Configuring the Verba Desktop Agent

Owned by Kiss, Mate
Jul 31, 2018
5 min read

The Verba Desktop Agent enables several advanced features:

  • Agent View
  • Recording pop-up
  • Screen recording
  • Auto-pause for PCI DSS

Prerequisites

Most of the Verba Desktop Agent functionalities relies on the Voice recording. For the Voice recording configuration see Step 3 at this article: Configure

The Agent View feature requires the hostname of the dekstop PCs to be resolvable from the Media Repository server.

The Windows user name of the users have to match to the Verba user ID. The user's extensions have to be associated to the Verba user.

For the installation steps of the Verba Desktop Agent see: Installing the Verba Desktop Agent

If the desktop screen recording is required then the Media Foundation (Windows Server 2012 or newer) / Desktop Experience (Windows Server 2008 R2) feature have to enabled on the Media Repository server where the Desktop Agent uploads the recordings to.

Configure the Desktop Recorder Configuration Profile

Since in most cases multiple Desktop Agents are installed and all of them needs the same configuration, the Desktop Agent should be configured at profile level.

Step 1 - In the Verba web interface go to System \ Configuration Profiles then select the Default Desktop Recorder Configuration Profile.

Step 2 - Click on the Change Configuration Settings tab. Expand the Desktop Agent section.

Step 3 - Under the Basics section provide the Recording Server hostnames with the correct port (HOSTNAME:PORT) at the Recording Service(s) setting. If there are multiple Recording Servers then they can be separated by comma.

The ports for the different recording services are:

Verba Passive Recorder Service (SfB/Lync, Passive): 10000

Verba Unified Recorder Service (Cisco, IPTrade, Speakerbus, Avaya, SIP): 10031

Verba Cisco Central Recorder Service (Cisco legacy): 10003

Step 4 - Under the Verba Connection section provide the Verba Web Interface URL at  the MR HTTP API Server URL setting.

Step 5 (Optional, only for Screen Recording) - Under the Storage Management section. For more information see Configure media file upload

Step 6 (Optional, only for Agent View) - Under the Basics section set the Enable Silent Monitoring setting to Yes.

Step 7 (Optional, only for PCI DSS) - Under the Auto-Pause section web URLs and Windows controls can be configured.

 Auto-Pause Configuration

Auto-Pause can be configured based on web URLs and Windows controls. When web URLs configured, the Desktop Agent going to stop the recording when the URL opened in a web browser. When a Windows control configured, the Desktop Agent going to stop the recording when the focus is on the specified control.

For the web URL based auto-pausing specify the URLs at the Auto-Pause Recording on URL setting. It works with partial match.

For the Windows control based auto-pausing specify controls at the Controls to be Discarded in Focus setting. The format is: process_name|parent_class|parent_id|parent_caption|control_class|control_id|control_caption|mute_voice. The process_name and mute_voice (0/1) parameters are mandatory. For example NOTEPAD.EXE||||||Notepad|1 for not recording when the notepad is started. Properties can be checked by Spy++ or WinSpy++ tools.

Step 8 - Save the changes by clickin on the  icon.

Step 9 - If there are already installed Desktop Agents, then a notification banner will appear on the top. Click on the click here link, so you will be redirected to the Configuration Tasks tab. Click on the Execute button in order to execute the changes.

Configuring new Desktop Agent installations

The configuration is have to be sent down to the new Desktop Agent installations. The following steps describes how to apply the configuration on the new agents:

Step 1 -  In the Verba Web Interface go to Administration > Verba Servers menu.

Step 2A (if the Desktop Agent doesn't have database access) - If the Desktop Agents don't have databse access, then they have to be added to the server list manually.

Click on the Add New Verba Server link. Provide the hosname at the Hostname setting, set the Role to Desktop Recorder, set the Configuration Profile then click Save.

Step 2B (if the Desktop Agent have database access) - Select the PC from the list.

Step 3 - Go to the Change Configuration Settings tab.

Step 4 - Select Use configuration only from the central database, then click Start.


Step 5 - A notification banner will appear on the top. Click on the click here link, so you will be redirected to the Configuration Tasks tab. Click on the Execute button in order to execute the changes.

Changes can be execute at once at the end. In that case don't forget to click on 'Check All'.

Deploying multiple Verba Desktop Agents

It is also possible to deploy multiple Verba Desktop Agents using pre-created configuration. For the details, see: Deploying Multiple Verba Desktop Agents

Starting the Verba Screen Capture Multiplexer Service

If the desktop screen recording is required then the recorded video files have to be multiplexed with the recorded audio files. This is done by the Verba Screen Capture Multiplexer Service on the Media Repositroy (or Single) Server. The Media Foundation (Windows Server 2012 or newer) / Desktop Experience (Windows Server 2008 R2) feature have to enabled on the server.

Step 1 - In the Verba web interface go to Administration > Verba Servers > Select your Media Repository (or Single) Server  > Click on the Service Activation tab.

Step 2 - Activate the Verba Screen Capture Multiplexer Service by clicking on the  icon.

Step 3 - Click on the Service Control tab tab.

Step 4 - Start the  Verba Screen Capture Multiplexer Service by clicking on the  icon.

Configure extensions

After finalizing the configuration of the recording services, make sure you have added the extensions you want to record to the Verba extension list. This can be done manually (Extension list) or using Active Directory Synchronization.