Enhancements for Remote Desktop Environments

The NetMan Desktop Manager features described in this section expand the functionality of Remote Desktop Session Hosts considerably. They improve performance and resource usage, and provide for a better user experience. All of NetMan enhancements are optional – you can decide yourself which ones you need. NetMan Desktop Manager provides the following enhanced features:

•Remote Desktop Acceleration (RDA): NetMan's RDA uses special compression techniques to accelerate data transfer over RDP. It can make data transmission anywhere from 10 to 25 times faster over RDP. For details on configuring RDA, see "Remote Desktop Acceleration".

•Session sharing: Rather than opening a separate session for each application, session sharing permits the launch of multiple applications in a single session. This conserves your network resources. For details on how to activate session sharing, see "Session Sharing".

•Single sign-on: This mechanism is required if you want to store the user's credentials for faster subsequent login on Remote Desktop sessions. This way, the user need only log on to the local workstation; the credentials are then used for login on the Session Host as well. For more about single sign-on configuration options, see "Single Sign-On".

•Launch methods for sessions/Login methods for users: To adapt session calls to your environment, NetMan Desktop Manager offers a choice of methods for launching sessions with the NetMan Client. The different methods support various network clients for session launch. In addition, you can define sophisticated sets of rules to determine which launch methods are used by which stations. For details on defining launch rules, see "Launch Methods for NetMan Desktop Client". For users, NetMan Desktop Manager offers a number of login methods with the NetMan Client. For example, you can choose whether to permit anonymous users, or use local login data for the Remote Desktop session login. For details on defining login methods, see "Login Methods on the RD Session Host".

•Anonymous users: NetMan anonymous users permit anonymized Remote Desktop session login. Anonymous user accounts are needed in situations where explicit user accounts cannot be maintained; for example, on public terminals. To find out more about anonymous users and how to set them up in your system, see "Anonymous Users".

•Load balancing: Well-planned load balancing in a server farm can improve performance considerably in a Remote Desktop environment. NetMan Desktop Manager offers a classic load balancing-mechanism for Session Host farms. For thin-client environments, you can implement load balancing using either round robin DNS or the NetMan Session Broker. For details on configuration and use of load balancing, see "Load Balancing".

•Print in a Session: The need to print can present special challenges for the administrator of a Remote Desktop environment. To enable users to print from within sessions while keeping the process as uncomplicated as possible, NetMan Desktop Manager supports several methods. These are explained in the chapter entitled "Print in a Session".

•XenApp Support: In addition to Microsoft Remote Desktop Services, NetMan Desktop Manager also supports XenApp from Citrix. If you have one or more XenApp servers and want to support their clients, this is no problem for NetMan Desktop Manager. For details on integrating your XenApp servers in the NetMan Desktop Manager system, see "XenApp Support".