Remote Access to ANY server - Guacamole WebApp Tutorial

We all manage servers, both virtual and physical, in very different ways. What if there was a way to configure all of them from a single web interface? Today, I'm going to show you how to install Guacamole, a web appliance and virtual KVM, to manage ANY server through SSH, Telnet, VNC, RDP, even Kubernetes all from any HTML5 web browser.
But first... What am I drinking???
Courtesy of Patron thedhallelhama, it's Rohrbach Breing's Scotch Ale, 6.9% of malty goodness. Very impressed by this one... rich butterscotch, and verrrrrry smooth. A difficult beer style brewed to perfection.
Links to items below may be affiliate links for which I may be compensated
For complete instructions and the Guacamole Install Script, check here: github.com/MysticRyuujin/guac...
That Trackball you always ask me about: amzn.to/3pAB5UX
Velocifire Mechanical 10-keyless: amzn.to/3lz8756
Looking for an inexpensive system to run Guacamole on? Check out the AsRock J4005B-ITX: amzn.to/36wDRSo
iStarUSA 1U Chassis: amzn.to/3f0aFa7
Solid Gear 1U Power Supply: amzn.to/3nqhx3I
4GB SoDimm DDR4 2666MHz: amzn.to/3lul5kE
Kingston 120GB A400 SSD: amzn.to/35uIg8T
Find the parts I recommend on my Amazon store: www.amazon.com/shop/craftcomp...
Follow me on Twitter @CraftComputing
Support me on Patreon or Floatplane and get access to my exclusive Discord server. Chat with myself and the other hosts on Talking Heads all week long.
/ craftcomputing
www.floatplane.com/channel/Cr...
Music:
Hard Boiled by Kevin MacLeod
Link: incompetech.filmmusic.io/song...
Covert Affair by Kevin MacLeod
Link: incompetech.filmmusic.io/song...
License: creativecommons.org/licenses/b...

[@eugeni_cat8334]

Perfect, in my case I have created a VM on a Dell PowerEdge R720 with vmware ESXi and following your instructions I have the GUACAMOLE SERVER service running. Congratulations on the tutorial video. Kind regards from Spain.

[@BobBrittonBespoke]

Rohrbach's! Brewed in my home town of Rochester, NY. Been a fan for years and been to the brewery more times than I can count. Enjoy Jeff!

[@CraftComputing]

That Scotch Ale was delicious!

[@mikebailey783]

The guy is a legend. So many flippin' great ideas in every video.

[@PolntBlank]

Yeah, him and novaspirittech have my gay little nerd heart

[@SpookyNeo]

I love your HomeLab stuff videos Jeff ! Thanks for sharing all this with us Please keep them going :)

[@hedgefield]

Your videos are a good balance of clean and detailed. Well done.

[@danw1955]

Thanks Jeff! I tried another cross-platform client/server RDC of sorts (can't remember the name offhand) a week or so ago, but I never could get it to connect to anything.🙄 I eventually found out that it had different versions of SSL between different platforms and in turn caused a multitude of problems. The fact that Guacamole connects to existing RDP clients is a real plus, as is the fact that you can elect not to request a cert. I'm sure there is a lot more to this, but so far it looks like I may be able to sideline my KVM switch for a while if it works out. Great tutorial, thanks!😉👍

[@GearSeekers]

When I get some free time this week I'll be setting this up. I'm pretty old school with Putty and having my connections setup there. This is a lot easier.

[@brianlemos7777]

Do you know if we can use it on a browser for mobile devices?

[@matoxius]

I tried this 2 times on my own. Now finally i got the chance to do it right. Thanks! :D

[@TheSamDickey]

Holy flip this is amazing. Installing right now

[@buddybleeyes]

i don't know alot about servers, but i always learn something new from you. Thanks dude! one day i may have a go at this myself, seems fun and rewarding :)

[@KenPryor]

This is exactly what I've been looking for. Thanks for the awesome tutorial.

[@soniclab-cnc]

I installed that sangoma box with PBX with dual 4 port phone cards for a hotel install. Its been rock solid.

[@CraftComputing]

They are great little boxes. I've deployed a couple of them and never had issues.

[@VinnyVidiVintage]

I pretty much always feel like you are way over my head... but I still enjoy watching.

[@Shane-Singleton]

I tested Guacamole running as a Docker service and it worked out pretty well. I don't need a dedicated box for it as I just use a standard KVM if i'm accessing the hardware directly for whatever reason. But I am a fan of repurposing old 1U appliances so I might look into picking one of those up. for. .. .. reasons.

[@CraftComputing]

Yep, most run it in VM or Docker instances, but in my use case it made a lot of sense to have it on a dedicated box. Now I can access VMs in my server rack directly from the rackmount console... no need to bring my laptop out to the garage.

[@plutoniumshore]

I had tried playing with this in a docker once and didn't have much luck...but watching this again, gave me an idea to use a little NUC I have down in my home VMware lab in the basement. One Keyboard/video/mouse when I go sit down there would be amazeballs. I have a 4 host lab with about 20 vms total..and while I have remote access to all, if I'm in the basement, I'm SOL unless I've brought a laptop down with me.

[@TheMchip]

awsome tutorial! thank you! i have already made myself a guacamole server using your tips!

[@brentsmithline3423]

I would say if you are going to open this to the Internet "Two Factor" is a must. I would even have this installed on my LAN so it was ready to go if I wanted to open a port to the Internet. Your equipment rack looks like it is very well done.

[@joshfrandsen9526]

Hey Jeff. I just want to say that I have really enjoyed watching your videos. Especially on freenas. I always have a beer watching ya. hahah Keep up the good work. I would love to support your channel in some way. Please let me know how.

[@CraftComputing]

Patreon, Floatplane, or affiliate links in the videos are a great way to support me. I appreciate you watching!

[@joshfrandsen9526]

I was wondering if you are ever doing a pxe server tutorial? I'm good with Linux servers and stuff just wondering if you have a simple way of doing it. Linux and windows pxe server.

[@victoraguilera7468]

did not know this existed, will be really useful to play around with

[@brianmunyao]

Amazing. This is exactly what I need!

[@jonaslatza]

Your videos are awesome. I really enjoy your presentation style. It is informative, yet relaxing. I do have a question: I do want to start to build my own home lab with two major criteria: a) it needs to run in a living room b) it needs to pack the most computing power possible while remaining quiet... yeah a bunch of raspberry pi in a room are fun but they don't work week for any VM cluster. I am a software dev by day and I am not unknown in the realm of the hardware tinkering, but I lack some foundation in what components to pick that do not scream like a jet engine. My last research brought me in the direction of an embedded amd CPU e.g. epyc 3301 with a 65W TDP. I am just not sure if a 2U case could fit a silent cooler for that.... thanks for any suggestions.

[@DragonReborn100]

Thanks for this, I just installed this onto my Raspberry Pi 4 (4gb), which was seriously under utilised as all i was running on it was PiHole. Got something else for it to do! I am running Ubuntu Server 20.04 on it for anyone asking. Runs great for what i need.

[@Darkk6969]

Very cool you're able to do this on the Pi. I may do the same.

[@adamdaniels1256]

I'm able to get my Pi 4 to work with SSH but not RDP. Did you have similar issues?

[@DragonReborn100]

@@adamdaniels1256 Sorry for the late reply, i hardly ever comment on youtube videos. I had no issue with RDP. Can you RDP on your home network ok rom one machin to the other? ? Have you set the slider on the machine you want to RDP to to accept RDP connections? U cant RDP to a Win10 Home machine without a lot of background fiddling ( Hacking) It is a little slow the RDP but useable i feel.

[@pavlovsky0]

Great content. Can you cover monitoring and timeseries aggregation with influx and grafana?

[@DerhelleLicht]

There is also this great docker container oznu/guacamole , which speeds up the setup process even more.

[@augurseer]

Cool. Ty. Love me some Docker.

[@andrewnyr]

I have used this since like March or April, it works great!

[@davidvantongerloo1907]

have a great weekend, love this video...

[@jakeneko]

Wtf I've been looking for something like this forever. Thanks Jeff!

[@qiuyue4082]

Thanks, that flag about the rdp cert made my day.

[@huggi2]

any unraid server users can use guacamole in a docker app from the community applications. Good video

[@alexwyatt6209]

this is going to be game-changing for us! I'm glad I stumbled on this video too, the script is really going to make things easier (we have many instances to build). one question: is there any way to add an HTTP/S connection? I'm thinking like a CUPS server that we'd manage via 631, or a random vendor that has a web interface for managing their whatever-service. thanks!

[@bobsuruncle4a777]

Just got mine loaded up works great so far. I am curious what other services can be loaded since there seems to be quite a bit of power left.

[@TechnoTim]

🤘 Rock out with your Guac out! 🤘

[@yourpcmd]

Curious to know if something like this with a more powerful server (R-210) could be used as a replacement for Team Viewer and the like? Obviously, you'd setup 2FA. If that's a possibility, would be great if you'd make a video on that to an offsite computer.

[@neilvermeulen5283]

Thank you sir. Very educational.

[@hikingpete]

A heads up for Guacamole users - Caps-lock interferes with shortcuts. I believe it's treated the same as if you're holding down shift.

[@Don_Calzone]

Hi, Thanks for this Video! Exactly what i need :) But i have a question: Are you able to SSH into your UniFi hardware? For me it is keep saying "Connecting..Waiting for response". It is working with putty, just not with Guacamole. But SSH to other Server like UnRAID or TrueNAS is working fine. BUt not with my UDM or other UNIFI switches

[@jacobcrisman6834]

So many ideas for when I get my rack setup

[@AndrewPayne]

Great video - and love your keyboard - which model is it?

[@84Actionjack]

Would running Guacamole in a docker exhibit a noticeable performance hit? Love the idea; thanks.

[@meandthemrs896]

Excellent video as always - would this work with Kali linux - I tried using normal RDP but it fails to connect after login is successful ?

[@seedz5132]

wow, guacamole has changed so much ! I still remember setting one up on my own server 3 years ago where you had to set connections up directly into config files. Wondering if you can now set up an LDAP link to auth users and associate them to their machines automagically ;o

[@alexdhall]

Yes you can configure guacamole with LDAP authentication. I've seen it used with AWS's Samba based Active Directory solution.

[@Darkn3ssF4ll]

Hey Rochester beers making it on screen! Awesome

[@FSULAUBACH]

AWESOME!!! SIMPLY FREAKING AWESOME!! LOVE IT

[@FSULAUBACH]

hands down one of my favorite creators on KZbin at the moment. I watch a crap ton of this man's stuff.

[@bitbot1988]

Are you going to make videos about IPS (intrusion prevention system)?

[@edgarseri5660]

Craft computing where did you get those racks/shelves in the background?

[@Elliot9874]

Hello, Where did you get the cable modem rack brackets?

[@tljstewart]

How well does this configuration handle remote 3D modeling tools?

[@0ctatr0n]

Do you have some sort of decent battery backup on your server for power outages? Does it instructions to the servers to shut down safely if power is not returned within a given window?

[@DiyintheGhetto]

Oh do i see future video for own coming soon on that rack, Or is there one already?

[@trentbauer7897]

Can you use this to access physical hardware? EG USB/VGA > Guacamole? I have an old HP KVM plugged into my ESXi host but I am unable to access it from my desktop, since it uses an old, insecure java protocol.

[@TheNorthRemember]

How's the performance connecting to Ubuntu rdp?

[@codydermid7114]

I'm trying to change the text and logo on the guacamole sign-in page. I've seen others do this, but I can't figure out how to make it work. Any ideas?

[@joshfrandsen9526]

Hey Jeff. I see that I have the same modem you have in this video. I was wondering if you are able to share the 3d print layout to hold your modem in your rack. I can get this made at my job. Please let me know. I even pay for the layout.

[@LarsBerntropBos]

In the RDP example, you disconnect. This leaves the admin session running and thus very different from the SSH example where you log out. Is that on purpose? It might affect a restart if the server needs one...

[@kevinwilliams184]

The question I have is the following: Can I just create an open web serviced RDP session and not have to log into Guacamole? I just want to be able to hand out 2-3 urls that offer rdp without using an additional login.

[@nyx-is3xv]

Other than installing with the script on the host machine as well as enabling RDP does anything else need to be done? Connection immediately fails.

[@takeover4726]

as for hardware, do you need a gpu or the inbuilt good enough ?

[@tech_mad_lad]

Ive seen another video saying you need a domain to access from the WAN side, is this true? Also definitely going to try this on my old Dell Wyse Machine i have at home (ironically running Manjaro, so a quick reinstall is definitely due) 🍻

[@TheRogueBro]

So i have been using Guacamole for quite some time at work (pandemic VPN issues have brought it back to the forefront for remote work for some staff). I had it all set up in Debian, but it was all old. So i rebuild a Debian VM, and attempted to rebuild... but it didn't work. Took quite a while to figure out the issue for me. Long story short, if people want to give Guacamole a shot and just want a quick VM to spin up, Bitnami makes a VM that you can easily spin up on almost any machine!

[@MrMackster01]

Great video, this will help organize all of my Linux and RP4 servers 😎. Will this work remotely .? You’d need to port forward the guacamole’s pi address, correct?

[@Sean-Davidson]

Best to put this behind a Reverse Proxy like Nginx.

[@photosbymd]

Hello Sir! Nice Video, like your style and I understand what you are showing us online. I was wondering what kind of keyboard and mouse that is there, that is a large trackball, I'm not failure with that model? Looking for the information! Thank you

[@CraftComputing]

That is the Elecom Huge: amzn.to/3pAB5UX Been using it for years and I love it. Keyboard is a Velocifire Mechanical 10-keyless, but still has F1-F12. Awesome for $30: amzn.to/3lz8756

[@photosbymd]

@@CraftComputing Man that was solid of you to get back to me so quickly! Thank you, that was a stand-up thing to do! Thank you very much!

[@mycosys]

@@CraftComputing have you tried the elecom Deft Pro?

[@Dainis_M]

Hi, could you please make a video about building a home mail server, something like google? To keep all email at home DNS configuration and email server If possible that would be nice if you would use DynDNS

[@jj-icejoe6642]

😂😂🤣🤣 do it by yourself

[@user-fh8gp4ns2i]

Tanks, it's so good. but how can add bought certificate.

[@CyberBlaed]

Nice. This is handy as!

[@jasunto]

Mine only has active sessions and preferences when I go to settings. I am logged in with the user in the xml with the md5 hash'ed password. SSH works and RDP times out to something the official RDP client connects to fine. Added via xml since UI has no option to add any.

[@chaoticheartgaming9027]

ok I'm a little confused but I think this should work to rdp into a ubuntu desktop I use as a local server then right?

[@fmslickful]

does Guacamole via RDP kicks the user out of the desktop and they have to log back in or no?

[@Imnotimportant555]

This software is really useful. I have a small Debian VM that is port forwarded to the internet. I have enabled the TOTP option as I use it to access my servers/computers. My only complaint is that SSH does not support ED-25519 keys (I believe this to be a debian problem and not a problem with guacamole).

[@robertseccareccia5224]

Can you setup DRAC and ILO with this service? That would be helpful.

[@blainethemono2]

You could setup an ssh connection to them. If you needed web gui, you could just rdp to something in your network and open a browser.

[@fmslickful]

@@blainethemono2 browser to computer to open a browser..... Yo dog I heard you like browser's~~ lol

[@steveheist6426]

I wonder if I could use this to rdp into a ProxMox VM Windows box, then from there log into my local ProxMox setup....

[@NightHawkATL]

I have followed the steps in the link you provided but I am having an issue with the actual "make" portion of the script. It keeps giving me errors and it won't continue. I have to wipe the system and start over because I don't have permissions to remove the folders that it created to try to continue with the existing setup. I have tried on Ubuntu Mate as you used and also with Ubuntu Server 20.04. I followed the script to the letter and get the error every time it tries to build the files. I am starting with a VM on Proxmox on my R720 and I dedicate 1 core and 4 threads and 16GB ram for the OS. I don't install anything other than what is in the script. Should I be adding anything else to the OS for this to work? I would really like to give this a try but it keeps failing.

[@TmanaokLine]

Ubuntu MahTay? Dude it's mate, like yar me matey or hey mate. Lmao great idea repurposing the 1U machine, a little weak for the task but seems to perform just fine!

[@KrnlKlink1]

What do you do about server boards with nasty java remote consoles?

[@propylene22]

Does it support copy paste, and or drag drop?

[@richardbennett4365]

From the looks of your set up and the URL to access the Apache Guacamole server, I'd say you are running the server under NAT. I would like to set up the same, though have the Guacamole server be reachable when I am off my home network, like when I am out of the house, at the library, or at the workplace. I know I am going to need to run Guacamole under DHCP and set up my router to allow port forwarding. I already have a domain pointing to my public IP address. It should not be all that difficult to configure. Thanks for the information you provided here. It's helpful.

[@pornorfilrr9170]

Do i need guacamole in virtual machine on the server with other virtual machines , to control those virtual machines? Logging into proxmox gives me the same thing, right? or may be i`m missing something?

[@CraftComputing]

Nope! This is a stand-alone install. Basically it consolidates all of your remote access to physical and virtual machines into a single webpage. You can RDP, SSH, VNC, etc to any VM or Host you'd like.

[@vandammages8041]

anyone know how to add a front end network Diagram page, all you would have to do is click on the device and choose RDP,SSH, Reset, power off ,console etc..

[@BR0KK85]

Neat but we need something like this with bios access aka ipmi. Maybe a Service that combines impi Logins to a guacamole. Is there something like that ?

[@Danielo515]

Take a look at Raspberry Pi KVM over ip

[@BR0KK85]

@@Danielo515 no this does not have the capability to shut down and restart the connected PCs like ipmi does

[@Danielo515]

@@BR0KK85 it has the same capabilities as a keyboard and a mouse attached to the physical computer. How can't it shutdown and restart them?

[@BR0KK85]

@@Danielo515 yeah i know. A system that could be plugged into a PC witch could control the PC would be nice. This sollution however is only for access if the PC is already running. Id like an aftermarket ipmi like the one atten had for pci way back (IP80000) Somethig like that with a pi would be awesome.

[@spiceygas1]

I'm struggling to get Guacamole working. It's installed, running, configured, etc. When I try to make a connection (RDP, SSH, doesn't matter), I just get an error that "An internal error has occurred within the Guacamole server, and the connection has been terminated." The syslog has no errors or information at all. Nothing is logged at all when this happens. Any ideas?

[@karl-philipebrice4150]

Great Video as usual! Guacamole is no longer supported. I get errors when pulling from the repo and tomcat cannot be found. apart from building from sources, is there an alternative?

[@alican091]

Can your also remote connect for a ps4?

[@klaernie]

I kinda hoped for a massive serial card and serial consoles to everything that supports it - there is nothing better than network independent out-of-band control when you really need it.

[@sairamakrishna2776]

what can be the username and password while creating a new connection for aws ec2 instance

[@crailey88]

I cannot for the life of me figure out how to get RDP working for Linux (Debian/Ubuntu)... I have this running on a Ubuntu Server currently and I can RDP into windows without issue however Linux is not working. SSH works perfectly but I feel like I am missing something. Am I suppose to be installing some RDP tool on each of my linux machines?

[@camerontgore]

Did Jeff ever make that PRTG video????

[@WeatherWX]

Have you looked into Pi-KVM by any chance Craft?

[@CraftComputing]

I have looked at that! Definitely considering adding that into my system at some point.

[@minigpracing3068]

I had a Guac server set up to edit video on workstations at work. I was surprised how well the HTML to rdp worked over my garbage Spectrum connection. Ultimately I was told we didn't have enough bandwidth, and that there was a security flaw so no can do. Too bad for our students! The security hole was patched the next day. Seems to work fine for NASA in the climate lab.

[@homemedia4325]

Right clicking during an RDP session... is that now a thing in Guacamole on a browser? ...I felt limited by it in the past.

[@CraftComputing]

Yes! That's been solved for quite some time now.

[@taimaishublm]

I hope you look into things like thinclients and remmina

[@AlAl-wn2cf]

Does this application use SQL?

[@yukanolive4727]

very nice , thx ^^

[@andersgjerlw9636]

Ive been looking for PRTG tutorial and overview for network monitoring, sadly its to expensive to buy for private networks. show how PRTG works and modules etc for a full overview. is it a SIEM solution?

[@CraftComputing]

It is expensive, but luckily they upped their free license to 100 sensors a number of years ago. It used to be only 10.

[@andersgjerlw9636]

@@CraftComputing yeah,but 100 sensors aint much if you want sensors 1/2 rackservers Server2016/2019,cpu usage,mem usage,WMI,SNMP,firewalls,routers,switches. Looking forward to your videos on PRTG:)

[@andersgjerlw9636]

@@BDBD16 I guess you can use 100 sensors to find out how to use those effictively and as you say not use 2 many sensors on stuff that aint so important. the CPU and mem usage is just an example tho,but for home users I think cpu usage and mem usage could nice to get an overview. I havent uses PRTG so I dont know how resources it uses. But the people who are using PRTG as DC's do have alot of money and they have the funds to get the highest sensor licensing. I'm purely thinking of PRTG in a home network and what sensors that is important and what not to waste sensors on. In the enterprise world they chose people who have done PRTG for years and its not representative of the home network,even tho most it admins usually like to use enterprise hardware and software to emulate and get acquainted with software for the enterprise so you have experience when you do actually get to work with it.

[@EricAnderson10]

For some reason I keep getting flagged as commercial use on TeamViewer, and they denied my last request to fix it. What would you suggest I use instead? I mainly access my home desktop so I can: change freenas settings (thanks for the freenas tutorials), transfer files from my desktop to the nas in remote desktop, access a couple of programs that aren't on my laptop and a few other misc things while I am at another location.

[@CraftComputing]

Google Remote Desktop if you're simply wanting to access your home PC. ParsecGaming.com is also a great free option if you need to run more intensive applications.

[@EricAnderson10]

@@CraftComputing awesome! I will look into those! Thanks for the response, I know it's not really on topic, but this video reminder me. I only use it a couple times a month, idk why TeamViewer flags it but such is life.

[@gominosensei2008]

Meshcentral if you want to selfhost the backenf. I don't game, but for other things it serves me great.

[@BoingoInstaller]

Also I can recommend DWService, it is opensource and with web-based client

[@santasl]

Great idea but only when there is no problem with the network or the host os itself. If there is a problem with the host OS you still have to connect the display to that specific computer or otherwise you wont get further information about the reason. Just checked the installed motherboard and oh boy, in that case you don't even have any graphics port from what I can tell from the video. There seems to be sockets for serial interface connectors on the motherboard. Maybe the bios allow you to redirect the output to one of the serial interface port. In that case you could hook up the computer to an multi port serial interface. I did that in the early 90s with dumb VT100 terminals KVM solutions that support remote access can be costly, so I can understand that someone may use this as alternative. I still would buy the either a low cost home user KVM solution or opt for a used 19" KVM unit without the network option. Nevertheless, still an interesting software that it is worth to know about. Thank your for presenting the software as I havent heard of it yet.

[@rhfweb]

I'm setting this up on a Devuan VM, on a Windows Server 2019 install on a Rock Pi X Intel Atom

[@rhfweb]

Attempting to do so anyway lol

[@okfj]

A green on black terminal is more IBM 3270 terminal, so put the Matrix in that context. The simulation could be running on an IBM mainframe.

[@dimitristsoutsouras2712]

Nice video as always. Isn t it a bit too much to dedicate an entire machine for a service that can eaisly be hosted in a docker / container environment? After all why you have proxmox I wonder. Now that I come to think about it why even bother with a container when there are lcx's with way less resource needs . You dont even need a graphic environment. After all all the installation commands been typed from cli and not from a gui interface.

[@mycosys]

Ah the irony of watching this on a J1900 HTPC lol

[@Anhar001]

nice video, however I'm not entirely sure what the benefit of Guacamole is say over just plain Remmina if you're accessing all your servers in your private network?

[@Darkk6969]

I use Remmina daily myself but would be nice if the configuration are all at once place. Looks like Guac fits the bill nicely.

[@joebonsaipoland]

Sounds interesting

[@tld8102]

So Guacamole as a gaming thin client? With usb passthrough via web browser?

[@CraftComputing]

Not a chance. RPD and VNC are not built for low latency. For remote gaming, check out ParsecGaming.com, Moonlight, Rainway or Steam Remote Play.

[@tld8102]

@@CraftComputing ok thank you. Would like a workstation/gaming thin client setup... but i cant seem to get my usb webcam(i would like to connect other stuffs like a 3d printer too) to work through steamlink on the raspberry pi? Do you have any recommendations in this area?