RustDesk Setup

Enroll Windows machines into ITDocs for one-click remote access — no third-party relay required.

How it works

ITDocs integrates with RustDesk to give you remote access directly from any asset record. The flow is:

1. You self-host a RustDesk relay server (hbbs + hbbr) on your network
2. You configure the relay URL and an enrollment token in ITDocs Settings
3. You run a PowerShell enrollment script on each Windows machine — it installs RustDesk, configures it to use your relay, registers the device in ITDocs, and stores the credentials securely in the vault
4. From any asset record in ITDocs, click Connect to launch RustDesk directly into that machine

1 Self-host the RustDesk relay server

The relay server handles connection brokering between your ITDocs instance and the enrolled devices. It requires two components — hbbs (the rendezvous/ID server) and hbbr (the relay server).

Required open ports

Open these on your firewall/router for any machines that need to reach the relay from outside your network. For internal-only use, no external port forwarding is needed.

docker-compose.yml

Create a folder for the relay server and add a docker-compose.yml:

services:
  hbbs:
    image: rustdesk/rustdesk-server:latest
    container_name: rustdesk-hbbs
    command: hbbs
    restart: unless-stopped
    ports:
      - "21115:21115"
      - "21116:21116"
      - "21116:21116/udp"
      - "21119:21119"
    volumes:
      - rustdesk_data:/root
    networks:
      - rustdesk
    depends_on:
      - hbbr

  hbbr:
    image: rustdesk/rustdesk-server:latest
    container_name: rustdesk-hbbr
    command: hbbr
    restart: unless-stopped
    ports:
      - "21117:21117"
      - "21118:21118"
    volumes:
      - rustdesk_data:/root
    networks:
      - rustdesk

volumes:
  rustdesk_data:

networks:
  rustdesk:
    driver: bridge

Start the server:

docker compose up -d

Get your public key

Once running, the server generates a key pair. You’ll need the public key to configure RustDesk clients so they only trust your relay server.

docker exec rustdesk-hbbs cat /root/id_ed25519.pub

Copy the output — you’ll need it when configuring the RustDesk client and when building your server config string.

Build your server config string

RustDesk clients use a single encoded config string that bundles your relay server address and public key. Use the RustDesk config generator or build it manually:

# Format: {"host":"YOUR_SERVER_IP","key":"YOUR_PUBLIC_KEY","api":""}
# Encode to base64 and prefix with "9" for the config string
echo -n '{"host":"192.168.1.x","key":"YOUR_PUBLIC_KEY","api":""}' | base64

2 Configure RustDesk in ITDocs

Go to Settings → Remote Access in your ITDocs instance.

Click Save once all fields are filled in.

3 Enroll a Windows device

Download the enrollment script

In Settings → Remote Access, scroll to the Enrolling a device section. Optionally enter a Pre-fill Org Short ID — this is the 9-digit number from the org’s URL in ITDocs. If set, the script will automatically associate the device with that org and techs won’t need to edit anything.

Click Download enroll-rustdesk.ps1. The script is pre-filled with your server URL, config string, enrollment token, and org ID.

Run the script on the target machine

Copy enroll-rustdesk.ps1 to the target Windows machine, then run it as Administrator:

powershell -ExecutionPolicy Bypass -File .\enroll-rustdesk.ps1

The script will:

• Download and install RustDesk on the target machine if not already present
• Configure RustDesk to use your self-hosted relay server and config string
• Generate a random password and set it on the RustDesk installation
• Register the device in ITDocs — creating or updating the asset record
• Store the RustDesk credentials encrypted in the ITDocs vault

Unenrolling a device

To remove a device’s RustDesk enrollment, open the asset record in ITDocs and click Unenroll. This clears the RustDesk ID from the asset and deletes the associated vault entry. The device will no longer be connectable from ITDocs.

4 Connect to a device

1. Open the asset record for the target device in ITDocs
2. Click the Connect button — this retrieves the RustDesk ID and decrypted password from the vault
3. Your browser will launch a rustdesk:// URI which opens RustDesk directly into that machine

Every connect action is audited — ITDocs logs who connected to which device and when, visible in Settings → Audit Logs.

RustDesk Pro (optional)

Troubleshooting

Next steps