Securus on Terminal Servers

[Butuz]

Anyone know if Securus works on Terminal Servers? I.e detects each individual session on the server?

 

Butuz

[eejit]

It does yes. You may need to get a different client from them though and I think that you need to alter the registry "run" key to include "/citrex"

 

Better off contacting them for the latest info - my experience is a few years old.

[wlaidlaw]

Where do I start....

 

Yes it does detect each session on the Terminal Server, and runs a copy of securusn.exe per user.

 

However, in our experience this is where the good news ends. We used to regularly get an error saying the DB was corrupt on the TS, requiring securus to be removed form the TS and re-installed. I would say we used to get at best 3 days between having to re-install. (Don't forget as you need to switch to install mode to do this, so there should be no users on the TS).

 

We also had an issue where a Sophos process was interacting with a Securusn process even after users had logged of. This meant that the user's registry was hung open until the terminal server was rebooted. You would have to do the maths based on your usage pattern, but here that resulted in over 150 profiles being active on a TS at the end of the day! We had to implement nightly reboots then run delprof to remove these hung profiles.

To be fair to all companies, this issue may have been down to our config, but no solution was found by any party.

 

The last issue was with securusn processes consuming excessive CPU cycles when the users session became idle. I never got to the bottom of the issue entirely, but it seams that when a thin client blanked the screen (in a screensaver kind of way), the session was marked as idle on the TS. The securusn.exe process running in the context of the user would then use all available cycles on it's processor. In our case 4 processes like this and the whole server stopped as it was at 100%.

I don't know why this happened, but technical support never got to the bottom of it before it made our TS system unusable.

 

 

Like I have said above these are my experiences and may not be representative - just a report of what I saw.

 

If anyone wants any more info, feel free to PM me.

[Butuz]

Thanks for your experiences - I am arranging a 2 week trial now - so we can see if it works well with my terminal server - or not!

 

Butuz

[jonesy]

We have it working fine here. Just put the normal client on your terminal server and edit the registry entry to add the securus server IP:

HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Windows\Current Version\Run

In the Securus Network Client entry add the IP of your securus box between securusn.exe and uselocaldrive

[Netman]

Thanks for your experiences - I am arranging a 2 week trial now - so we can see if it works well with my terminal server - or not!

 

Butuz

 

I'd really appreciate knowing how you get on... going to thin client this year for the first time and would not want to be without Securus... TIA...

[Butuz]

Yeh I'll let you know how I get on. So you use securus now Netman? Have to admit I am a bit worried about the overhead of running it - i.e suddently having lots of incidents to investigate.

 

Butuz

[Netman]

Yeh I'll let you know how I get on. So you use securus now Netman? Have to admit I am a bit worried about the overhead of running it - i.e suddently having lots of incidents to investigate.

 

Butuz

 

I helped the developers beta test it and have used it ever since... I don't think it has too much of an admin overhead - I have my techs check it regularly and flag anything worrying up to me... we would just pass most things on the relevent member of staff to deal with.

You do get alot of rubbish reported, but you soon learn to be able to spot the wheat amonst the chaf...

Feel free to shout if you need any info...

[GrumbleDook]

We are at the end of our trial now and it has been very interesting. We didn't do the big blitz of warning students as most of them think we know everything about what they do anyway, but being able to have proof was good.

 

I now just have to think carefully whether to go with them or to spend the money on a remote control solution a la Ranger Remote Desktop, etc.

[Edu-IT]

I think Securus is a great piece of software. As Netman says it does pick up some false violations but it doesn't take long to sort through these. One button press and they're gone. Edited February 25, 2008 by Edu-IT

[Butuz]

That's good to know! Got Securus Rep coming tomorrow for a chat.

 

Thanks all!

 

Andrew

[Butuz]

Oh well he wanted more than a chat! He brough a Securus box and we set it up for a trial. So far looks very impressive - just need to reboot my Terminal Server after 3pm so it picks up the client software & the firewall change I made to GPO (needs UDP port 87 open).

 

Admin interface is clear and easy to use - the system seems very powerful - i've done a few tests so far and been impressed:

 

1) opened regedit - securus picked that up and flagged it as a major hacking concern

2) swore alot in MS word - securus picked that up too

3) typed in kill you and securus picked that up as bullying.

 

It even lets you filter websites, and group workstations, and group time into a timetable so you can see what lessons have the most incidents etc (dinnertime!)

 

Butuz