I’ve been working on an internal server inventory tool with a focus on including one-click shortcuts and other such tricks. What I wanted to do here today was to allow a user to connect to the listed server via Remote Desktop (RDP) with as much ease as possible.
I decided I’d take the approach of using an RDP file. I created a session using mstsc.exe and saved it to my disk. I opened the file in a text editor to see what was going on:
screen mode id:i:2
use multimon:i:0
desktopwidth:i:1680
desktopheight:i:1050
session bpp:i:32
winposstr:s:0,1,2213,277,3265,1015
compression:i:1
keyboardhook:i:2
audiocapturemode:i:0
videoplaybackmode:i:1
connection type:i:2
displayconnectionbar:i:1
disable wallpaper:i:1
allow font smoothing:i:0
allow desktop composition:i:0
disable full window drag:i:1
disable menu anims:i:1
disable themes:i:0
disable cursor setting:i:0
bitmapcachepersistenable:i:1
full address:s:woslabfiles
audiomode:i:0
redirectprinters:i:1
redirectcomports:i:0
redirectsmartcards:i:1
redirectclipboard:i:1
redirectposdevices:i:0
redirectdirectx:i:1
autoreconnection enabled:i:1
authentication level:i:2
prompt for credentials:i:0
negotiate security layer:i:1
remoteapplicationmode:i:0
alternate shell:s:
shell working directory:s:
gatewayhostname:s:
gatewayusagemethod:i:4
gatewaycredentialssource:i:4
gatewayprofileusagemethod:i:0
promptcredentialonce:i:1
use redirection server name:i:0
drivestoredirect:s:
Now obviously, I don’t need to impose all these options on a user. Thought I’d try to pare this down to bare necessities:
full address:s:woslabfiles
This single line, saved as a *.rdp file, will open a session to the listed address, which in my case was the intranet computer at short name woslabfiles.
Now we have about a thousand machines, and we add new ones regularly, so there’s no way I’m interested in making an RDP file for each. I need to generate these on the fly. The inventory I’m building is in a Microsoft MVC architecture, so sharing this code should be really short & straightforward.
I added a method called RDP to my controller that will handle spitting out the on-the-fly *.rdp. No real trick here, just some HTTP headers to tell the browser to download the file rather than open it inline.
namespace Inventory.Controllers
{
public class ItemController : Controller
{
public PartialViewResult RDP(int id)
{
// Load the server model
Item item = db.Items.Find(id);
// Make a filename out of the server name
String filename = item.Name + ".rdp";
// Set the MIME type and other appropriate HTTP headers
Response.AddHeader("Content-type", "application/octet-stream");
Response.AddHeader("Content-Disposition", ("attachment; filename=" + filename));
Response.AddHeader("Pragma", "no-cache");
Response.AddHeader("Expires", "0");
// Return the view file.
return PartialView(item);
}
}
}
And the PartialView file the controller returns—RDP.cshtml—is almost as short as the one-line *.RDP file above:
@model Inventory.Models.Item
full address:s:@Model.Name
I added a simple link to the controller in my server drill-down page:
A little styling in the CSS, with an icon:
.RdpLink { float: right; background: url(../images/rdp.png) top center no-repeat; }
.RdpLink a { display: block; padding-top: 50px; }
Voila!
