mkizer posted on May 23, 2008 12:00
If you routinely remotely connect to multiple servers or desktops throughout the day, it can become a bit daunting trying to manage all of the different windows on your desktop. One of the systems that I support (a Kronos Workforce Timekeeper installation) has 19 web servers in its production environment, and sometimes I have to have remote sessions to all of them simultaneously. With the standard Microsoft Windows Remote Desktop Client, this means launching the tool 19 separate times and having 19 windows cascading across my desktop...not pretty.
I have run across two outstanding open source remote desktop management solutions that should find a way into your IT toolbox.
Royal TS
The first application is Royal TS which deals strictly with remote desktop connections. Royal TS allows you to manage multiple remote desktop connections in a single window, using a tree-list of available and connected servers. The application is fairly configurable, allowing you to control all of the Remote Desktop Protocol (RDP) settings for each server including logon credentials. It is also very easy to organize your list of servers in the hierarchical tree-list, and even group them into folders.
I've used Royal TS for a quite some time and it is a polished and useful application, definitely worth a look. However, it does seem like development has stalled a bit (although work on a ground up rewrite is under way -- Royal TS 2, so I began investigating a highly recommended alternative.
Terminals
Terminals is similar tool to Royal TS, however it adds support for not only RDP connections, but also: VNC, VMRC, Telnet, RAS, ICA Citrix, HTTP and HTTPS. Terminals manages all of these connections using a tabbed interface and has many advanced features such as tags, built-in networking tools, customizable toolbars, etc. The interface isn't exactly polished and at times can be a little complex, but once you familiarize yourself with its features, you'll wonder how you ever worked without it.
Another system that I support (a PeopleSoft implementation) has many different environments setup for various testing scenarios. Each of these environments consists of Windows based web servers and Unix application servers. In Terminals I can open up a remote connection to the web server, a telnet session to the Unix server and even the actual web page for the PeopleSoft application...all within the tabbed interface of a single application. Not only that, but I can tag all of these various resources with the name of the test system and open them all up with a single click on the name of the tag (now, that is a time saver).
Conclusion
If you have any need to remotely access servers or desktops, I'd highly recommend either one of these tools. If your needs are strictly RDP based, then Royal TS is a solid choice. If you require more advanced features, then Terminals is worth the small learning curve (plus it still seems to be in active development).