minimizing first time setup steps
We are getting ready to allow a batch of users to RDM and wanted to reduce the amount of manual steps needed in both the account creation and the first-teime setup. We are publishing RDM via RDS, so we have full control over the environment RDM will be running. We also have Devolutions Password Server as the datasource and the location of the available licenses.
Ideally, we would prefer to be able to sync AD groups to allowed accounts, but I believe last time we checked, we still need to create the users and manually add them to the RBAC groups in Devolutions Password Server. I'm ok with manually adding them, but I would like for their RDM on first time setup to automatically add the datasource, license the product, and lead them through first-time MFA (using Google authenticator).
I've tried doing the settings export and putting that in C:\Users\Default\AppData\Roaming\Devolutions\RemoteDesktopManager as default.cfg. When exporting, I did not check save credentials (it should connect using Windows credentials). However, I don't see the first time setup being any different, the users are still needing to manually setup everything (point to DPS as license server, add datasource, etc.)
Has anyone found a way to minimize the first-time setup steps needed for users when using RDM with a DPS datasource (and license repo)?
All Comments (8)
Hello Paul,
In Devolutions Server, you can enable Automatic User Creation under Administration > Server Settings > Authentication > Domain. There, you can specify a security group so only members of that group will be automatically created, but it is optional. This way, you do not need to import your users manually, and they will be granted permissions via their user group(s). The users will be prompted to create their 2FA the first time they log in as well.
For more information: https://helpserver.devolutions.net/authentication_domain.html
As for the RDM data source and configuration, you can use the custom installer feature to create an MSI that contains the information: https://help.remotedesktopmanager.com/installation_custominstallermanager.html
Best regards,
Richard Boisvert
Thanks for the fast reply! The Automatic User Creation is a great feature and we will absolutely use it!
For MSI, they will be using published app servers (aka terminal servers) where the RDM application is already installed. Are there equivalent reg keys that the installer puts in place that I could use on the server?
Hello Paul,
My pleasure!
In that case, you can go to File > Options and select Export in the bottom left corner. It will give you an a.cfg file, the same that would be generated in the custom installer. You can use it on the TS afterwards.
Best regards,
Richard Boisvert
Right, that is what I tried (see original post) but it didn't take. Not sure if I was missing a step, or putting the file in the wrong location, etc.
Hello,
Since you seems to deployed RDM on Citrix, I would recommend following this article for the configuration
https://help.remotedesktopmanager.com/installation_terminalservices.html
Best regards,
Jeff Dagenais
Thanks Jeff, the instructions you provided was the same article that I used to create the default.cfg. It did not, however, specify where to save the default.cfg. I used C:\Users\Default\AppData\Roaming\Devolutions\RemoteDesktopManager as the folder and saved default.cfg within it, so that new users would start with a default configuration, but I am not seeing a reduction in the prompts for the first-time setup.
Hello,
Thank you for your reply.
On step 4 in the article, we recommend to save the default.cfg file under the RDM installation path. We understand that this step can be missed and I will verify if we can update the layout of the article.
About the prompts for the first-time setup, if you mean that you do not want to get any prompt when a new default.cfg file is created or when a new user use RDM for the first time, you can configure the registry-based policy settings for RDM. The following article provides information on How to Apply Policies. The policy related to the default.cfg file is Force the loading of the default.cfg file (%Root%\SOFTWARE\Policies\Devolutions\RemoteDesktopManager\ForceDefaultConfigurationLoading).
Let me know if that helps.
Best regards,
Érica Poirier
Closing this thread, once I put the Default.cfg in the installation directory, it worked exactly as expected. New users are prompted for MFA and then are right in. Very cool stuff. I can't use the auto user provisioning as I need different members of different groups to be in different roles, but I am very pleased with the OOBE for this. Thank you!