Configure remote access to virtual machines

To connect to a VM:

1. Add your SSH public key to your user account

2. Prepare the VM template with the correct operating system, user, and password

3. Configure the VM with a public IP address and firewall

4. Deploy the VM

5. Click the console button on the VM control panel.

The platform opens a connection to the VM using the appropriate protocol, for example, RDP, SSH, or WebMKS.

Open

Click the console button on the VM control panel

How Abiquo connects to VMs

Abiquo uses WebMKS and SSH and RDP to connect to VMs.

• WebMKS: On VMware vCenter 7.x and VCD. For vCenter, Abiquo uses WebMKS proxy.
  See Install WebMKS proxy and configure WebMKS

• Guacamole: On public cloud providers with SSH or RDP. A Guacamole server is included as part of the Abiquo platform. The platform adds the user’s SSH public key to their VMs

The default remote access server is Apache Guacamole https://guacamole.incubator.apache.org/ , which runs on the Remote Services server and is managed by the Remote Access remote service. Guacamole supports SSH and RDP connections.  

When a user requests remote access to a VM with an environment that uses SSH or RDP:

1. The platform registers an event with the action name VIRTUAL_MACHINE_REQUEST_ACCESS. 

2. The Abiquo Server supplies a link to the VM connection via the Guacamole server. 

3. The Abiquo UI loads the Guacamole client, which opens the remote access link. 

4. The platform requests the remote access password and/or SSH key

Brand the Guacamole client

To brand the Guacamole client:

1. Copy the stylesheet from theme/default/css/theme_guacamole.css to your theme css folder.

2. Modify it as required

For more details, see Abiquo branding guide

Deactivate the console connection with Guacamole

You can deactivate the console button for Guacamole. This means that users cannot connect to VMs through the console button, but they can still connect with another remote access client.

To change the Guacamole remote access configuration for the platform:

1. Log in to the Abiquo UI and go to Configuration → Infrastructure. 

2. Set the option to Allow remote access to virtual machines as required.

Configure VM templates for remote access

To configure VM templates for remote access:

1. On the Advanced tab:

   1. If the template is compatible, you can select Guest setup

      1. To set and get the password by email or SMS, select Guest initial password

   2. Operating system and OS version

   3. Username

   4. Password (for some RDP connections) 

Abiquo should detect the template’s user login name for public cloud.

• For AWS templates, see Amazon default instance users table

Configure user accounts for remote access

To use remote access, set the following for your user accounts:

• Public key for SSH. See How to work with SSH keys

• Email address

• Telephone number (cell phone)

VM settings for remote access

For public cloud, you must allow a connection to your VM:

• Add a public IP address

  • This may require an IP in a public subnet or a default subnet, or a private IP address

• Add a firewall for the VM connection type, such as SSH to Linux VMs and RDP to Windows VMs, according to your cloud provider. For example, AWS connects to Windows via SSH.

WebMKS for vCenter

Remote access for vCenter 7 is through WebMKS only, and Abiquo supports WebMKS. See Install WebMKS proxy and configure WebMKS.

For earlier versions of vSphere and vCenter, if VMs are running VNC, to change to use WebMKS, see Enable WebMKS for vCenter