Control Your PC from ANYWHERE! - Pulseway Showcase
Linus Tech Tips
·Linus Tech Tips
·2019-05-06
·
1,221 words · ~6 min read
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No matter who you are, whether you're an IT administrator,
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a computer enthusiast, or just a regular old gamer,
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there's probably been a time when you've needed
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to do something remotely on one of your systems,
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and you're not in a place where it's very convenient,
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whether it's power cycling, updating your software,
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or just troubleshooting a program.
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But if you're like me, services like TeamViewer
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never fully scratched that itch
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due to limited functionality
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or the dreaded commercial use suspected shutting you down.
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Thankfully for us, the guys over at Pulseway
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offered to sponsor a video showcasing
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their management software,
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and we thought it'd be a great fit for you guys.
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So let's check it out, shall we?
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Here on the roof of our building, because why not?
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So Pulseway is what's known as an RMM,
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or remote monitoring and management software,
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which sounds really, really, really boring.
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But there's more here than meets the eye.
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So the main idea behind Pulseway
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is simple but powerful computer mesh.
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Oh crap, that still sounds boring, doesn't it?
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Okay, no, no, wait.
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So once you've installed the Pulseway software
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on your system, systems, or like your entire office space,
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although we recommend using their deployment tool
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for that last one, you'll be in full control
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of those devices using bare control interfaces,
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and you can do it remotely.
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So we're gonna start with the web version
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and save the best, the Pulseway app, for later.
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So let's get started. So we're gonna start with the web version and save the best, the Pulseway app for later.
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So we're gonna start with the web version and save the best, the Pulseway app for later.
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So we're gonna start with the web version and save the best, the Pulseway app for later.
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Once you've logged in, right away,
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you're gonna be greeted by a list of the systems
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that you set up earlier.
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In our case, we installed it on a couple
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for demo purposes here.
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First is our patent-pending Google wrecker,
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followed by our Steam caching server, Jake's Workstation,
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and then of course, our main production storage server, WANIC,
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because who doesn't test software
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on their most mission-critical machine?
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Yeah, well, it's your idea.
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Clicking on any one of them is gonna reveal a ton of more
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of monitoring goodness.
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So by default, there's actually quite a few unique controls
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and monitoring, like, we'll call them tabs
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that you can play with.
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So here, we can see CPU usage, RAM,
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the temperature of the individual cores of our processor,
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what motherboard it's running,
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and even what BIOS version that the system is running.
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So you'll know which units,
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like let's say you've got a whole deployment
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of a bunch of systems,
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you can tell which ones need updating
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against security vulnerabilities,
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like Spectre, for example.
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You can also view the total and remaining space
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on your drives,
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view and kill specific processors,
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like say if they're pegging the CPU at 100%,
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rendering it unusable,
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and you can even send a test print page from that system
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to see if the printer is actually broken,
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or if it's just yet another ticket
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from like that one dude in accounting
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who doesn't know the difference
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between printing to a printer and printing to a PDF.
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Like, this is, there's no option to save this.
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Export to PDF.
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Wait, don't you think that should be,
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there's not an option to do it on here.
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Oh, did I mention that you can view, execute,
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and schedule updates with it,
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even down to specific types?
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And that's all before you even go into the features
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that aren't enabled by default.
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So with network monitoring,
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we can see who's using up all the bandwidth,
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torrenting at work.
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And with the notification system, this is really cool,
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we can go through the literally 12 tabs
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of different notification options that can be customized,
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on a system by system basis,
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so that for example, you'll be notified
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as soon as your server room sets on fire,
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and not when Colton shuts off his PC
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after getting fired for the 383rd time.
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But you've probably noticed by now
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that at least a couple of the machines
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that we're showing off here aren't running Windows.
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Compatibility is another really strong point for Pulseway.
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They've got clients for most Linux distros,
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Raspbian, Mac, and Windows.
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And the software has a full fat REST API.
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So you can actually code monitoring
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and management functionality into the services
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and applications that your own company develops.
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Then you can control those
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with the regular Pulseway web interface.
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Back to more regular users though,
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Pulseway also has this really cool automation tab.
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So basically what it includes is a bunch of sample scripts
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that should compliment any PowerShell or bash scripts
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and that can easily be scheduled,
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like checking for and installing any critical updates
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outside of work hours,
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ensuring that you never have to look
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at another Windows update,
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or using it as an easy way to run
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that screen melting executable
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that you've been cooking up in Visual Studio
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to prank your coworkers.
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And all of this can be done on their app
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for iOS and Android as well.
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It is basically a complete copy of the web interface,
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except in mobile form.
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So you aren't sacrificing
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any functionality when you're on the go.
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For example, you could turn on your Plex server
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via Wacom LAN, download your favorite show,
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and basically prepare yourself for a flight
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without ever thinking about breaking out your laptop,
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which admittedly probably isn't a very common use case,
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but I think you guys get the point.
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It's very, very versatile.
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So thanks to Pulseway for sponsoring this showcase
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of their RMM software.
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Let us know down in the comments
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if you have any cool ideas for how you,
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we could use Pulseway.
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Maybe it's finally time to set up monitoring
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on all the servers.
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So, yeah.
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So stay tuned for the next server room update.
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Cause yeah, we should definitely do that.
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So thanks for watching guys.
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If you disliked this video, you can hit that button.
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But if you liked it, hit like, get subscribed,
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or maybe consider checking out where to buy the stuff
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we featured at the link in the video description.
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Also down there is our merch store,
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which has cool shirts like this one,
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and our community forum, which you should totally join.
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Let us know in the comments
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if you want to see a tour of our roof.
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We actually were counting.
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And we have almost as many rooftop cooling systems
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as the entire rest of our building
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and the two other buildings in our complex combined.
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Cause we're ridiculous like that.
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We just care about our employees' comfort.
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Brandon's comfort.
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Brandon's comfort in particular.
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And Tyler.
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Mostly Tyler.
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Yeah, Brandon and Tyler.
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They got, they have the highest HVAC investment
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per person in the company.
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Per capita.
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Yeah.