[hetfield]

Hi,

I am trying to find a way to audit who is logged in to a server, how long they have been logged in for and what the idle time is. We are running a mixture of Server 2003/2008 environments but our remote server is running 2003.

I'd like to be able to specify dates/times to retrieve this information when needed. The main purpose is to ensure staff who are 'working from home' are actually working and not 'working'. Is there a piece of software, or a setting I can use or turn on to get this kind of info?

Any other suggestions would be great!

Thanks.

[wullieb1]

Have a look at http://www.observeit-sys.com/

We're looking at implementing it in our org to safeguard what happens to servers.

[Ossian]

Moved to TS forum for better response

[yuval14]

You can use Quest monitoring tools or

http://www.lanaudit.net/product/13/t...server+monitor etc.

[Dumber]

Well I work a lot from home, probably more from home then from the office.
For sure I'm sometimes going to do things like grocery or such, but still I probably work about 50-60h a week. Secondly I never use my VPN to my office, in fact I'm mostly connected to my VPN within the lab environment. Personally I've no use of the business LAN

I do think it's also a matter of trust from the management towards the employees. Companies who implements flexible working strategy shouldn't manage based on the number of hours, but on performance. That's a different strategy which also my management needed to learn. After all, it's more important the job is done then someone is reading the newspaper on the office.

Therefore I'm not in favor of using monitoring software as it would make a violation of trust. Simply because I could open Word or whatever and put some weight on my keyboard to fake user input. At least I've user activity which would prevent me from falling into an idle session.

Recording screens or sessions might violate the privacy from the user by law, depending in which country, and you probably need to tell the users they are videotaped.

[simonsays]

I know this is a technical forum, but i agree with Dumber on this.
Having worked somewhere that used to regularly re-watch staff working (using Spector) it does appear to cause low moral more often than not.
Some staff are often more concerned about making mistakes and spending too much time researching problems then concentrating on their work freely.
As pointed out; log on, off and idle times can be adhered to anyway if someone wanted to make out they were working when they weren't.

[wullieb1]

While i understand what you guys are saying, and if it were me then i wouldn't do it, its not what the OP wanted.

For all we know this could already have been hashed out by the management team and HR and this is what they want.

[simonsays]

Originally Posted by wullieb1

While i understand what you guys are saying, and if it were me then i wouldn't do it, its not what the OP wanted.

For all we know this could already have been hashed out by the management team and HR and this is what they want.

Fair point!

[tehcamel]

there's also Spector360....

[Dumber]

Originally Posted by wullieb1

While i understand what you guys are saying, and if it were me then i wouldn't do it, its not what the OP wanted.

For all we know this could already have been hashed out by the management team and HR and this is what they want.

Although this is a technical forum, I do think you should point them on the other side of the medallion when there is no mention of it. IMHO a lot of system administrators want to see to much although there is no need for it.

If it is hashed out, then well there are indeed certain solutions. However implementing a flexible working strategy do require a change of mind from the management as well. Management from my company found it quite hard to adapt it, but they did.