Remotely Assisting a VDI User

[tbrouwer]

Is this possible?

How would I remotely interact with a user's session that is using a terminal RDP'ed into a VDI farm? I can't use VNC because it complains that somebody is already remotely logged in.

I know I could go to the console through VC, but I would have to log them out, so that would defeat the purpose.

[nick_couchman · Accepted solution]

Use the Remote Assistance built in to Windows XP. If you have a pure Microsoft environment (including Exchange), this should be fairly seamless in terms of connecting you to their desktop. Otherwise, as in the environment I work in, the machine will send an e-mail to the e-mail address specified by the user, and that person will be able to click on a link that will open a shared remote desktop session with the person who sent the e-mail.

Also, what VNC are you using? I think VNC would allow you to do it, but different versions may vary.

[sgrinker]

A lot of the Thin Client vendors use VNC for their remote solution to the device itself, which in turn gets you to the connection. Otherwise as was already mentioned, Remote Assistance would be your next best bet.

[tbrouwer]

A lot of the Thin Client vendors use VNC for their

remote solution to the device itself, which in turn

gets you to the connection. Otherwise as was already

mentioned, Remote Assistance would be your next best

bet.

I am going to have to check this out. So what you're saying is the terminals themselves would have a VNC server running on them? Im using WYSE terminals by the way

[sgrinker]

Oh, then yes definitely. We are using Wyse V10L's here. Wyse Device Manager will allow you to remotely shadow the devices, but it's just standard VNC. I'm honestly not sure if/what the username and password settings may be, since I've just been using WDM for that purpose directly. To answer your question though, yes the Wyse devices have the VNC server running on them. I'm assuming you are using WTOS/Blazer though, as I don't know for certain if that is standard on CE or XPe.

[heybuzzz]

I use Zenworks...Yeah, I still have the flippin Novell client too.

[kreischl]

We too are a Novell shop, including Zenworks. Are you experiencing problems with the client or zenworks?

[tbrouwer]

Thanks guys, im now using remote assistance and it works great. I just fire this up in IE:

hcp://CN=Microsoft%20Corporation,L=Redmond,S=Washington,C=US/Remote%20Assistance/Escalation/Unsolicited/Unsolicitedrcui.htm

That way you can skip having the user send a request via email. Had to make a few adjustments to group policy to allow this also.

[heybuzzz]

ZEN ...It's a little slow, but so far it seems to be ok.

Are you seeing issues?

[kreischl]

As a matter of fact I found one this morning. With the Novell client installed (4.91 SP3 patched to latest post SP3 patches or public beta SP4) it takes forever to open the attached jump drive for browsing or to save/open files to it on the V10L that I am testing. Zenworks is not installed yet.

Are you using any Wyse terminals?

[heybuzzz]

No they're PC's. Never tried with thin client.

[tbrouwer]

This remote assistance is hit or miss. Really annoying. There has to be a better way that I can accomplish this as I cannot vnc to the terminals

[chouse]

Woa, that's AWESOME. That may be just what we're looking for.

[tbrouwer]

Does it work well for you? When I do it on a physical PC, it works fine. When I do it on a VDI user, the Remote Assistance window that comes up for them to approve just lags out and does the (not responding) crap at the top.

[chouse]

I just launched it from my laptop to 'assist' myself logged in via RDP to my VDI WinXP VM session.

It worked flawlessly. The remote assistance window popped right up on the VM and I approved the conneciton and then could control it from both sides. Very cool. Sounds like you've got some kind of connection problem.

[chouse]

We use zen/novell too - in the background - the GINA is MS as we are migrating to AD but we still use novell for groupwise & zenworks for software delivery. We are rolling it out to the IS dept first to see how well it works. Hope it works!!

[tbrouwer]

Very strange. I just noticed it works fine on any VMs on 2 of our ESX servers, but not the 3rd. I have not noticed any network issues whatsoever with the 3rd ESX server as everything else is fine. Weird.

[tbrouwer]

I take that back. I have narrowed the problem down to the UserID.

If a normal user is logged in, the RA times out and the Accept\Deny window on their VM just stays white.

If a Domain Admin is logged in, it comes up no problem and works great.

These users have administrative rights to their own VMs, any ideas?

[chouse]

Hmm, I was logged in as myself (domain admin) on the PC. I logged on as regular test user and it worked fine then too.

[tbrouwer]

Are you referring to the PC that was receiving the RA request?