iDesktop Quick Start Guide

Introduction

iDesktop is a web-based desktop management software. It can help IT administrators more effectively manage and monitor desktops, servers, software applications and other devices.

Installation

Download and run iDesktop installer. Supported platforms include Windows XP, Vista, Seven, and Windows Server 2003/2008. By default, iDesktop server runs on port 9010, but you can change it to another port during installation.

After installation, you can bring up your web browser and go to http://localhost:9010 to access iDesktop.

Deploy Agents

iDesktop agent needs to be installed on desktops. Agents can connect to the server via secure SSL connection.

Ways to install agent:


Main User Interface

Dashboard Tab

Displays summary in portlet format. You can add/remove/move portlets, or drag and drop portlets to different locations.

Agents Tab

Displays the status of agents. For each agent, by clicking its small icons, you can do

Alerts Tab

Displays alerts and changes settings.

Menu Items:

Inventory Tab

Shows hardware and software inventory information.

Menu Items:

Software Deployment Tab

For installing/uninstalling software packages.

Menu Items:

Access Control Tab

For restricting certain functions on end-user desktops.

Menu Items:

Task Tab

For executing configuration tasks on end-user desktops.

Menu Items:

Ticket Tab

Helps administrators keep track of issues. A ticket can be associated with one or more devices.

There are two types of tickets: request and problem. A request can be a simple question or an incident, which is any unplanned negative impact on a service. A Problem is the underlying or root cause of one or more requests. A problem can be linked to one or more requests. If a problem is closed, all its linked requests are closed as well.

A ticket has four states:

Only users with admin role can close a ticket.

If a ticket's state is Resolved, and the requester has not responded within a certain period of time, the ticket is closed automatically by system.

If a ticket is in a closed state then all its fields are read only. Only users with admin role can reopen the ticket.

Admin Tab

It is for changing settings of iDesktop.

User Management

There are three types of users:
Administrator: has all the privileges.
Technician: can't add/remove other users; can't modify SMTP server settings; can't change session timeout value; can't close tickets ...
End User: only can view his/her own tickets. End user added by technician or administrator does not require email validation.

Email Settings

Configures SMTP server for sending out notification emails.

Recreate Agent

Recreates agent installer because the server parameters such as IP and port have been changed.

Agent Settings

Agent settings will be applied to all agents when they connect to the server.

Be careful with changing the IP, port or proxy info of the server. If any of the parameters are not correct, then agents will lose connection to the server and their settings have to be fixed manually.