ControlUp for Citrix RDS InteractivePDF

ControlUp for Microsoft
Remote Desktop Services
Microsoft Remote Desktop Services (RDS) is a great platform for publishing desktops and applications to endusers in corporate environments. Multi-user OS support and low-bandwidth remoting protocol make RDS
an excellent alternative for legacy client-server deployments but also pose unique management challenges
for RDS admins. ControlUp helps RDS admins solve some of the unique management, monitoring and
troubleshooting challenges that exist in any RDS infrastructure.
Simplifying RDS Management
The built-in RDS management console (e.g. TS Admin) provides basic info on
running user sessions and processes but lacks much needed visibility into
performance metrics. In addition, user session management includes only a few
limited actions, such as logoff and send message.
ControlUp provides a rich yet simple management experience for RDS admins.
The real-time performance views display metrics for servers, user sessions and
processes and also provide a quick dashboard view for an entire RDS farm.
The robust management module goes beyond basic user session actions and
provides server level management actions such as comparing registry keys,
pushing file folders to multiple servers, managing services and comparing
installed patches.
Troubleshooting Performance Issues
By design, each RDS server runs multiple user sessions on a single OS platform
and sometimes an individual user session may have an adverse effect on other
sessions running on the same RDS server. A single process running inside a
user session might cause poor end-user experience for dozens of users running
on the same box.
From the server level all the way to specific user sessions and processes, RDS
admins quickly spot performance issues across multiple layers with ControlUp’s
action oriented dashboard. Proactively detect the root cause of a plethora of
issues by analyzing a correlation of real-time performance metrics.
Application Troubleshooting
The main purpose of any RDS server is to publish business applications to endusers. Frequent patches, dependencies on components - like .Net or Java runtime,
and undocumented configuration changes can cause applications to fail on a single
RDS server or an entire silo.
ControlUp enables admins to compare the Windows configuration between a
working and non-working RDS server and quickly isolate the element causing the
application to fail. This includes the Windows Registry, File-System, Services and
installed programs and updates.
ControlUp for Microsoft Remote Desktop
Supporting End-Users
A common routine for any sysadmin is to interact with end-users. There are a
plethora of ways you have to support end-users, whether troubleshooting an
application issue inside a user session, sending a message to users in a remote
branch or even logging users off from a specific server in order to complete an
image update, just to name a few.
In addition to basic user actions like ‘Logoff’ and ‘Send Message’, ControlUp
includes a rich array of contextual management actions that enable efficient
troubleshooting of user related issues. For example, the ‘Kill Policy’ user action
temporarily removes Group Policy restrictions that lockdown the user Desktop,
thus enabling a quick way to change settings and run commands inside a
restricted user session.
User Session Activity Reporting
It’s the job of the sysadmin to figure out which RDS server was used at the time
of a particular end-user performance issue in order to start the troubleshooting
process. A sysadmin needs historical user session reports for many reasons,
including usage trend analysis, license consumption, login tracking for security
purposes and application usage analysis.
With ControlUp you receive a full historical reporting module that enables you to
save unlimited performance and usage data including hosts, servers, user sessions
and even processes data. The ControlUp Reporter analyzes the historical data and
creates Excel graphs and reports to help you proactively troubleshoot.
End-User Experience Monitoring
Are your end-users experiencing slow app performance and bang on your door
incensed? If so, it is essential that end-users have a positive experience. Issues
involving slow logons or any other can have a negative impact on the end-user
experience and therefore need to be solved with expediency.
By alerting the RDS team when defined metrics cross their thresholds, ControlUp
provides early detection of issues that might affect the end-user experience. One
such example is sending an alert via e-mail or push notifications when there are
slow user logons. Once detected, the real-time views can help troubleshoot the issue
by displaying a breakdown of the logon process into major phases such as User
Profile, Group Policy, and Desktop Load times.
ControlUp is trusted by these and many more great customers!
Free Download
Download a ControlUp free 30-day trial.
After 30 days, or anytime before then, you
can convert to a Pro or Enterprise license
by contacting [email protected].
www.controlup.com