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When users connect to Parallels RAS and establish a session, the session information is displayed in the Parallels RAS Console in the following locations:
The Sessions category (new since Parallels RAS 18.1).
The Sessions tab in RD Session Hosts, VDI, and Azure Virtual Desktop views (Farm > Site > RD Sessions Hosts > VDI > Azure Virtual Desktop).
The Session category displays user sessions for all available host types, including RD Sessions Hosts, VDI, and Azure Virtual Desktop. This is the place where you can view all current sessions irrespective of the type of a server hosting a session. Individual Sessions tabs display sessions for their respective host types.
When you select the Session category (in the main category list), the following two tabs are displayed in the right pane of the RAS Console:
Users: Lists user sessions for all available host type.
Resources: Lists currently running published resources (apps and desktops) from hosts of all types.
You can filter the lists in the Sessions category by clicking Tasks > Search (or clicking the magnifying glass icon) and specifying the criteria in one or more column headings. For example, you can filter the list on the Users tab by host type using the Source column, which can contain one of the following values:
RDSH: RD Session Host
VDI: Virtual desktop
RemotePC: Remote PC through VDI
AVD: Azure Virtual Desktop
The Sessions tabs display user sessions for their respective host types. To see sessions for a particular host, you can filter the list by host name.
Please note that when you open the Sessions category or a Sessions tab, some of the columns in a list may not be populated right away. This is because it takes some time to calculate these values. The examples of such columns include Logon duration, UX Evaluator, Latency. Simply wait a few seconds and the values will appear in the list.
Most of the information in this chapter is common to both the Sessions category and Sessions tabs. Specifics and differences are described where applicable.
The Resources tab in the Sessions category displays currently running published resources (apps and desktops).
Some of the notable columns in the list are:
ID: The published resource ID (as seen in the Publishing category).
Published name: Published resource name (as seen in the Publishing category).
User: Session owner.
Session ID: Session ID.
Session Host: Session host name.
Source: Session source (RDSH, VDI, RemotePC, AVD).
To perform a task on a resource, click the Tasks menu. Some of the tasks include:
Search: Allows you to filter the list using one or more columns (e.g. User, Session ID, Session Host, etc.).
Show user session view: Switches to the Users tab and applies a filter to display the session to which the selected resource belongs.
Go to published resource: Takes you to the Publishing category and displays the selected resource information.
Show information: Displays the resource summary info and the session information. The session information includes the same metrics as described in Session information.
To see the complete information for a specific session, right-click it and choose Show information. This opens the Session Information dialog where session properties are grouped by functionality.
The following groups are displayed:
Session Setup: Contains general session information.
Logon Details: Displays logon metrics that can be used to evaluate the logon process.
Session Details: Displays the current session state, logon time, in/out data size, and general session information.
Connection Details: Displays connection and authentication details.
User Experience: Displays metrics that can be used to evaluate user experience.
Client Details: Displays information about the user device and Parallels Client type and version.
Parallels RAS 18 introduces over 25 new session detail metrics available. The following tables give an overview of these new and some of the important preexisting metrics.
| Metric | Description |
|---|---|
* New since Parallels RAS 18.1
| Metric | Description |
|---|---|
* New since Parallels RAS 18.0
* New in Parallels RAS 18.0
* New since Parallels RAS 18.0
* New since Parallels RAS 18.0
To export the session information to a CSV file, click the Export button in the Session Information dialog and specify the location and file name.
You can also export session information from the main session list by clicking Tasks > Export. Note that depending on what is selected in the list, the following will be exported:
A single session — the information about that session is exported.
Multiple sessions — the information for all selected sessions is exported.
No selection — the information about all current sessions is exported. Exported CSV includes the exported session details along with export detail in the following format:
Session details (%Server type% such as RD Session Hosts) from Parallels RAS Farm %Farm name% and Site %Site name% exported by %Administrator% on %date% at %time%
| Metric | Description |
|---|---|
| Metric | Description |
|---|---|
| Metric | Description |
|---|---|
Session host*
Session host name
Source*
Sessions category only.
Host type: RDSH (even if its through VDI), VDI, RemotePC (through VDI only), AVD
Logon duration*
Time taken to logon excluding the time waiting on UI.
Logon duration breakdown*
Connection time
Authentication duration
Host preparation (inc. load balancing algorithm)
User profile load time
RAS Policies lookup
Group Policy processing
Desktop loading
Other
User Profile*
User Profile method in use: FSLogix, User Profile Disk, or Other (also contains additional information, such as error code).
UX Evaluator*
This is the time interval measured at the client between the first step (user action) and the last step (graphical response displayed).
Connection quality*
Connection quality rating (poor – excellent)
Latency*
Network latency
Transport Protocol*
TCP or UDP (over RDP)
Bandwidth availability*
Bandwidth availability as seen from the client
Reconnects*
Number of reconnects the current session suffered from inception (excluding graceful ones)
Last Reconnects*
Number of reconnects suffered from the current device session (excluding graceful ones)
Disconnect reason*
The last session disconnect reason
Session State
Active, Idle, Disconnected, etc
Logon time
Time and date when the session was established
Session Length
Time the session has been established
Idle Time
Time the session has been idle
Incoming Data*
Amount of data received from the client
Outgoing Data*
Amount of data sent to the client
Resolution
Session resolution
Color Depth
Session colors depth
Bandwidth Usage*
Bandwidth used by the client
Device name
Name of the device from which the session was established
IP Address
Client private IP address
Client OS*
The operating system on which the client is running
Client OS version*
The operating system version on which the client is running
Client version*
The Parallels Client version is use
Policy
The policy applied to the user session
To manage a session (or multiple sessions at the same time), select one or more sessions and then use the Tasks drop-down list to choose from the following actions:
Refresh. Refresh the list.
Disconnect. Disconnect the selected session(s).
Log off. Log off the session(s).
Send message. Opens the Send Message dialog where you can type and send a message to the session owner(s).
Remote control. Remotely control the selected user session. To establish a connection, domain or local Windows account credentials (whichever the user used to log in to this computer) of the current RAS Console administrator will be used. Note that the current user (specifically if it's the local Windows user) may not be permitted to connect to the remote computer. In such a case, use the Remote control (prompt) option (described below). See also the User session remote control subsection below for important information.
Remote control (prompt). Same as above but prompts you to enter credentials. Use this option when the current user credentials cannot be used to control a session.
Show processes. Display and manage running processes. See Managing processes below for details.
The Remote Control and Remote control (prompt) menu options (see above) allow you to shadow a user RDS session. There are limitations as described below:
Parallels RAS cannot shadow RDS sessions running on Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2. This doesn't work even with native tools.
The Tasks > Show processes option opens the Running Processes dialog where you can view running processes for one or more hosts.
Note: You can also open the Running Processes dialog by right-clicking a server in the main host list and choosing Show Processes. This will open the Running Processes dialog with a filter applied to it to display only the processes that belong to the selected host.
In the Running Processes dialog, use the Show processes from drop-down list to filter the list using the following options:
Selected Session. Displays processes for the session selected in the Sessions list.
Selected Server. Displays all running processes for the server on which the selected session is running.
All Servers. Displays all running processes for all available servers.
You can also filter the list by specifying a search criteria for one or more columns. To do so, click the magnifying glass icon (top right) and then type a desired text in one or more columns. The list is filtered as you type to match the specified criteria.
The Tasks drop-down list in the Running Processes dialog includes the following options:
Refresh. Refresh the list.
Kill process. Kill the selected process.
Go To Published Item. Enabled when you select a process that belongs to a running published resource. Brings up the main Parallels RAS Console window and navigates to the corresponding published resource.
Disconnect. Disconnect the session.
Log off. Log off the session.
Send message. Send a message to the session owner.
Remote control. Remotely control the selected user session.
The Monitoring Settings functionality allows you to add colors to thresholds to identify Warning and Critical levels for better aid to Administrators or helpdesk.
To configure monitoring settings, in the Sessions category or Sessions tabs, click Tasks > Monitoring settings. The dialog opens where you can configure settings for various session metrics:
Select a metric for which you want to enable color coding.
Specify a threshold in the Warning and Critical columns. The Warning threshold is denoted by the orange color. The Critical threshold is denoted by the red color.
If you want to see just the Critical color (red), then set both thresholds to the same value, in which case only the red color will be used when the threshold is reached.
When a metric with color coding enabled is below any of the specified thresholds, it is highlighted with the green color in the session list. When a threshold is reached, the value of a metric is highlighted using the corresponding threshold color (orange or red). Note that critical threshold value can be greater or equal to warning threshold value. In case both warning and critical values are equal then the critical color coding is used which is red.
Monitoring Settings are set globally, which means that other RAS admins will be able to see and change them.