Large Screen Service Desk Monitoring Dashboard

Introduction

As a service desk manager you may wish to have a nice status overview of a number of selected servers. In your service desk office you can place a large dashboard with information gathered from a number of remote servers so that you can quickly take action if needed.

In the following example we will select [a number of computers] each with an installed Host and configure it to only share a defined part of its screen. The defined part of the Host screen contains the information that we want to be shown in our dashboard.

The computer that has the large screen attached for the dashboard will have a Guest installed and configured to automatically launch remote access to the selected Hosts and place the content from each Host in a defined area on the dashboard.

Host

In order for the Host to be able to only share a defined part of its screen you need to edit the file
%SystemRoot%\netop.ini

Type the following example and note that all numbers are absolute. The Host will only transfer screen content from the defined area.

[HOST]
RC_AreaEnable = 1   
RC_AreaLeft = 100
RC_AreaTop = 50
RC_AreaRight = 600
RC_AreaBottom = 450

For each Host that you want to monitor define the screen area that you want to transfer to the Guest.

Guest

Prepare the Guest for multiple connections and correct screen transfer mode. Type the following into the file
%SystemRoot%\netop.ini

[GUEST]
DisableViewPort=1

For each Host that you want to connect to create a Phonebook entry with the necessary information.
IP address to connect to:

Predefine logon credential for remote control:

You may want to protect the phonebook entry with a password:

Define the properties that tell the Guest where to put the Host screen content on the Guest's screen (dashboard). In the case shown below to the left only the x,y start point has been defined (500,0); height and width has been set to '0', but at the same time the setting "Host window fit" has been set to "do not fit". This will position the upper left corner at 500,0 and size the window according to the source window on the Host. If the various Host screen resolutions differ from the dashboard resolution you may need to play with these settings to get a satisfactory result: 

Configure the Guest to run in stealth mode to prevent it from appearing on top of the dashboard content. If you need to change its configuration unhide it by running the executable C:\Program Files (x86)\Netop\Netop Remote Control\Guest\showgst.exe:

Use a script to call the phonebook entries for automated connection to Hosts and have the dashboard populated in an automated way:

"\Server1; LAN (TCP).dwc"
"\Server2; LAN (TCP).dwc"

 Here is a dashboard consisting of two remote sessions with sample content: