HCHTech
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There is a single existing thread about this here.
My biggest client has asked me to start exploring the conversion of at least part of their office to a hot-desking setup, so I have some additional concerns that weren't discussed in the other thread.
My client has about 40 employees, 33 in the main location and 7 split among two remote locations. Their LOB apps and data footprint have put cloud-storage and access out of reach. When we refreshed their servers in 2022, we added a very well-specced R940 to host an RDS server (4x Xeon Gold, 1.1TB RAM, All SSD Storage, 50GbE connection to the network). The initial brief on the server refresh was to be able to support 100% of staff working remotely. They later changed their mind and kept their existing office space as is, so currently only the 7 remote users are using the RDS server. Everyone else has a dedicated computer in the office that they remote into over VPN when they are not in the office.
All users have M365 Business Premium, but currently they only use that for email & the desktop apps. They do a lot of data manipulation, so are heavy Excel users as well - regularly working with 3GB Excel files if you can imagine that.
Now, after more time has passed with them paying full rent on offices that are used maybe one day a week, they are reconsidering. This has caused them to revisit the hot-desking idea, which means we would need to provide folks the same experience whether they were working from home, or coming into the office using any one of a couple-dozen shared computers.
I'm thinking what makes the most sense here is to use the common computers only as a conduit to RDP into the RDS server when folks are in the office. They would RDP into the RDS server over VPN when they were working from home. Part of the conversion would involve copying the local folders (Desktop, Documents, Pictures, Downloads) to the new profiles on the RDS server.
However, I could also hook the individual users up to Onedrive for the local folders, I suppose, let their local stuff sync, then do the same on their profile on the RDS server. I'm not sure what that would buy me since the portability aspect would already be there if they use the RDS server from both home and office. Plus, it would put a lot more "syncing load" on the shared internet connection of the office. I think this "con" outweighs any "pro" of using OneDrive, but I could be short-sighted here.
Secondly, they obviously have a domain (none of the workstations are Azure-joined), so I think the shared computers would need to remain domain joined, and the "generic user" accounts for those computers would need to be a domain user. Would I just create a single generic user in AD for that purpose? Is there any problem with having that user logged into a bunch of different workstations at the same time? We have several things happening via Group Policy for users, mapped drives, network printers, etc. I'm thinking I would want to exclude the generic user(s) from those group policies.
Is it still reasonable to have a simpler password for the generic user? I really don't think so since this would be a domain user, but this isn't really a setup I've worked all the way through before.
Lastly, in the other thread there was the recommendation to have users only use the web apps for office. I don't think this is workable for the large Excel files. They take ages to open as it is in Desktop Excel, it would likely be much worse in the online app. Again, I haven't had this scenario before so I'm not speaking from actual experience.
What do you think - have I missed anything?
My biggest client has asked me to start exploring the conversion of at least part of their office to a hot-desking setup, so I have some additional concerns that weren't discussed in the other thread.
My client has about 40 employees, 33 in the main location and 7 split among two remote locations. Their LOB apps and data footprint have put cloud-storage and access out of reach. When we refreshed their servers in 2022, we added a very well-specced R940 to host an RDS server (4x Xeon Gold, 1.1TB RAM, All SSD Storage, 50GbE connection to the network). The initial brief on the server refresh was to be able to support 100% of staff working remotely. They later changed their mind and kept their existing office space as is, so currently only the 7 remote users are using the RDS server. Everyone else has a dedicated computer in the office that they remote into over VPN when they are not in the office.
All users have M365 Business Premium, but currently they only use that for email & the desktop apps. They do a lot of data manipulation, so are heavy Excel users as well - regularly working with 3GB Excel files if you can imagine that.
Now, after more time has passed with them paying full rent on offices that are used maybe one day a week, they are reconsidering. This has caused them to revisit the hot-desking idea, which means we would need to provide folks the same experience whether they were working from home, or coming into the office using any one of a couple-dozen shared computers.
I'm thinking what makes the most sense here is to use the common computers only as a conduit to RDP into the RDS server when folks are in the office. They would RDP into the RDS server over VPN when they were working from home. Part of the conversion would involve copying the local folders (Desktop, Documents, Pictures, Downloads) to the new profiles on the RDS server.
However, I could also hook the individual users up to Onedrive for the local folders, I suppose, let their local stuff sync, then do the same on their profile on the RDS server. I'm not sure what that would buy me since the portability aspect would already be there if they use the RDS server from both home and office. Plus, it would put a lot more "syncing load" on the shared internet connection of the office. I think this "con" outweighs any "pro" of using OneDrive, but I could be short-sighted here.
Secondly, they obviously have a domain (none of the workstations are Azure-joined), so I think the shared computers would need to remain domain joined, and the "generic user" accounts for those computers would need to be a domain user. Would I just create a single generic user in AD for that purpose? Is there any problem with having that user logged into a bunch of different workstations at the same time? We have several things happening via Group Policy for users, mapped drives, network printers, etc. I'm thinking I would want to exclude the generic user(s) from those group policies.
Is it still reasonable to have a simpler password for the generic user? I really don't think so since this would be a domain user, but this isn't really a setup I've worked all the way through before.
Lastly, in the other thread there was the recommendation to have users only use the web apps for office. I don't think this is workable for the large Excel files. They take ages to open as it is in Desktop Excel, it would likely be much worse in the online app. Again, I haven't had this scenario before so I'm not speaking from actual experience.
What do you think - have I missed anything?
