Reaching NEXT-GEN RDS resources (PC)
The MIS Academic and Research Technologies Group is developing a new next-generation Microsoft Remote Desktop Services (RDS) infrastructure to broker access to new servers in the lab. This is a beta-quality service. These RDS components allow a user to work on Windows-based machines running on the lab's servers via a remote connection.
The quality of this service is not guaranteed and support is limited to best effort only when resources are available.
Launching RDS Resources from a PC
These instructions are for Windows-based PC users. Please instead see this page if you need instructions for connecting from a Mac.
1. Open the McKeever Lab RDS web access site in your browser: https://rd.artg.arizona.edu/
2. For the domain\user name, put BLUECAT\your NetID. (For example, my userID is jmoeller, so I put bluecat\jmoeller here). Make sure to put backslash , not a forward slash, otherwise it will not work! For password, put your NetID password. Click Sign In.
3. You will need to confirm your login with NetID+/DUO two-factor authentication.
4. Now you will log into the Work Resources RemoteApp and Desktops page. On this page, you will be presented a list of remote machines that you are permitted to access. To begin working with one of them (in this example, we're trying to access the Lime - Office 2019 resource; the resource you want may have a different name), click on it to download the .RDP file to your machine.
5. After the file is successfully downloaded, click on it to launch.
6. The Remote Desktop Connection will ask you to trust the connection. You can verify that the Remote computer is MIS-RD22DCB1.BLUECAT.ARIZONA.EDU and the Gateway server is rd.artg.arizona.edu. You may want to click the checkbox to not be prompted to verify the connection's publisher in the future. Click Connect to trust the connection and continue.
7. Input your BLUECAT\your NetID and NetID password again, same as step 2, then click OK. This will attempt the login process.
8. Wait for the connection to be completed successfully. The first login can take some time.
9. Now your RDS resource is available to use.
More information about our RDS resources
Some other things you should know about machines in our RDS system:
- Please remember this is a beta system.
- Be sure to move your files out of the system if they are important to you. You may be able to use e-mail, copy/paste or a cloud service to accomplish this.
- When you're done using the machine, please Sign Out of the session. You can do this by hitting CTRL+ALT+END and Sign Out. Or by clicking on Start -> the hamburger menu in the upper left -> <Your Name> -> Sign out.
- We apply idle session limits to our machines. This is similar to a screen lock; when a user does not interact with the remote resource screen for a period of time (for example, 30 minutes), the connection will be terminated but the session itself will still be running on the remote computer. A user can log back in to the system to continue their work where they left off, so long as the session hasn't been disconnected for 12 or more hours.
- We apply disconnected session limits of 12 hours, to allow for resource preservation and maintenance activity to take place. This means that if you become disconnected from your session and don't reconnect within 12 hours, you will be logged out, and any work still running won't be saved!