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Terminal Services Log 3.5 is out with major new features

Frane Borozan — Wed, 09 Nov 2011 12:48:53 +0000

It has been almost a year since we first launched the completely redesigned, almost built from scratch, version 3.0. There have been numerous enhancements and new features since the launch, but today we are happy to present the biggest upgrade among 3.X versions – Terminal Services Log 3.5.

Split reports on published applications and server desktops

All users connecting to Remote Desktop Services can be divided into two main groups – ones that use applications directly on the server (published apps in XenApp or RemoteApps in Remote Desktop Services) and others who have their full server desktops.

When one analyzed users and application activity with the previous version of Terminal Services Log, one could see the overall stats filter by certain criteria, but was not able to split the ones that use published apps or server desktops.

Not only that the newest Terminal Services Log can split and filter the results, but it can also automatically detect all published applications and server desktops. That makes the new feature easy to use allowing you to filter only the sessions that use published apps.

Split report per Server desktop and Published apps only

Private and Global report views

Our customers wanted to create a predefined set of filters that would define servers as a logical farm, users as a logical organization et cetera. Such views could be save but every time you had to choose particular servers or users yourself.

Any combination of users and servers can now be saved and deployed as Private or Global view. Global view is available for all reports while private view is available only for the selected reports.

New Session count report and Private/Global views allow you to create personalized views

User management like Remote Desktop Manager and Citrix AppCenter

Your are familiar with the Remote Desktop Manager or Citrix AppCenter. They enable you to manage users and applications, and we decided to implement some of their functionalities and enhance them in Terminal Services Log, making TSL more than a reporting software only.

Session management implemented in Terminal Service Log 3.5. lets you assist end users, help them use remote desktop and terminate applications on a single and group level. It provides much more flexibility than RD Manager or Citrix AppCenter by enabling you to filter only a few users, applications or servers and perform session log off on the server/group level or, for example, kill all Internet Explorers in your farm.

Session management allows you to manage al users and application across almonitored servers

Click here to download new release.

Product version: 3.5.9.41105
Build number: 41101
Database version: 3.5.4.41101
Release date: Monday, November 7, 2011

Other new features

Session count report provides the same data as the Dashboard, counting all users across all servers displaying load per sessions in your farm.
Performance report that allows you to monitor hard disk utilization.
Merged report that combines user activities and applications in one place.
Ability to configure a real-time alert when servers go offline.
Option to select one e-mail to be sent daily/weekly/monthly/quarterly with a single schedule.
Choose which day of the week will be your starting day for receiving weekly reports.
Configurable empty e-mail, sent if there was no activity on the servers.
Check all server statuses at once with the server tab.
Warning about exceeding the database limit on Microsoft SQL Express.

Bug fixes

XLSX formatting was in a number format.
Adding users from the domain was slow, now there is a progress bar with import status.
Sometimes user activity would be zero.
You couldn’t import users that had special characters in the name.
You couldn’t search in OUs that had special characters in the name.
Anonymous sessions wouldn’t work correctly in the Professional Edition.
Export to Excel pivot in custom reports with time spent had issues.
CPU utilization sometimes was over 100% because of the bug in Windows performance counters.
Huge SQL database would sometimes timeout on upgrade.
When you disabled a job, the job would actually .
Session type filter was not working on the Dashboard.

Click here to download new release.

We’ve just shipped Terminal Services Log 3.4

Frane Borozan — Thu, 01 Sep 2011 03:25:00 +0000

We’ve shipped Terminal Services Log 3.4.0. It’s one of the “major releases”. The most important new feature is better filtering and ability to combine multiple filters with multiple selections in custom reports.

Click here to download new release.

Product version: 3.4.0.40715
Build number: 40715
Database version: 3.3.7.40615
Release date: September 1st 2011

Features

New custom reports conditions for better filtering of the reports. New filters include weekdays and organization units
Ability to use multiple conditions under same filter

Bug fixes

AD import for some domains was not working
Servers would go offline if AD import was enabled

Click here to download new release.

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Terminal Services Log Documentation

Frane Borozan — Tue, 02 Nov 2010 00:49:12 +0000

Terminal Services Log documentation is available on the documentation pages available at: www.terminalserviceslog.com/documentation

On the following pages you will be able to find:

Configure Audit Logon Events for Windows Servers and TSL

Frane Borozan — Mon, 11 Jan 2010 14:40:29 +0000

We are very excited about Terminal Services Log v2.6 release because it delivers some very interesting features for our existing and new customers.

One of the most interesting features is the ability to audit failure logons and file system actions. Audit logon events can be used to detect failure logons to your server, and detect hacker attacks and former employee failure logons. Terminal Services Log will report to you the user that is trying to logon, source IP address of the remote attacker and computer name of the attacker’s PC.

Auditing is a Windows Server feature that is configured via Group Policy. Every audit event is stored in the event log. We use the information provided in the Event Log and combine it with existing data (user activities, applications being used…) to create a central monitoring station for your Terminal Services / Remote Desktop / Citrix farms.

Here is the info on how to turn on the logon failure audit events for your server(s). In order to enable Audit Logs you need to:

Configure a Group Policy
Enable Audit Log collection in the Terminal Services Log

Configuring Group Policy

There are two methods how you can apply group policy. Login to your Domain Controller and check if you have Group Policy Management in the Administrative Tools.

Configuring Group Policy for a domain WITHOUT Group Policy Management feature:

Login to you Domain Controller with an account that has Domain Administrator privileges
Click Start, point to Programs, point to Administrative Tools, and then click Active Directory Users and Computers.
On the View menu, click Advanced Features.
Right-click Domain Controllers, and then click Properties.
Click the Group Policy tab, click Default Domain Policy, and then click Edit.
Click Computer Configuration, double-click Windows Settings, double-click Security Settings, double-click Local Policies, and then double-click Audit Policy.
In the right pane, right-click Audit Logon Events, and then click Properties.
Click Define These Policy Settings, and then click to select Failure
Click OK.
The changes you made will only take effect when the policy setting is propagated or applied to your computer. Complete either of the following steps to initiate policy propagation right now:
- Type gpupdate /force at the command prompt of a server and then press ENTER. The policy will be updated.
- Wait for automatic policy propagation that occurs at regular intervals that you can configure. By default, policy propagation occurs every five minutes.

Configuring Group Policy for a domain WITH Group Policy Management feature:

Login to you Domain Controller with an account that has Domain Administrator privileges
Click Start, point to Programs, point to Administrative Tools, and then click Group policy management
Click Default Domain Policy, and then click Edit (in case you have special policy only for terminal servers select that policy)
Click Computer Configuration, double-click Windows Settings, double-click Security Settings, double-click Local Policies, and then double-click Audit Policy.
In the right pane, right-click Audit Logon Events, and then click Properties.
Click Define These Policy Settings, and then click to select Failure
Click OK.

The changes you made will only take effect when the policy setting is propagated or applied to your computer. Complete either of the following steps to initiate policy propagation right now:

Type gpupdate /force at the command prompt of a server and then press ENTER. The policy will be updated.

Wait for automatic policy propagation that occurs at regular intervals that you can configure. By default, policy propagation occurs every five minutes.

Configuring Terminal Services Log

You need to enable collection of audit log data in the File > Preferences and you are good to go. Terminal Services Log will start to collect audit information from the event log on regular basis. Click here to check sample audit reports.

Terminal Services Log is now certified as Works with Windows Server 2008 R2

Frane Borozan — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 11:29:19 +0000

I am proud to announce that we completed yet another round of certification for Terminal Services Log 2.0, and achieved a new certificate Works with Windows 2008 R2. Works with Windows 2008 R2 indicates that the application passed Microsoft’s compatibility tests. Testing was performed independently by VeriSign a service of LionBridge. Our product has been tested Windows Server 2008 R2 Enterprise (x64) on Hyper-V.

Compatibility with the latest Microsoft Windows 2008 R2 platform, 64bit architecture and Hyper-V confirms our dedication to continuous improvement of the solution for our customers.

We also support Windows Server 2003 x32/x64 and Windows Server 2008 x32/x64.

Terminal Services Log 2.5 agentless – public beta

Frane Borozan — Tue, 06 Oct 2009 12:23:31 +0000

Hi everyone,

I am happy to inform you that we have a public beta of the TSL 2.5. Why is it so interesting? Because it now allows agentless monitoring of your TS / Citrix servers; no you only have to install TSL on one dedicated server in your domain. By using our product, administrators with mission critical systems don’t need to worry about application compatibility of their servers, and less software installed on the TS/Citrix means more stable and reliable systems.

If you would like to receive TSL Enterprise (That is how we call it ) please send us an email to sales@terminalserviceslog.com with Terminal Services Log 2.5 agent less – public beta as subject. Our support team will contact you ASAP and help you with TSL Enterprise installation.

Introducing Terminal Services Log Live DEMO via Windows 2008 RemoteApp

Frane Borozan — Wed, 04 Mar 2009 00:21:44 +0000

Requirements for opening a hosted application are Windows XP SP3, Windows Vista SP1 or Windows Server 2008.

If you have Windows XP SP 2 download the latest RDP 6.1 client from: http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=6E1EC93D-BDBD-4983-92F7-479E088570AD&displaylang=en

If you have Windows 2003 server:

Download RDP 6.1 client from above
After you downloaded this small 1,6MB package go to the folder where you downloaded it to and Right Click on the File, Choose “Compatibility” Tab and select “Windows XP”, click on Apply and OK.
Now you can start the installation without Windows saying it wasn’t meant for this OS.
After installation you will have RDP 6.1 on your Windows 2003 server.

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Announcing TSL Professional

Frane Borozan — Tue, 18 Nov 2008 21:27:16 +0000

Dear readers, we are happy to announce the release of a new product edition – TSL Professional.
TSL Professional includes the following new features:
• Centralized Monitoring of a TS/Citrix Farm
A comprehensive management interface enables complete, single-point management of the entire Terminal services/Citrix farm including all servers from any location.
• Scheduled Reports Delivery to Email
Powerful, intuitive and easy to use, it will save you the manual work of manually running reports.
• Enhanced Scalability
The new edition now allows you to store your product data directly to Microsoft SQL Server (2005/2008) database. SQL will allow you better scalability, performance and easy and powerful backup options.
• New report: Total Time on system by user
Active + Idle = Total time on system. Useful for reporting on how many hours particular users were connected to your terminal server.
• New report: Number of users per day
It shows the total number of users that connected to your server during one day.

We would like to hear you opinions about our product! Any feedback would be much appreciated.