MeshCentral - Agent updates, Scaling, ChromeOS, View-only sharing, Mobile improvements

Once again in the last week there have been huge improvements to MeshCentral. While many of the changes are visible to MeshCentral users, the focus this week will be on internal changes that are not seen by anyone but are important to making things work smoothly. The two big internal changes are the addition of a second independent way of updating the Mesh Agent remotely and big scaling improvements in how MeshCentral accesses the MongoDB database for massive speed and scalability gains. Another notable feature is Mesh Agent support for ChromeOS when in debug mode. This week, many of the improvements are thanks for Bryan Roe who released a much-improved Mesh Agent and installation and update infrastructure. In details: 

  • Dual agent update path. One of the most complicated parts of MeshCentral is the agent which must support many different platforms and be capable of self-updating correctly on all of them. Starting with MeshCentral v0.7.48, there are now two independent ways of performing an agent self-update. The normal way has the server push the update to the native C code of the agent, the new alternative way involved the JavaScript running within the agent performing a HTTPS pull of the new agent and performing the update. This improvement along with a new agent self-update stress testing system should offer more reliability when testing and deploying agent updates.
  • MongoDB speed and scaling. With the latest versions of MeshCentral there should be a significant speed boost to the server when under load and when used with the MongoDB database. New versions of MeshCentral will now queue up many types of basic database record read, writes and removals and perform MongoDB bulk operations. Under load, the database will now receive significantly fewer but larger queries. In our testing, this leads to a huge 10x to 100x speed boost to the server, with higher speed gains when the server is under load. This should allow MeshCentral to scale a lot more or offer better performance on smaller compute instances.
  • ChromeOS support. The MeshCentral agent now supports installation on ChromeOS devices in debug more. The agent will install itself correctly so that it can auto-start on platform boot and offer remote terminal and file services. In this configuration, no remote desktop is possible. Note that installing the Mesh Agent on a Chrome OS device in debug mode is not typical but will be useful for developers that need this capability. 
  • View-only remote desktop sharing. Since last year, MeshCentral has the ability for users to create time limited remote desktop sharing links that you can give to someone to remotely access your desktop. This week, we added the ability to offer a view-only link so that you can send a link to someone and have them view your desktop. This feature when paired with the desktop multiplexor feature can allow someone to share a remote desktop with many people at once easily. 
  • Mobile applications improvements. The remote desktop view on mobile got many improvements since the start of the year. You now see user consent messages; you can now select which RDP session to view if many are present on the remote device and you can now customize keyboard shortcuts. The combination of all these new feature means that the mobile app now has many of the same features as the full desktop web application. 

In addition to this, MeshCentral has many more bug fixes and improvements. As usual, feedback is appreciated. If you see any problems and need support on something, please create a new issue on GitHub or help other users. If you have not done so already, visit the new portal at https://meshcentral.com, it looks great.

Enjoy!
Ylian
MeshCentral: https://meshcentral.com
Blog: https://meshcentral2.blogspot.com
Twitter: https://twitter.com/meshcentral
Reddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/MeshCentral/
GitHub: https://github.com/Ylianst/MeshCentral/issues





Popular posts from this blog

MeshCentral - Windows ARM64, NodeJS v11, NPM Packages

Image
Hi all. It's been a while since I last posted and now that I am settling a bit more in my work at Microsoft, I have a bit of time to occasionally look after MeshCentral again. It's about time, there where a bunch of things that needed to get fixed. Before that, I want to say that I am doing great. I am working on Microsoft Forms which is one of the offerings of Microsoft 365. For kicks, I started a YouTube channel on Microsoft Forms here during a Microsoft hacking week. I tried to up my game since the videos I last published for MeshCentral. Also, I wanted to share pictures below. I was at a Tesla Supercharger last weekend and, by luck, got to see a Tesla Cybertruck in person. It's very big. Obviously, this is a release candidate driven by a Tesla employee. I saw it after attempting to see the solar eclipse over Oregon, but sadly, too many clouds and saw nothing. In any case, back to MeshCentral. In the last few months a few things have happened with the new releases. Wind...
Read more

Starting work at Microsoft

Image
Hi everyone. It’s been a while since the last blog post and I wanted up update everyone on what is going on. As many of you know already from a discussion on GitHub , Bryan and I have been laid-off from Intel in early November 2022. This was quite a surprise as MeshCentral, MeshCommander, MeshCMD and other tools where widely used. This said, Intel has been having poor financials and Bryan and I where part of a very large first wave of downsizing by the company that involved many people that I know and worked with for a long time. I had been working for Intel for over 25 years having started in September 1998. Over the years I worked on IPsec key negotiation, Universal Plug & Play, DLNA and Intel® AMT. I loved working on all these projects and especially loved working with the open-source community on Mesh projects. Obviously, this was not my decision and Bryan and I had look for what comes next. One option was to continue working on MeshCentral as part of another company or with...
Read more

MeshCentral - New Windows Agents - Installation Dialog, Customization and Server Lock

Image
Lots is going on with MeshCentral, just yesterday Bryan Roe released a new MeshAgent for Windows with many improvements. An improved installation dialog box, logo customization and, to continue MeshCentral’s leadership in security, a new agent code signing locking feature that will surely be used by many to improve trust and security of their MeshCentral installation. In addition to this, we have many more server improvements to cover. In detail: MeshAgent with improved installation dialog box . The new MeshAgent for Windows is much improved with months of changes and bug fixes. The most noticeable feature is by far the new installation dialog with the new logo and connection details button. The new installer is a lot friendlier and easier on end-users. MeshAgent with improved customizations . In addition to all the existing agent customizations available in prior versions, the MeshAgent has new server settings for the installation text and logo. You can now set your own 200x200 PNG c...
Read more