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Guacamole – HTML5 Clientless Remote Desktop

guac-dev.org

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Re: Guacamole – HTML5 Clientless Remote Desktop

#11

Post by jitl »

codezero wrote: post #6

The Github repo for the client says it's 50% Java, can someone clarify, is this an HTML5 client, or are there other things happening?

Guacamole is a Java program. It's basically a proxy between RDP/VLC and HTML5. Guacd (the java bits) connect to an RDP or VNC server on your behalf, and then you interact with the remote machine through guacd. Here's a simple text diagram

  [Windows RDP server]  [linux Guacamole server]  [HTML5 client in your browser]

Re: Guacamole – HTML5 Clientless Remote Desktop

#12

Post by jitl »

egeozcan wrote: post #3

Having an HTML5 client built-in doesn't mean that it's "clientless" but it's still impressive. MIT license doesn't hurt, too.

It's "clientless" as in you don't have to install any software on the machine you want to connect from. No need to fiddle with RDP software on your parent's computers, or worry about access control restrictions from a locked-down corporate network. As far as permissions go, if you can browse the internet on a computer, you can remote control your servers with Guacamole.

Re: Guacamole – HTML5 Clientless Remote Desktop

#13

Post by Nilzor »

jitl wrote: post #11
codezero wrote: post #6

The Github repo for the client says it's 50% Java, can someone clarify, is this an HTML5 client, or are there other things happening?

Guacamole is a Java program. It's basically a proxy between RDP/VLC and HTML5. Guacd (the java bits) connect to an RDP or VNC server on your behalf, and then you interact with the remote machine through guacd. Here's a simple text diagram [Windows RDP server] [linux Guacamole server] [HTML5 client in your browser]

Wait.. so you're saying you need a linux server to access your windows server?

Re: Guacamole – HTML5 Clientless Remote Desktop

#14

Post by diafygi »

Nilzor wrote: post #13
jitl wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Guacamole is a Java program. It's basically a proxy between RDP/VLC and HTML5. Guacd (the java bits) connect to an RDP or VNC server on your behalf, and then you interact with the remote machine through guacd. Here's a simple text diagram [Windows RDP server] [linux Guacamole server] [HTML5 client in your browser]

Wait.. so you're saying you need a linux server to access your windows server?

I'm guessing that since it's java, you can run guacd on either windows or linux.

Re: Guacamole – HTML5 Clientless Remote Desktop

#15

Post by jitl »

Nilzor wrote: post #13
jitl wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Guacamole is a Java program. It's basically a proxy between RDP/VLC and HTML5. Guacd (the java bits) connect to an RDP or VNC server on your behalf, and then you interact with the remote machine through guacd. Here's a simple text diagram [Windows RDP server] [linux Guacamole server] [HTML5 client in your browser]

Wait.. so you're saying you need a linux server to access your windows server?

That's the configuration I use. You can run guacamole directly on the target server if you want. I'm reluctant to expose my Windows machines directly to the wild internet, and I don't want to learn how to configure an HTTPS reverse-proxy in Microsoft's ecosystem. Having a dedicated guacamole box is nice because I expose port 80/443 on my Linux Guacamole machine, and then use it to connect to any number of Windows and Linux computers behind my firewall/NAT.

Re: Guacamole – HTML5 Clientless Remote Desktop

#16

Post by Nilzor »

jitl wrote: post #15
Nilzor wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Wait.. so you're saying you need a linux server to access your windows server?

That's the configuration I use. You can run guacamole directly on the target server if you want. I'm reluctant to expose my Windows machines directly to the wild internet, and I don't want to learn how to configure an HTTPS reverse-proxy in Microsoft's ecosystem. Having a dedicated guacamole box is nice because I expose port 80/443 on my Linux Guacamole machine, and then use it to connect to any number of Windows and…

Ok I see, thanks for the explanation.

Re: Guacamole – HTML5 Clientless Remote Desktop

#17

Post by desaintmartin »

There already have been a few nice VNC web clients around for a few years, like NoVNC (http://kanaka.github.io/noVNC/, python server-side, used in Openstack and others). Unfortunately, there's no magic: you need your VNC/RDP server, then your "clientless server" (proxy socketwebsocket or alike), then your web server to host the "clientless" client.

It's becoming to be interesting when your VNC/RDP client directly supports websocket, eliminating the need of a proxy and only use a STATIC web server to host client. Wait, it's built-in for qemu since 1.4! http://git.qemu.org/?p=qemu.git;a=commit;h=0057a0d59006d00c2...

Re: Guacamole – HTML5 Clientless Remote Desktop

#18

Post by dshankar »

jitl wrote: post #12
egeozcan wrote: post #3

Having an HTML5 client built-in doesn't mean that it's "clientless" but it's still impressive. MIT license doesn't hurt, too.

It's "clientless" as in you don't have to install any software on the machine you want to connect from. No need to fiddle with RDP software on your parent's computers, or worry about access control restrictions from a locked-down corporate network. As far as permissions go, if you can browse the internet on a computer, you can remote control your servers with Guacamole.

While purely a semantic argument, perhaps "plugin-free" is a more meaningful description than "clientless"
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