Labtech, as we know is super powerful. Power, however, like any good super hero will tell you, is useless if you don’t know how to control it. In this post I’ll look at creating a way to prevent unauthorised access to remote machines which also serves as a good introduction to some of the more complex features within Labtech.
One of our clients at Oakson (we provide IT Support in Brighton, don’tcha know) wanted to ensure that no one could access any of their users PCs without the user approving it. They wanted this for all machines at several locations as well as the odd workstation at other locations. Welcome to the wonderful world of Custom Fields, Extra Data Fields, Searches and Groups (I think that’s everything).
A few basics
So first up, let’s cover a few basics. The ability to require the end user to approve a connection is found in the Templates section of Labtech. We’ll need to assign that to a group of computers, and assigning things to groups of devices is done by using the Groups function. We’ll need a way to dictate which machine receives our custom template, so we need to look at additional fields (for some reason also called Extra Data Fields in some parts of the UI). EDFs will allow us to have a tick box for each workstation to turn this feature on. Finally, we’ll need to find all the machines that have this ticket box set, and this is the job of a Search.
Templates, EDFs, Searches and Groups. Phew. Here’s an amazing diagram showing how it flows together.
I think you’ll agree my art classes are paying off.
Extra Data Fields
Let’s start down the road of chaos and create our additional fields, or Extra Data Fields.
- Click on the Dashboard icon and go to Config > Configurations > Additional Fields. On the Computers tab complete your details as below. I’ve specified a tab called Oakson. This will create a new tab in the device window with our custom, sorry, additional, sorry, extra data fields on it.
Make sure you set this to be a check box, we want this to be an absolute. Click Save when you are done.
Computer level EDF fields
Then do the same on the Location tab. Note that the field name needs to be different as the Name shown (ie the ‘label’) is also used as the field name. Horrid, but we have no choice. Having a Location level EDF will allow us to turn this feature on for either individual computers *or* entire locations. Again, hit Save when you are done.
Location level EDF fields
- Now we can test that the EDFs are showing. Open up a device and go to Data Tiles > then Extra Data Fields. You should see your named tab. In my example it’s called Oakson (have I mentioned we provide IT Support in Brighton, UK?).
EDFs on the device screen
Location level EDF fields
Open a location and click on Info and choose the name of the tab you created. There you’ll see your EDF.
So that’s the Extra Data Fields created. Dead simple so far. Next up, the Templates.
