Edit1 Summary
Occasionally remote support sessions will not have a live person on the other end of the connection. During those situations technicians require a process or tool set that permits non-permission based access to the target machine.
ScreenConnect Versions 2.0 and higher provide technicians the ability to open a secure/encrypted channel to unattended workstations and servers through firewalls via a customizable ScreenConnect installer. The installer once created and deployed does a call back to your ScreenConnect installation, listing the machine in the Unattended Sessions table of the ScreenConnect Host page.
 Unattended Support Sessions. |
Edit2 More Information
Edit2.1 Unattended Clients
Hosts can build both Windows Installer packages (.msi) and Mac installer packages (.pkg) to deploy ScreenConnect to remote machines. This permanently installs the ScreenConnect unattended guest client which is designed to connect back to your ScreenConnect server without any additional configuration.
Sessions will appear in the Unattended Sessions table once the remote machine connects back to your ScreenConnect server.
Edit2.1.1 Unattended Session Connections
The unattended clients need to know where to call back once created. The Build Installer button, by default, utilizes the URL in the browser when the client is created to determine that path. Therefore, it is important to make sure that your browser URL is something that will be available to your organization longterm. Dynamic IP addresses or computer names are not ideal but dedicated DNS URLs would be more reliable. If your URL is using or resolving to an IP address or computer name, you may want to modify a value in the
web.config file to ensure the unattended installer will point to the correct location going forward.
Open the web.config file and add the following entry in between the
and tags:
<add key="RelayAddressableUri" value="relay://YOUR DNS HERE/" />
This setting does take presedence over the URL as the correct path for unattended connections to call back when the client is built and deployed.
Edit2.1.2 Building and Deploying the Installer
Both files are built from the Host page, by simply clicking on Build Installer button. You may specify a label to identify the sessions when they call back.
 The Build Installer dialog. |
Both client types support fixed fields and environmental variables to refine how the machine is listed in the unattended client table. For example, a Windows installer using the default
%COMPUTERNAME% will result in the name of the computer being displayed in the Unattended Sessions table. Combinations of fixed fields and environment variables can be used:
- CompanyName-%ComputerName%
- CopmanyName-Department-%UserName%
- CompanyName-CLevelManagers-%ComputerName%-%UserName%
To install on the Guest machine, simply download and run the file. Once installed the Windows Clients will start automatically, the Mac client does require a reboot of the machine. Once the client is running it will call back and the defined machine name will appear in the Unattended Sessions table on the Host Page.
Tip: You can use the ScreenConnect Custom Toolbox to install the unattended guest client.Edit2.1.3 Naming the Unattended Session
Session labels can contain environment variables used to differentiate sessions from each other. If a single installer will be used on multiple machines, you must use fixed fields, environment variables, or a combination of the two that will resolve differently per remote machine. By default, ScreenConnect uses
%COMPUTERNAME%, which will name the unattended session according to the name of the computer for Windows, for Mac the creation and names of the variables are different and in some cases the .pilst file may need to be modified or appended before deploying the ScreenConnect unattended client.
Additional environment variables or labels can be given to the session to help with filtering. A technician may find it helpful to label the session with his or her name in order to quickly identify the session in the unattended table. For example, a technician named John Smith may choose to name his unattended sessions as
JSmith - %COMPUTERNAME%. For more on filtering, see
INFO-0019: Managing Session Groups.
Edit2.1.4 Connecting to a Remote Computer
To connect to a remote computer, simply select the check box next to the machine you wish to access and click the Join button.
 Joining an unattended ScreenConnect session. |
- Join the unattended session.
- View details, add notes to the session.
Edit2.1.5 Uninstalling the Unattended client
For Windows the Guest Client can be uninstalled via the Windows Control Panel, Add/Remove Programs feature. Uninstalling the Guest Service will terminate the unattended session for that computer.
 The ScreenConnect Guest Service in the Add or Remove Programs
wizard. |
For Mac the application can be removed via the unlink and forget commands.
- sudo pkgutil hyphen hyphen unlink com.elsitech.screenconnect.client
- sudo pkgutil hyphen hyphen forget com.elsitech.screenconnect.client
More on Uninstalling Applications in Mac OS X.
Edit2.1.6 Unattended Session Expiration
In addition to removing the Guest Service, an unattended session can be temporarily disconnected if the guest machine was turned off or not connected to the internet for an extended period of time. By default, the session will be removed from the host page after twenty-four hours. This can be configured by
editing the web.config and modifying the following line:
<add key="SelfInvitationExpireSeconds" value="86400" />
Replace 86400 with the number of seconds desired for the session to expire. If the connection is reestablished the machine will be re-listed into the unattended client table.
Edit2.2 Version 1.9 and earlier
While ScreenConnect is not designed as a remote access solution for managing unattended machines, this behavior can be simulated using the steps below.
- Start a session with each server or workstation using the normal method. It is suggested that you set the invitation to a Code and use the server name so that technicians will be able to differentiate each server the session list.
- Once you connect the server or workstation to the session, just leave them connected. Before a reboot on the server or workstation, our software will install itself as a service and startup automatically after the reboot. You'll just have to be careful not to end the session by pressing an "End" button in the session list.
Note: In ScreenConnect 1.2 and earlier, sessions will be lost if the ScreenConnect server is rebooted or the ScreenConnect services are restarted.Edit3 References