a remote session later.

Similarly, if a user leaves a remote user session open but disconnected, and later signs on to the computer locally, that remote session gets converted back to the console session.

Tracking Attendance for Telecommuters and Local Users

Report on attendance by hour - console users. — A report from Remote Desktop Reporter shows how attendance can be tracked for telecommuters and on-site workers.

Some managers may wish to get a feel for total employee attendance regardless of whether they are telecommuters or working locally. Using these new attendance reports can help solve that issue, as they look at whether or not users had either type of session open on their workstations or servers. While idle and active time cannot be tracked in the console session, whether or not a session was established in the first place during certain hours or days can be.

Administrators who wish to implement this approach with our software would be wise to consider implementing the free WinExit screensaver or equivalent, which will automatically logoff console sessions after a certain period of inactivity. This guarantees that locked but inactive console sessions will not be included in the reporting.

Interested in setting up a system like the above? Or, maybe you just want to track telecommuters. Contact us to review your objectives. We’ll be happy to make some recommendations.