CompFlu Remote Desktop, internal notes

Guacamole integrates into a mostly-presence workflow (only occasionally, remote access to workstations, decent bandwidths, window resize, grab bare-metal session on remote, and reconnect on the physical device later on), and makes better use of the workstation as decentralised fat clients. Seamless integration of RDP/windows remote clients.

https://sun.hi-ern.de/remote/

Edit sessions and their placement via Settings → Connections → tree structure of machines.

Settings profile for a workstation

Remmina is a cross-platform cross-target remote desktop client. This is how you can use it for access to the Windows workstation:

1. Add a 'new connection profile' (button top left) with Name 'QuickConnect' and Protocol 'RDP protocol'
2. Address iek11026.iek.kfa-juelich.de for the workstation @ Nürnberg
3. Put your username and password, choose resolution 'Use initial windows size' and add your home as a shared folder
4. Access to other drives than your home (data…) is possible in Windows, thanks to Remmina. For this, you need to create a symbolic link (on a Linux machine in your home: ln -s /data-er/j.doe ./data-er). You then can access this link from the windows desktop/explorer.

• Upstream: https://wiki.x2go.org/doku.php
• Virtual workstation in house: virtual-workstation

X2Go also doesn't fit into our typical machine-centric workflow, typical for CompFlu with beefy machines under everyone's desk. Rather, it is session-centric, and feels most at home as a remote-only solution, accessed from thin clients (or on an ad-hoc basis from the standalone client on a PC).

X2Go has always been present on our physical workstations (ATX, offices). However, it is cumbersome/tricky to explain, and the extra hassle of session setup and tunneling makes it appear unfavourable compared to Guacamole.

Configure x2goclient to tunnel an office workstation

command=XFCE
host=balsa
pack=16m-png-jpeg
sshport=22
sshproxyautologin=true
sshproxyhost=login.sun.hi-ern.de
sshproxysamepass=true
sshproxysameuser=true
sshproxytype=SSH
user=j.doe
usesshproxy=true

Fix error with missing Perl modules

Brainstorming for a friendlier X2Go ecosystem

Accessible via Remmina or Guacamole, we have a PC running Windows, for the few purposes that cannot be tackled from Linux or Mac OS (tasks that need authentication against FZJAD, like digital signatures for Acrobat PDF).

Currently, this is the machine IEK11026 in Nürnberg. Note that the licensing model of Microsoft limits the number of concurrent Windows RDP users to one at a time. Hence the limit to one session at a time. Hence, RDP is a very limited resource. Please terminate your session as soon as you are done with it. If you connect anyway when someone is logged in, Windows will ask you

Another user is signed in. If you continue, they’ll be disconnected. Do you want to sign in anyway?

and then throw out the other user after a few minutes.

https://github.com/stascorp/rdpwrap/issues/26.