Greetings friends and current Remote Desktop Commander customers! We’ve just released Version 3.0 of our Remote Desktop Canary solution. This new version now offers several sought after features, namely a Windows service based architecture, a scheduling engine for different types of tests, and automatic collection of relevant event log information from session hosts in the event of a RDP login or connection problem. In depth, this means that:
- Remote Desktop Canary v3.0 now runs as a Windows service. If the VM it is running on must be restarted for maintenance or other reasons, its scheduled tests will resume automatically according to schedule after it is rebooted. There is no longer a need to run the Remote Desktop Canary Kickstarter applet on a different VM to restart testing.
- You can now schedule different types of tests during different times of day, and you can schedule “dead times” where Remote Desktop Canary will not attempt any testing, such as during nightly reboots for updates.
- Remote Desktop Canary can now be configured to automatically gather diagnostic event log information from session hosts when a connection error is logged or a desktop cannot be loaded. This information is then included in alert emails to provide valuable context as to the cause of the problem (e.g. user profile/ FSLogix issues, group policy issues, etc.)
We also want to make you aware of some pricing changes that are coming in July of 2021, and extend an offer to you that will allow you to lock in your current pricing for up to another year, if you add new licenses or services with us now.
In this RDPSoft E-Newsletter:
All About Remote Desktop Canary’s New Service Based Architecture and Scheduling Engine
Configuring Remote Desktop Canary to Automatically Gather Diagnostic Information From Session Host Event Logs
Other New Features in Remote Desktop Canary v3
New RDPSoft Product Pricing and a Special Offer
Azure Virtual Desktop – Separate Fact From Fiction, and Look Past the Hype
Version 3.0 Upgrade, Purchase, and Demo Links
How Remote Desktop Canary’s New Service Based Architecture and Scheduling Engine Works
Ever since we brought Remote Desktop Canary to market, the number one additional feature our customer base has requested was for it to run as a Windows service, with a scheduler to control which synthetic tests against Remote Desktop Services and Azure Virtual Desktop environments run at what times.
After lots of research and development work, we are proud to announce that Remote Desktop Canary v3.0 now operates exactly this way. For a full explanation of how the Remote Desktop Canary service works, and some demonstration videos, please review our recently posted blog article here.
Gather Diagnostic Event Log Data From Your Session Hosts During a RDP Login Problem For Additional Context
In previous versions of Remote Desktop Canary, you would receive basic alerts if a connection broker or session host was not responding, or if it was taking too long to log in and reach a desktop. In version 3 of Remote Desktop Canary, you can configure *internal* workflows (e.g. tests running inside your network) to automatically gather errors and warning events from many different Windows event logs that may be diagnostically relevant to the problem at hand.
For instance, if FSLogix is taking a long time to load a user’s profile, if group policies are causing login delays, etc., Remote Desktop Canary will automatically include event log information that was logged around the time of the issue within the alert email it sends to you. This will give you immediate context as to the true problem, and should shorten the time it requires for you to fix the issue.
Other New Features In Remote Desktop Canary v3
We’ve added a few other features to Remote Desktop Canary v3 that we think you’ll enjoy. For instance:
- You can now set different stagger intervals for separate tests in various workflow files. What does this mean? In previous versions of Remote Desktop Canary, you’d set a testing stagger interval globally, which would control how many seconds Remote Desktop Canary waited between each test it launched in a specific workflow file. Now, you can configure this on a per workflow file basis. For instance, you may only want to wait 15 seconds in between tests when checking every session host during an early morning test, but later wait 1 minute in between daytime tests that verify connectivity to all of your collections and full desktop availability on your session hosts.
- We now include two additional versions of the SignedIn applet, which both allows you to test for the presence of OCR text that indicates a fully logged in terminal services session, and that also signs out that session automatically. There are now versions of the applet that sign out a session after only 15 or 30 seconds respectively, allowing you to schedule more tests in a given timeframe.
RDPSoft Pricing Changes, and Special Offers
In July of 2021, we will be introducing a modest price increase across all of our product lines. We have not raised our prices since 2017, and this price increase reflects the additional features we’ve added to all of our products since that time. Even with this small price increase, we will remain the most competitively priced total solution for RDS, Citrix, and AVD monitoring and management in the market.
We will be contacting our existing customers in July for an account review to explain our pricing changes and to present options so that our clients can save money and realize additional value, such as by converting their monthly subscriptions to annual ones or upgrading to our Complete Monitoring and Management Bundle.
That being said, if existing or potential customers make new software purchases or add additional licenses before July 1st, 2021, they can lock in our current pricing for another year until July 2022.
So, if you’ve been contemplating a new purchase or need to add additional licenses, please contact our sales team before July 1st, 2022 to make that happen, and to have a discussion about all of your options. We look forward to speaking with you!
Let’s Get Real About Azure Virtual Desktop
Yes, we’re an original Microsoft WVD AVD partner, and yes, we anticipate that this technology will grow over time, but it’s very important that you have a true understanding about the pros and cons of Azure Virtual Desktop before you consider migrating away from Classic RDS.
Our CEO and Microsoft MVP Andy Milford has now completed his blog series on Azure Virtual Desktop, which challenges a ton of assumptions about this new virtualization platform, and questions some of Microsoft’s motives around decisions like:
- refusing to make Windows 10 Multisession available outside of Azure,
- the inability to use AVD infrastructure components with session hosts located outside of Azure,
- the cost of AVD compute and Azure IaaS compute, as compared to running RDS on-premises or in a private cloud,
- various AVD licensing pitfalls, especially for MSPs and ISVs,
- the lack of native UDP support in the protocol stack,
- the lack of a financially backed SLA for AVD,
- Azure Active Directory as a single point of failure,
- and much more…
Here is the blog series in its entirety:
WVD – The Bloom Is Off The Rose – Part 1
WVD – The Bloom Is Off The Rose – Part 2
WVD – The Bloom Is Off The Rose – Part 3
WVD – The Bloom Is Off The Rose – Part 4
Remote Desktop Canary 3.0 Upgrade, Purchase, and Demo Links
To purchase Remote Desktop Canary online, please review our licensing model here, and choose the workflow quantity that meets your needs. If you have more than 5 collections or 50 RDS servers/AVD hosts, please click here to request a quote.
Request a web demo with an RDPSoft solutions expert to see all our solutions’ features in depth.