Login Agents in VDI environments

[SteveWaters]

Folks;

I am looking at how customers and partners are using Login Agent with VDi systems and would like to get an idea as to scalability and the operational level of effort.

Thanks,

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Steve Waters
Platform Consultant
Blue Prism Professional Services
America/Chicago
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[SteveWaters]

I agree with Mayank.  I would avoid using RDP on these VM's if at all possible.  It complicates things since most environments are configured to run the Runtime Resource (automate.exe) script at login .  Login Agent would be expecting to login at a console level so the RDP login could cause confusion with BP.   Particularly if you have multiple sessions. 

I suggest rebooting the VM/VDI when you are done with your RDS session.

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Steve Waters
Platform Consultant
Blue Prism Professional Services
America/Chicago
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[ewilson]

I think there's another issue here though. More and more people are moving to VM's in the cloud (ex. Azure). In the case of those VM's, I'd say RDP is the most popular way to access to desktop.

Cheers,

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Eric Wilson
Director, Partner Integrations for Digital Exchange
Blue Prism
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[SteveWaters]

RDP is convenient but with multiple sessions it can cause issues. 

Awareness is key and rebooting after the session is a good practice.  A lot depends on the applications.  Most of the time it's not a major problem.  

If it is, an option is to use RDP to connect to a jump server/Bastion Host then connect using a tool like VNC..  The issue is the multiple sessions. Some automations work better at a console level.

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Steve Waters
Platform Consultant
Blue Prism Professional Services
America/Chicago
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[ewilson]

@Steve Waters​ are you talking about situations where multiple people log in to a machine using the same credentials, or just the generic situation of multiple people being logged in to the same Windows machine/VM (ie different user accounts)?

Bastion or even SSH (if you set up a X server on those machines) will certainly work as will direct VNC. As you said, it's a question of awareness as well as IT policies since some organizations may actually mandate the specific connectivity.

Cheers,

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Eric Wilson
Director, Partner Integrations for Digital Exchange
Blue Prism
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[ewilson · Accepted solution]

For those that are interested, the following function can be used to replace the existing GetLoggedInUsers() function within the Global Code section of the Login Agent VBO. This will return all users regardless of whether they're logged in via the console or an RDP session.

FWIW - This is VB.Net, but there's no code high-lighting option for VB on this platform.

Public Function GetLoggedInUsers() As ICollection(Of String)
    Dim users As New List(Of String)
    Dim moReturn As Management.ManagementObjectCollection
    Dim moSearch As Management.ManagementObjectSearcher
    Dim mo As Management.ManagementObject
    
    ' Retrieve a list of "explorer.exe" processes running on the system. Each logged in
    ' user session will have exactly one "explorer.exe" session.
    moSearch = New Management.ManagementObjectSearcher("Select * from Win32_Process Where name='explorer.exe'")
    moReturn = moSearch.Get

    ' Cycle through the returned process instances and get the owner of each.
    For Each mo In moReturn
        Dim arOwner(2) As String
        mo.InvokeMethod("GetOwner", arOwner)
        users.Add(arOwner(1) & "\" & arOwner(0))
    Next
    
    Return users
End Function​

Cheers,

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Eric Wilson
Director, Partner Integrations for Digital Exchange
Blue Prism
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[MayankGoyal2]

@ewilson - Thanks for sharing this, will try it. Meanwhile I will suggest to include it in standard Login Agent VBO so that there is a common standard solution used by everyone. Infact, if there can be a repository designed where all code snippets exchanged on community can be maintained as VBO with documentation, that can helping expanding BP reusable VBO.  ​

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Mayank Goyal
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[ewilson]

@Mayank Goyal the issue has been raised with the product team for inclusion in a revised Login Agent release, but in the meantime the code is available here for anyone that needs it now.

Cheers, ​

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Eric Wilson
Director, Partner Integrations for Digital Exchange
Blue Prism
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