save connection credentials

Hallo Hans,

This is an interesting use case. If I understand correctly, the current option to save credentials for a specific machine is not suitable because the target machine changes frequently, yet all of them can be accessed using the same set of credentials (same account is usable on different machines).

If there was a way to save credentials in such a way that when launching a new connection, you could specify which saved credentials to use, you would be able to connect to a large number of potentially changing machines without having to enter the credentials manually over and over again.

The current credential cache tries reusing past credentials associated with a specific machine (the target id you used to connect to the machine). To implement such a feature, we would either need a way to automatically determine which set of credentials to use, or provide a way of saving and selecting credentials to use for a new connection without necessarily adding complexity to the current connection flow. I will have to think more about it and come back with ideas.


Do you connect using the Wayk Den ID, IP address/hostname, or both?


Best regards,

Hello Marc-André

Thank you for your answer.

Exactly. Every IT employee owns an Administrator user (like a Domain Admin) to manage our infrastructure. These users are authorized as local administrators on all systems.

That's exactly what I've meant.

I see several possibilities (just some suggestions):

We mainly connect using the hostname. (Each computer is labeled with an inventory number that matches the hostname)

Let me know, if you need further information.

Best regards,
Hans

Hello Marc-André
Are there any news?
Another quick question:
Is it possible to log off (sign out) without losing the connection? (user switching)
Last time I checked, I lost the connection...
Best regards,
Hans

Hi Hans,

Sorry for the late reply. We've discussed a few ideas on how we could solve the problem for saving the connection credentials without binding them to a specific target, but we didn't get a chance to work on it yet.


As for the possibility of logging off without losing the connection (user switching) we are working on it, but it requires significant internal changes. It will come eventually but it is not possible at this point.

Best regards,

Hello Hans


We have two new features that we hope should solve this for you.


I'm not sure if you have tried it before, but Wayk Now has the option to bookmark connections (from the "Bookmarks" menu). You can now:


- Save a bookmark without specifying a target. When you open that bookmark, you will be prompted for the Wayk ID / hostname / IP you wish to connect to.
- Save a credential in a bookmark. When opening the bookmark, the saved credential will be tried first to login.


So you can create a single bookmark, but leave the target ID and unique ID fields empty. Add your admin user account credentials to the bookmark.


Now, when you open that bookmark, you will be prompted for the machine you wish to connect to, but you will not have to enter your credentials.


This is available now in the 3.1 release.


Please let us know if you have any questions or feedback about that.


Thank you!

Hello Richard

Awesome!! Works like a charm...
Thank you very much!

Three small improvements:

Thanks again, this is a major improvement for us!

Best regards
Hans

Hi Hans

We are really happy to know it's a good improvement for you! :drop:

With regards to "tabbing down" in the bookmarks window, I think that actually focus is properly set to the bookmark list, but nothing is yet selected. So try this: open the bookmark window, and press tab twice; then either press arrow-up or arrow-down, or start typing a bookmark name... The bookmark will be highlighted.

That said - having tested this, I found a regression where we can no longer launch the selected bookmark by pressing "Return". So you do still need to use the mouse to open the bookmark. I understand how annoying this is, and just it fixed for the next version.

I have also fixed it so the focus is properly set on the "Connect to" prompt. We had the proper behaviour on macOS and Linux, but I somehow missed the Windows client. Apologies for that; again, I understand how annoying these things can be.

With regard to the password being "viewable", I understand your concerns. In general, once the app is "unlocked", we do allow the user to view stored passwords (this is also true for the credential manager available via the Options window). We are planning to address this as part of a larger task to allow setting and enforcing administrator-level policies, so you can look for that in a future release.

Thanks again, and please feel free to post back with more feedback or questions!

Hi Richard

One more suggestion, it would be awesome if I could assign a shortcut (key) to the bookmark - like F3 or something like that...
Then I could start Wayk Now and instantly open up the Bookmark with the key defined.
That would be great!


Best regards
Hans

Hi Hans

Thanks for the suggestion. I'm aware there are several functions in Wayk Now that would benefit from having keyboard shortcuts. It's an area we plan to address.

I was also thinking of the capability to launch a bookmark from the command line or shell.

Thanks again,

Hi Richard

That would be highly appreciated! It would be awesome if I could specify the target machine using a parameter...

Something like:
wayk-now -launchBookmark XXXXX -targetMachine XXXXX
Regards,
Hans

Hi Hans

We already support setting that target machine and credentials on the command line. The existing parameters available are:

`target-id`
`target-host`
`target-port`
`target-user`
`target-pass`

However I note that it doesn't meet your requirements, since the `target-user` and `target-pass` properties do not allow specifying SRD authentication. And presumably, you would rather use the encrypted bookmark credentials in Wayk Now rather than have those credentials exposed in a script or whatever.

I have this on my todo list; we are preparing the 3.2 release now and it won't be available there. But in a future release we will add this, and I will let you know once it's available.

Please don't hesitate with any further feedback or questions!

Thanks,