mapping local drives

[Henry E Schaffer <he...@unity.ncsu.edu>]

  A very nice feature of RDP is the ability to map the local drives -
i.e. the data storage - of the local computer to the VCL computer.

  It takes users a while to get used to this, before it becomes
"natural" to them to have it happen.  Once it does, then the ability to
click on "My Computer" or Windows Explorer and see on one display
C:\ for the VCL computer (for scratch *only* - more said below)
Whatever enterprise the VCL computer can see, 
the local computer's hard drive
any other storage on the local computer - including USB connected flash drives
any networked/enterprise storage which the local computer can access

is very useful, and becomes second nature.

  One thing the user must get used to is that the VCL computer's hard
drive will get erased at the end of the session.  Hence the need to
store all work on persistant storage if it is to be kept past the end of
the session.  So this needs to be emphasized in training.

  All of this applies equally well to both Windows and Macs using RDP.

  From what I've seen, the result is that users tend to avoid using the
VCL computer's hard drive.

  The custom at NC State is to also incude scp/ssh clients in the
Windows VCL images.  This can be useful, but very few Windows-only users
pay any attention to these capabilities.

  Last time I looked, the Linux client, rdesktop, didn't do this mapping
of drives.  For this situation, the ability to scp gives a very useful
replacement.  Also, Linux users aren't reluctant to use this.
-- 
--henry schaffer

Re: mapping local drives

[Henry E Schaffer <he...@unity.ncsu.edu>]

Josh writes:
> ... 
> Local drives can be mapped using rdesktop.  ...

  Great!  I'm going to try this out.  It's a major assist in capability
to those users who get to the VCL via a local Linux computer.

  Perhaps in the future this very small segment of the user community
will grow due to economic pressures and also since the Linux user
interface has been improving year by year.

  I used to use Linux a lot, however more and more I use my OS X Mac
because it gives me a unix base plus a IMHO wonderful user interface.
Since I can get the Microsoft RDP for OS X, I tend to stay with my Mac.

  I can afford to pay for this - i.e. economic pressures aren't driving
my decision.

  But many people aren't that insulated from economic pressures.  A
Linux "netbook" would provide a very low cost combination of local
machine capabilities with a VCL access capability.

--henry schaffer

Re: mapping local drives

[Josh Thompson <jo...@ncsu.edu>]

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On Thursday April 09, 2009, Henry E Schaffer wrote:
>   Last time I looked, the Linux client, rdesktop, didn't do this mapping
> of drives.  For this situation, the ability to scp gives a very useful
> replacement.  Also, Linux users aren't reluctant to use this.

Local drives can be mapped using rdesktop.  Here's part of the command I use 
when running rdesktop:

rdesktop -r disk:Z=/home/jfthomps,Y=/afs,X=/cdrom -r sound:local <hostname|IP>

You can even write a wrapper script that gets called by your web browser that 
will parse the RDP file and run rdesktop with the appropriate arguments to do 
an autologin.

Josh
- -- 
- -------------------------------
Josh Thompson
Systems Programmer
Virtual Computing Lab (VCL)
North Carolina State University

Josh_Thompson@ncsu.edu
919-515-5323

my GPG/PGP key can be found at pgp.mit.edu
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