What seems to be the most popular and install friendly remote connection tool to use with KACE appliances in an Enterprise Higher ED environment?
I am looking at RealVNC Enterprise edition and Bomgar. Need something to use that is easy to install and deploy, can be configured to run as silently as possible on client machines, needs to tie in with everything KACE very well. Any and all recommendations are welcomed.
Answers (4)
We used Bomgar in a Higher Ed environment, without any issues works well. We have it install on 200 machines permantely (unattend access) and the 3000+ machines we just provide support via the bomgar portal page.
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Thanks for the feedback. - jyrgal 11 years ago
We use ultra VNC and push that out via the k1000 to the machines. The users see nothing. We have two pushes the one for Admin staff configures it to popup for user OK to connect, on the acad side we install so they see nothing when we connect. We also use smart sync for the teachers that want to view the students from the teachers stations
http://smarttech.com/Solutions/Education+Solutions/Products+for+education/Software/SMART+Sync
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this runs as a MI on all machines with the kace agent. We used the MSI creator to create the two custom install msi's
https://sites.google.com/site/dev4webapps/apps/development/vnced/vnced-app-related/ultravnc-msi-creator - SMal.tmcc 11 years ago -
At the risk of sounding like a fanboy, check this out. You can have multiple sessions at once (tabbed). And there's a monitor view where you can see many screens at once. Check out the 30 day trial and run it on a couple of machines. The nice thing about this is you don't need a server or an appliance to get it off the ground. Just a single install of the Suite or RC program and then it will do the agent work for you as you connect.
http://www.goverlan.com/#Goverlan-Remote-Control-Software
FYI you can use 3 different protocols. Goverlan proprietary (best quality), RDP, and VNC. Enjoy! - GeekSoldier 11 years ago-
So.. Love me some Goverlan!! Have you had any luck at all getting it configured to work with Mac clients at all? I can't find any support for that on their website and it is looking like a strictly WIndows program. - jyrgal 11 years ago
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As far as mac/linux capabilities, you're limited to the VNC connection option. You'll have to configure VNC capabilities on your Macs that you manage. You should be able to do this via KACE. Once this is done you should be able to automate the machine action to remote control your Mac clients using this protocol. If you're having trouble I'm sure that Goverlan support would assist. - GeekSoldier 11 years ago
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Have you tried this out yet? That's one aspect of Goverlan I don't get into very much just because the Macs I manage are around the corner from the IT department so we walk to them. You'll have to let me know how well it works. Also you should know that version 8 is just around the corner and may have improved functionality. - GeekSoldier 11 years ago
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Actually I have not. I posted another reply to you below. I put it in the wrong place making it hard to see I think? Sorry. I don't actually have KACE on my campus yet. KACE engineer is coming this week to begin preparing our server farm for KACE world. I am just gathering all the information i can at this point. Hence my questions I have posted so far. Looking forward to trying it out though and I will definitely post about how I implemented it and if it is working, worth it, that kind of thing. - jyrgal 11 years ago
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These are the machine actions you will want to use to launch directly from the K1000 inventory for GoverLAN.
"C:\\Program Files (x86)\\GoverLAN v7\\goverrmc.exe" KACE_HOST_IP
or
"C:\\Program Files (x86)\\GoverLAN v7\\goverrmc.exe" KACE_HOST_NAME
You will need to be using internet explorer to employ machine actions (with proper Active X controls assigned). I use firefox with IE Tab to use mine. Otherwise you can type the IP in manually to remote in, but who wants to do that? - GeekSoldier 11 years ago
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Awesome. Thanks for the heads up. - jyrgal 11 years ago
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Awesome feedback from all. Again I love this site. I will begin to post more about how and what we use to make everything efficient here in my neck of the woods. - jyrgal 11 years ago
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Awesome. I was hoping that would be the case. To give you a little more light on where I am at right now with KACE. We have engineers from KACE coming to our campus this week to begin the implementation of KACE. Then in a couple weeks I will actually have a KACE console to work with and play. So, again many thanks for the info. - jyrgal 11 years ago
Bomgar. I'm not sure if this still exists, but worth a shot? We needed more than two licenses.
http://www.kace.com/partners/~/media/Files/Partners/Bomgar-Free-License-EN.ashx
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I used this in a K-12 school district. I also use it now in an University/Hospital environment. - dugullett 11 years ago
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It does still exist, but I beg to differ on being user friendly. - GeekSoldier 11 years ago
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This would be my recommendation. So far its been pretty dreamy for us. Its a whole lot more stable than any VNC client we could get working. - Ben M 11 years ago
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Actually, this may not be what you want. I didn't notice the "silent" part of the question. Bomgar is not silent, or at least if it is then I've had astoundingly poor luck at finding that feature in any of the manuals. - Ben M 11 years ago
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I agree the Bomgar solution is best of breed for features. I think they have a ways to go from an integration standpoint with the K1000 and the service desk. That said if you don't choke on the price tag a Bomgar box and the enterprise appliances (because the standard sells itself short) then I would go for it. There are other solutions on the market that are very effective for much less money. - GeekSoldier 11 years ago
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Glad to hear your assessment. I use Bomgar hear in my environment a lot already. And I must say I agree with you on the features aspect and also the configuration. Can be a bear. It is ultimately a little too expensive and it will be a deal breaker for me if it does not integrate with KACE well. Thanks for the input. I love this site! - jyrgal 11 years ago
I use Goverlan in my environment. It comes in 2 different modes. You could get away with RC alone, but we opted for the Admin suite for the AD management aspects.
http://www.goverlan.com/#/Goverlan-Remote-Administration-Solution
or
http://www.goverlan.com/#Goverlan-Remote-Control-Software
Remote control can be configured to be a machine action. This works very well as of right now. In v8 there's supposed to be support for vPro if you want to leverage the hardware level KVM. The price is in the sweet spot too. Each Admin license is roughly $699.00 and the RC license alone is $399.00 far under the price for addional licensing on a Bomgar appliance.
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Very interesting. I am checking this one out. Thanks. - jyrgal 11 years ago
