help desk program

[sandyt]

Can anyone recommend  a program (which will run under openvms 8.4) to let our support personnel help remote vms users?

Thanks

[MarkOfAus]

I have to say, this is a pretty vague question.

What do you hope to achieve? Help remote VMS users, how? By connecting to their terminal? Their computer?

I could keep guessing.

There are various tools on the freeware cds, have you checked there? (Thinking along the lines of hglogin etc)

[Hoff]

OpenVMS has no provisions for RDP/VNC/ARD server support in the default installation (and no such servers are even available AFAIK), and no integrated "connect to the help desk" mechanism, which means remote access is usually via VPN or ssh access or some other site-specific pathway, or sometimes access via remote X, though that doesn't provide screen sharing.  Screen sharing into an intermediate system is sometimes used, but that tends to be clunky and slow.  Screen captures and email are also sometimes used.  Maybe an outboard video link and a voice line — Facetime or otherwise — if the camera resolution is high enough.  

TL;DR: It's rare to be doing screen sharing with OpenVMS.

[MarkOfAus]

If this is really about remote desktop help, then surely using Remote Desktop Connection for MS Windows or VNC for Linux/Unix/OSX is the answer.

[Peter Barkas]

You may wish to consider:

Advanced Systems Concepts - Watch

Networking Dynamics -Peek & Spy

[Shael Richmond]

We have used Peek & Spy from Networking Dynamics for this functionality for years.  Works great.

Shael

[The_Doc_Man]

If your end users are coming in through a Windows app such as, say, Reflection, you might be able to use NETMEETING for this.  You would have to have your Help person look at what the terminal sees, not what the O/S sees, but one could argue that such a viewpoint is probably better oriented towards understanding the customer's problem anyway.