How to Initiate Remote Assist for VDI Sessions in ControlUp and Upcoming Improvements to Global Search and Enrich Plugin

In ControlUp, currently the primary method to start a remote assist session for a VDI user involves navigating through the interface by selecting VDI > Details > drilling down to the specific pool, or by using the search grid to find a user, then right-clicking their session, choosing Session Management, and finally selecting Remote control. This workflow contrasts with some other remote support tools, such as ScreenConnect, which offer a global search feature enabling quick retrieval of any active session—physical or virtual—directly by searching the user’s name.

The new global search functionality in ControlUp primarily directs users to the session activity reports rather than live session data. This design choice was intentional to focus on long-term historical data rather than real-time session information. However, multiple community members highlighted the benefit of extending the global search to include live VDI sessions, which would allow quicker identification and management of active sessions and streamline remote assist workflows, particularly for VDI.

The need for this improvement is tied to efforts by some organizations to consolidate tools, replacing separate remote assist products with ControlUp. The current process for VDI sessions is seen as less efficient compared to physical endpoints, where the user’s device appears directly in the global search, facilitating straightforward remote control initiation. Adding real-time VDI session data to the global search would align ControlUp’s user experience with that of other remote support tools and simplify support staff workflows.

Additionally, the community suggested expanding ControlUp’s Enrich plugin—already valued for integrating with ticketing systems and enhancing remote support capabilities—to cover VDI environments. This expansion is confirmed to be on ControlUp’s roadmap and is expected to be developed later in the year, promising to further enhance VDI support operations.

For more detailed guidance on starting remote control sessions and using ControlUp’s search features, users can consult the official ControlUp documentation at https://docs.controlup.com and explore the ControlUp Academy resources at https://cuacademy.controlup.com.

Read the entire ‘How to Initiate Remote Assist for VDI Sessions in ControlUp and Upcoming Improvements to Global Search and Enrich Plugin’ thread below:

Hi all, is the only way to start a remote assist for a VDI session to go to VDI > Details > Drill down to the pool or use the search grid field and type the user’s name > Right-click session > Session Management > Remote control? I saw the new global search and was hoping that it would be a shortcut to getting to the user’s live VDI session, but it appears to take you to the report session activity section instead.

Today we use another product for all of our remote assist needs, and it has a global search feature that allows you to quickly pull up any active sessions when searching for a user’s name, whether physical endpoint or a VDI session. Our support staff has liked that much better than the workflow needed in the ControlUp console, but I would love to consolidate and get rid of the other remote assist product some day and only use ControlUp. I wanted to make sure I wasn’t missing anything with how to initiate a remote session quickly.

Hi Alex,
Thank you for bringing this up. Let me check who can help us with this

FYI

and Cc / as well
this is a cool feature request

Thanks everyone!

That makes sense. We picked reports as the go to place for global search because it provides long term results. Adding a search through live/real-time data for vdi would be useful for this use case.

for my understanding, would this be the final push for you to replace that other remote control product? Let me think about this one.

I think so. In ControlUp today its a little clunky to find a VDI user’s active session and initiate a remote control session. Less-so for physical endpoints since a user’s device will pop up in the global search and you can just click on it and then hit the remote control button. Getting active VDI session results in the search would mirror our other remote assist tool (which is ScreenConnect by the way).

Hi everyone, perhaps as a follow-up suggestion to that cool and very helpful feature request: our first-level support team loves the Enrich plugin. Especially when combined with our ticketing system, it significantly simplifies the workflow for remote support, metrics, and script execution.
It would be fantastic to extend the Enrich plugin to cover the VDI sector as well.

That’s an easy one, it’s on the roadmap and underway for later this year

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