Introduction
Workspot Control allows users to access remote resources via the Workspot Client and optional administrative access to Workspot Control itself.
Admin User Roles. There are three recommended levels of access to Workspot Control. These are:
Administrator (full access)
Support Admin (L2 support)
Helpdesk Admin (L1/helpdesk support)
Once a user is added to the Administrator or Support Admin role, they will receive an email to complete the registration by clicking the link provided in the email.
Legacy Admin User roles. In addition, there are two legacy administrative roles that are no longer recommended for new installations: Infosec Admin and Performance Admin.
End-User role. Finally, there is the End User role. End-users have access to Workspot desktops and apps but cannot log into Workspot Control
Most Workspot Control documentation focuses on the Administrator role, but this document focuses on Support and Helpdesk roles.
Summary of Admin Roles
The top levels of the Workspot Control UI give a hint about the differences between the roles:
| Administrator | Support | Helpdesk |
Monitor | All Workspot Control information. | Most Workspot Control information except Setup and User>Groups pages. | Information about a single user’s status, sessions, desktops, group membership, log entries, etc. |
Manage | All Workspot Control features, including all Support features plus creating and managing subscriptions, datacenters, templates, Connectors, desktop pools, RD App pools, applications, security, VPN, RD Gateway, users, groups, and policies. | A subset of Administrator features. Reboot desktops, remote assistance, send a message, log out users, wipe Client data. Add/remove individual users. Redeploy a user’s desktop. Change a user’s group membership, desktop/app entitlements. | A subset of Support features. Reboot desktops, remote assistance, send a message, log out users, wipe Client data. |
Contacting Workspot Support | Open/monitor support tickets with Workspot. | Open/monitor support tickets with Workspot. |
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As you can see, the Support Admin role omits the Setup tab. The Helpdesk Admin Role doesn’t display any top-level tabs at all. The Helpdesk admin types in a username in the search box and are given limited access from there.
Administrators can perform any Workspot Control action.
Support Admins have read-only access to most Workspot Control information (except the Setup tab). They see pages almost identical to those the Administrators see, but without the controls to modify Administrator-level items.
Support Admins can also perform many actions:
Manage individual desktops.
Manage individual users (Assign desktops and apps to user, Change Group membership, wipe Workspot Client data on user devices, log out users, reboot desktops).
Open support tickets with Workspot.
Support Admins cannot create or manage desktop or RD App pools, user groups, app bundles, policies, etc.
Helpdesk Admins can see information about just one user at a time.
Support Admins
The Support Admin role allows read-only access to most of the Workspot Control UI, except for the “Setup” and “User > Groups” pages, which is missing, and a few other elements.
Support Admins can make changes for individual users, including deleting a user, changing group, desktop, and application assignments, restarting, or redeploying a desktop.
What Support Admins Can (and Can’t) Do
The Support Admin role is designed for second-level support staff: administrators who are expected to make minor changes in Workspot configuration for individual users or to troubleshoot user issues.
Things Support Admins Can Do:
Add a user.
Delete users.
Edit a user’s details (user’s name, user role, group assignment).
Edit a user’s desktops and app assignments.
Redeploy a user’s desktop.
View most Workspot Control settings (but not “Setup” or “Groups” pages).
Reboot Workspot desktops.
Terminate Workspot client sessions.
Use Remote Assistance (with the end user's permission).
Send a message to the end-user.
Verify the user’s entitlements for desktops and applications.
List the Workspot Clients that have been used.
Examine status, performance, and log information.
Wipe Workspot Client data from a remote client.
Contacting Workspot Support to open or monitor a support request.
Things Support Admins CANNOT Do:
Define or modify datacenters, desktop templates, desktop pools, RD Gateways, VPNs, RD apps, Web apps, user groups, or policies.
View sensitive data, such as on the “Setup” pages.
Assigning the Support Admin Role
Every user record in Workspot Control has a Role field. An Administrator can assign the Support Admin role when a new user is created, or an existing user record can be changed on the “Users > Username > User Profile > Actions > Manage” page, as shown below.
Using the Support Admin Role
A Support Admin sees a Workspot Control UI that’s very similar to that seen by someone in the Administrator role. The major differences are the absence of the Setup tab and the fact that many pages are read-only, lacking the ability to change settings that are reserved for the Administrator role.
The example below shows the VDI Pools page for an Administrator (top) and a Support Admin (bottom). The Actions menu and Add Pool and Import Pool buttons are missing from the Support Admin’s view. The two pages are the same otherwise.
Typical Administrator page (top) and Support Admin page (bottom). The Actions menu is absent on the Support Admin page.
Helpdesk Admins
What Helpdesk Admins Can (and Can’t) Do
The Helpdesk Admin role is designed for first-level support staff: administrators who are expected to keep the existing Workspot users up and running with the existing Workspot configuration.
Things Helpdesk Admins Can Do:
Reboot Workspot desktops.
Terminate Workspot client sessions.
Use Remote Assistance (with the end user's permission).
Send a message to the end-user.
Verify the user’s entitlements for desktops and applications.
List the Workspot Clients that have been used.
Examine status, performance, and log information.
Wipe Workspot Client data from a remote client.
Things Helpdesk Admins CANNOT Do:
Add, delete, or modify users or resources of any kind.
View sensitive data, including lists of groups, lists of users, cloud subscription information, certificates, etc.
View event logs except for a single user at a time.
Contact Workspot to open or monitor a support request.
Assigning the Helpdesk Role
Every user record in Workspot Control has a Role field. An Administrator can assign the Helpdesk Admin role when a new user is created, or an existing user record can be changed on the “Users > Username > User Profile > Actions > Manage” page, as shown below.
Using the Helpdesk Role
When a Helpdesk Admin logs into Workspot Control, a Dashboard page is a show, devoid of any obvious administrative features. This is by design. The Helpdesk Admin is allowed to access data for a single user at a time, using the Search box at the top of the screen.
To select a user, start typing the user’s first name, last name, or email address. The auto-complete feature will show candidates who match this string.
Note: The auto-complete action isn’t instantaneous. You may have to wait a second or two before the list is fully populated with candidates.
Select the desired user. This will take you to the User Details page, which is the starting point for all Helpdesk Admin activities.
The User Details page has four sections:
User Profile
Entitlements
Current Sessions
Event Log Information
User Profile Tasks
The User Profile section begins with a read-only summary section, giving details about the user’s role, AD group membership, and other information.
After this comes Active Devices, which lists all the user’s Workspot Client devices, whether they are active or not.
Two actions are available for each device:
Refresh, which updates the status information.
Wipe Data, which erases all Workspot data stored on the Client. This would be used if the device were lost or stolen, for example.
Entitlements Tasks
The Entitlements section allows you to monitor which desktop pools and applications the user is entitled to. These are shown on the Pools and Apps tabs.
The Pools Tab
The Pools tab lists the desktop pools the user is allowed to use, plus information about each pool.
The Apps Tab
The Apps tab lists the Workspot applications the user is allowed to use. Additional details about each application are shown when you click the application’s name. None of this information is editable by the Helpdesk Admin.
Current Sessions Tasks
The Current Sessions section lists the currently active desktop sessions. Expanding the entry for a given session will expand the listing, showing much more information, including graphs (not shown) for network bandwidth usage, CPU and memory usage, and network round-trip time (RTT).
The Actions menu allows the following options:
Send Message. The Admin can send a message to the user’s Workspot Client screen.
Reboot VM. The desktop is rebooted.
Log Off. The user is logged off the desktop.
Remote Assist. The user is offered a Remote Assistance session.
Event Log Information Tasks
The Event Log Information section allows you to view all log entries involving the user. The timeframe can be specified, as can a search string, which is applied to all fields.
