PAM RDP Session Recording Video Quality

Products

• CA Privileged Access Manager (PAM)
• CA Privileged Access Manager - Cloakware Password Authority (PA)
• CA Privileged Access Manager - Server Control (PAMSC)

Issue/Introduction

According to the manual, there is a description for the web portal, but no clear description for RDP connection session recording.

https://techdocs.broadcom.com/content/broadcom/techdocs/us/en/ca-enterprise-software/layer7-privileged-access-management/privileged-access-manager/3-3-1/apply-global- settings.html

 

> Web Recording Quality:

> High: 24 BPP / 7 FPS (default)

> Medium: 16 BPP / 5 FPS

> Low: 8 bits per pixel / 3 frames per second

 

>RDP Keyframe Duration:

>・Small (Fast Seek / Large File): Default

>・Medium

>・Large

>・X Large (Slow Seek / Small File)

Could you provide the detailed information about RDP session recording like Web Recording Quality(BPP / FPS) ?

Environment

Release : 3.2.x and PAM 3.2.x

Component : PRIVILEGED ACCESS MANAGEMENT

Resolution

Our Session Recording for TCP Web Applications vs RDP Graphical Sessions Recording are totally different.

• TCP Web Applications Recordings  - we are actually taking still images of a moving video image and therefore the FPS come into play.  This is why we document it our settings.
• RDP Session Recordings - we are using Key Frames and not doing screen captures.  A Key frame is a particular point in an encoded video where the data for the entire frame is transmitted, rather than just the changes.  Key Frames are generally inserted when there is a scene change; they are also inserted to help improve seeking.  Decreasing the distance between the key frames can improve the quality of the video, but also significantly impacts the overall file size. 

Unfortunately there isn't a set value for each of our settings, as with the Web Recording Quality.  This is due to what is happening during the session recordings and the amount of packets being generated.   If a PAM Admin is complaining about large session logs, than we advise to set the RDP Key Frames Duration to Xlarge.