Parallels Rds Monitoring: How To Check And Utilize It

Remote Desktop Services (RDS) is a crucial component of Microsoft Windows Server, enabling users to access session-based desktops. With RDS, organisations can publish Windows applications or the entire desktop to a remote client via the Remote Desktop Protocol (RDP). Parallels RAS (Remote Application Server) is a comprehensive virtualisation solution that enhances RDS. It provides an easy way to deploy and manage the entire infrastructure, at a significantly low price. It also has a flexible licensing model. Parallels RAS offers native, integrated FSLogix support, advanced load balancing, and native multi-factor authentication. It also provides comprehensive reports, allowing better management of a VDI/RDS environment.

RDS monitoring tools can help businesses track employee productivity

Remote work and distributed workforces have become the new normal for many businesses, and with that comes the challenge of tracking employee productivity. While managers traditionally had visibility into how employees spent their time in an office setting, it's not so straightforward when employees are working remotely or on the go. This is where RDS monitoring tools come in—they help businesses keep track of employee work and ensure productivity, especially when employees are not being individually monitored by their managers.

RDS monitoring tools can provide detailed insights into how employees are interacting with corporate resources and can help identify unproductive behaviours. For example, according to Forbes, 64% of employees access non-work-related websites daily, and 21% waste 2-5 hours every week. This unproductive time can impact a company's profitability. With RDS monitoring, businesses can track user activity, including the websites visited and the time spent on each website, helping to curb such unproductive behaviours.

Parallels RAS is one such tool that can be leveraged to enhance RDS monitoring. It provides comprehensive reports through MS SQL reporting services, allowing better management of a VDI/RDS environment. Parallels RDP monitoring logs show all sessions produced by users, along with active time, idle time, and disconnected time, enabling managers to check individual employee session activity. User reports provide detailed information on user connection times, devices used, and duration, aiding in monitoring employee performance and managing unproductive employees.

In addition to Parallels RAS, there are other RDS monitoring tools available, such as those mentioned in a Reddit thread. These tools can provide weekly reports on users, including login times, active hours, applications used, and duration of usage. While some tools offer more in-depth monitoring, such as screen recordings and keystroke logging, others focus solely on productivity reports, as requested by the Reddit user.

RDS monitoring tools can be invaluable for businesses, especially those with remote or distributed workforces, to track employee productivity and ensure efficient use of company time and resources.

Parallels RAS provides comprehensive reports for better management of a VDI/RDS environment

User reports offer detailed insights into employee activities, including all sessions produced by all users, along with active time, idle time, and disconnected time. This allows managers to monitor employee performance and address unproductive behaviour. Group reports provide similar insights but on a group basis, giving a broader view of interactions with the system.

Device reports give information on how devices interact with Parallels RAS, while server reports provide data on server health and resource usage, such as CPU and RAM utilization. Finally, application reports offer insights into published applications, allowing administrators to understand their usage and performance.

The Parallels RAS Console is a centralized location for managing the system. It allows administrators to publish applications or desktops, add terminal servers or VDI hosts, and make configuration changes. The console has a simple layout, with sections for categories, navigation, object properties, and notification displays.

Parallels RAS also offers a quick start guide, which includes steps such as publishing resources from a Remote Desktop Server and using the Parallels RAS Console to publish applications and invite users.

The solution is designed to enhance Microsoft's Remote Desktop Services (RDS), making it easier to deploy and manage the remote infrastructure. Parallels RAS supports major platforms and devices, including Windows, macOS, iOS, Android, Linux, and Google Chromebooks. It also provides additional features such as device redirection and multi-factor authentication.

Overall, Parallels RAS provides a comprehensive suite of tools for managing a VDI/RDS environment, with reporting features that offer valuable insights for administrators and managers.

Parallels RAS supports multi-factor authentication

Parallels RAS (formerly 2X) is application virtualization software that delivers centrally-hosted Windows applications to local devices without the necessity of installing them. It supports multi-factor authentication (MFA) in a variety of ways, including:

• Time-based One-Time Passwords (TOTP) with a free third-party app like Google Authenticator
• Integration with MFA providers like Azure MFA, Cisco Duo, FortiAuthenticator, and others
• OATH Hardware Tokens (TOTP & HOTP)
• OATH Authenticator App (TOTP & HOTP)
• OATH Security USB Keys (TOTP & HOTP)
• FIDO Security USB Keys (U2F & FIDO2)
• NFC Smart Card Readers
• Deepnet DualShield, which is natively built into the core of Parallels RAS and provides a rich user experience and versatile MFA methods

The ability to set up MFA in a variety of ways, some of which do not incur additional costs, helps to subsidize the Parallels RAS per-concurrent-user cost.

RDS monitoring can help businesses keep track of their mobile workforce

Remote work has become increasingly common in recent years, accelerated by the COVID-19 pandemic. This shift has made it more challenging for managers to keep track of their employees' work hours and productivity. This is where RDS monitoring comes in.

RDS (Remote Desktop Services) is a server/client technology that allows clients to connect to a server and access a full Windows desktop that runs on the server itself. This enables employees to work remotely while still having access to the applications and resources they need. However, it can be difficult for businesses to monitor their mobile workforce to ensure productivity and efficiency. This is where RDS monitoring tools come in.

RDS monitoring tools can help businesses keep track of their mobile workforce by providing insights into how employees are interacting with corporate resources. For example, RDS monitoring tools can track employee activities such as active time, idle time, and disconnected time, as well as device and OS information. This helps management monitor employee performance, identify unproductive employees, and improve overall productivity.

One example of an RDS monitoring tool is Parallels RAS (Remote Application Server). Parallels RAS offers comprehensive reports that allow businesses to better manage their VDI/RDS environment. It provides various types of reports, including user reports, group reports, device reports, server reports, and application reports. User reports, in particular, provide detailed insights into employee activities, such as connection and disconnection times, device information, and duration of usage.

RDS monitoring tools can also help businesses keep track of their mobile workforce by providing real-time data and analytics. For instance, businesses can track key metrics such as productive and unproductive apps, employee productivity scores, and most-used apps. Additionally, RDS monitoring tools can provide alerts and notifications to managers when certain triggers or keywords are detected.

In conclusion, RDS monitoring tools like Parallels RAS can help businesses keep track of their mobile workforce by providing detailed insights into employee activities, real-time data and analytics, and alerts and notifications. This enables businesses to improve productivity, efficiency, and overall performance, even with a distributed workforce.

Parallels RAS offers centralised management of end-user desktop configurations

Parallels RAS is a virtual application and desktop delivery solution that empowers organisations of all sizes to work from anywhere, on any device. It offers a simple digital workspace with a single console for administration, making deployment and management straightforward.

The Parallels RAS Console consists of several sections:

• A section that lists categories, which, when selected, populates the right pane with relevant elements.
• A section that becomes available only for the Farm and the Publishing categories, displaying a navigation tree to browse through objects related to the selected category.
• A section that displays the selected object or category properties, such as servers in a farm or published application properties.
• An information bar that displays the site the user is currently logged into and the user account being used for the connection.
• An information bar at the bottom of the screen that displays the most recent console notification.

The Parallels RAS Console also includes features such as the UX Evaluator, which provides a quantitative measure of the user experience by calculating the elapsed time between user interaction and the corresponding response. This helps administrators pinpoint issues faster and more accurately, improving root cause analysis and service delivery.

In addition, the Parallels RAS Console enables IT administrators to manage multiple customers (tenants) effortlessly, sharing access layer components while keeping customer data secure and isolated. It also offers granular access permissions, allowing administrators to restrict access to sensitive resources based on user, group, MAC address, IP address, and incoming gateway.

Overall, the centralised management capabilities of the Parallels RAS Console make it a powerful tool for IT administrators to manage and maintain end-user desktop configurations efficiently and effectively.

Frequently asked questions