Starting a remote control session from the server

About this task

You can start a remote control session from the BigFix® Remote Control Server when you select a target from any report displaying one or more targets. Some examples of these reports are

All Targets
to create this report, see Viewing all targets.
Note: This report also displays the userid of the user who is logged on to the target.
Recently Accessed
to create this report, see Viewing recently accessed targets.
Favourites
to create this report, see Viewing the favorite targets list.
Search Targets
to create this report, see Searching for targets.

The following steps detail how to start a session from the All targets report, for the others, see the relevant sections for displaying these reports then follow from step 2 below

To start a session, complete the following steps:

Procedure

  1. Click Targets > All Targets.
  2. Select the target.
  3. Click Start session
    The start session screen is displayed. This screen gives the details for the selected target including the version of target software installed and the policies and permissions that will be assigned for the session.
  4. Click the session mode button corresponding to the session type you want to start.
  5. When the Open or Save window is displayed, select open.

Results

The controller starts to run and the session is either accepted or refused.

If the session is accepted, the connection is established and the controller window is displayed, showing the target screen. The IP address of the target is displayed in the heading of the controller window. This is helpful for keeping track of who you are connected to if you have multiple sessions running at the one time.

If the session is refused a message is displayed .

Session refusal can occur for a number of reasons,

  • The target user has clicked refuse on the acceptance window, if user acceptance was required for the session.
  • The target user has not accepted the session within the given time. This is determined by the acceptance grace time policy and if the acceptance timeout policy was set to abort.
  • The target is already in a remote control session, in which case a message is displayed showing who is connected to the target.
For details of policies, see the BigFix® Remote Control Administrator's Guide.
Note:
  1. If the session mode buttons are not displayed on the Start Session screen and an error message is displayed the following cases can be the reason for this.
    • The user or target are not a member of any groups.
    • No permissions links are defined for any of the groups that the user and target belong to.
    • The target is offline.
    • None of the session mode policies have been set to Yes.
    For details of groups, policies, and permissions, see the BigFix® Remote Control Administrator's Guide.