Summary

NetSupport integrates with Microsoft’s Active Directory structure enabling you to centrally manage Client configurations and launch remote control sessions. By creating an appropriate Group Policy you can apply standardised Client Configurations to Client machines without the need to visit individual desktops.

To make the task a little easier NetSupport supplies a ready-made Administrative Template, NSMMASTER.ADM, containing the configurable options. When you install NetSupport the template is copied to the NetSupport Manager program folder.

Details

To Apply Client Configuration Changes via Active Directory

1.   At the Domain Controller, select the Active Directory Users and Computers tool.
2.   Decide at which level to apply the policies, domain or organisational. Right-click and select the Group Policy tab.
3.   Select the desired policy to add the NetSupport template to and click Edit,

or

Select Add to create a new Policy.

1.   In the Group Policy Editor under Computer Configuration, select Administrative Templates.
2.   Right-click and select Add/Remove Templates.
3.   Click Add and specify the location of NetSupport’s ADM file and click Open. The new NetSupport policy will be added.
4.   Click Close.

By default, each NetSupport policy option is disabled.

Each time you make a change to an option, the Group Policy refresh interval will determine when it is applied to Client machines. If a remote control session is not currently active, the Client will detect any changes to it’s own Administrative template and restart, applying the new settings. If a remote control session is open, the Client will restart at the next available opportunity.

NOTE: To enable certain configurations at the Client using the NetSupport ADM Template file you are required to enter an encrypted value, for example the Client Security Key policy requires an encrypted security key to be entered. When configuring this through the ADM Template file you cannot enter the security key in plain text this would not be recognized by the Client and so you have to enter the encrypted security key value into the policy.

In order to generate the encrypted values NetSupport has created a utility called the NetSupport Encryption Utility, which can be found in the Utilities folder on the NetSupport Manager CD. For further information on how to use the NetSupport Encryption Utility Click here

NetSupport Manager 9 also now Supports applying Client profiles via Active Directory. For more information on this please Click here

Launching Remote Control Sessions

NetSupport’s integration with Active Directory also enables you to perform a range of common remote control tasks.

In order to enable these features a NetSupport Manager installation must be performed by at least one user who has Domain Admin Rights.

1.   At the Domain Controller, select the Active Directory Users and Computers tool.
2.   Select the organisational unit where your computer accounts are held.
3.   Right-click on the required computer account and select the required NetSupport operation.

                           Remote Control:         Launches the Control and automatically opens a View Window to the selected Client machine.

                           Chat:                          Launches the Control and opens a Chat session with the selected Client.

                           Inventory:                   Retrieves a full Hardware/Software Inventory from the selected Client machine.