Session Recording

Session Recording is a XenDesktop platinum feature that allows for the recording and playback of ICA sessions. Configurable via a Session recording policy, a session recording can be initiated based on the user/group, application, or server that is launched. Session Recording leverages the ICA Thinwire protocol and stores these recordings in a Citrix proprietary format that is fairly lightweight in file size. Using the Session Recording Player, an authorized administrator can search and playback recorded sessions for further analysis. Session recording is supported for Server VDA. Director 7.6.200 was mainly focussed on integration with Session Recording.

Director Integration

With release 7.6.200, Director is integrated with Session recording. The integration enables an authorized Director user to set the Session Recording policies from Director. The session recording integration is available with the Platinum edition of XenDesktop.

Configuration

How do we configure Director & Session Recording to work together?

  • Install Director using XenDesktop installer.
  • Open command prompt and runĀ C:\inetpub\wwwroot\Director\tools\DirectorConfig.exe /configsessionrecording command.
  • Provide the Session Recording Server IP/host name in the Server name field.
  • Provide the desired connection type. Enter 1 for https connection and 0 for http connection. Use https connection type to maintain secure connection

(Certificate configuration: For https connection to the Session Recording Server, install the certificate to trust Session Recording Server in the Trusted Root Certificates of the Director Server)

  • Provide the port which is configured on the Session Recording Server

More details on how to setup the Session Recording Server and its components please visit here

The Session Recording configurations can be removed using the same utility by /unconfigsessionrecording command line option.

C:\inetpub\wwwroot\Director\tools\DirectorConfig.exe /unconfigsessionrecording

Authorization

Who all are authorized to perform Session Recording Actions on Director?

On Director, the session Recording actions are available only if the Director user has appropriate privileges to modify the Session Recording policies.Ā The privileges to modify the session recording policies can be set on the Session Recording Authorization console as shown below

Session recording actions from Director

Director supports Session Recording actions in two places. They are user details page and Machine details page.

  • Session Recording per user:

User level actions enables\disables recording of all sessions for a specific user. This is available on the activity manager page as well as the user details page of Director.

  • Session Recording per machine:

This actions enables\disables recording for all sessions on a specific machine. Machine details page support machine level Session Recording.

The Session Recording actions performed on Director will add a rule in the current active policy of the Session Recording Console. The Session Recording policy console reflects the rules set from Director on the next refresh.

User Page

Session Recording can be Enabled\Disabled for a specific user from the Activity manager\User Details Page. This will create a rule which denotes record all sessions for the selected user on all supported servers.

Actions supported: Three actions are supported in user details page. They are: Enable recording with notification for a User, enable recording without notification for a user and disable recording for a user.

The current active policy name is fetched from the Session Recording Server and is available on the Policies Panel on the User Details Page with other XenDesktop Policies.

When Session Recording is OFF for the user
When Session Recording is ON for the user

The Machine Details Panel shows the Status of the Session Recording with respect to the specific machine (and not the user)Ā 

What is Session Recording with notification?

If Session Recording is enabled with notification, then during the login of an ICA Session the user will get notification about the session being recorded.

If Session Recording is enabled without notification, the session will be recorded silently, without the user noticing it.

Ā 

Machine Details Page

Session Recording can be Enabled\Disabled for a specific machine from the Machine Details Page. This will create a rule which denotes record all sessions for the selected RDS machine.

Actions supported: The actions which are supported in machine details page are: Enable recording for a machine and Disable recording for a machine.

The status of the Session Recording Policy for the machine is shown in Machine Details Panel

Note: The rules set from Director (and from the Session Recording Policy Console) will not affect the recording behaviour of current sessions and will be taken into effect for the subsequent sessions, for machines as well as users.

Summary:

With the integration of Session Recording and Director, help desk admins are able to start the recording of a user session from within the Director. i.e., Help Desk admins are able to set the policies of Session Recording within the Director for enabling the recording of an ICA session.