Running a remote Desktop on a Windows Azure Linux VM (Remote Desktop to Windows Azure Linux)-Excerpt from the network

                       

A complete Click-by-click, step-by-step video of this article are available here.

OR ... You can read the article, Line-by-line.

It all starts with a Linux Server running in the Windows Azure cloud ...

Onto This "ll install a Remote Desktop Protocol (RDP) server called XRDP.

But to get this server software installed, you need to configure the Linux server. You'll use the your workstation to does this with an SSH client such as PuTTY. You'll need to connect port on the LINUX server up to the Internet. Then you can use the PUTTY client on your workstation to connect over SSH.

That's gives you a command prompt. That's as much as need to get the XRDP server installed, running and ready to accept connections from the outside Worl D.

You type a series of commands which would download and install the XRDP server on to your LINUX machine.

You can then fire up a local Remote Desktop client, such as the one of that comes with Windows, if is on a Windows machi Ne. Depending on the version of Windows you is using the can find it by searching for either "Remote Desktop" or "mstsc". You can also connect directly from the Windows Azure portal by downloading the RDP file from the server.

Let ' s has a look at what this is all achieved, Click-by-click.

In the Windows Azure Portal, I-Create a new Virtual machine. In this case I ' m creating an Ubuntu Server 12.04 LTS. I Specify the latest version release date, the machine name, the size of the VM, and I create a n administrative, or root user–in this case "Planky". To keep things-I Avoid certificate authentication for the SSH session and just use a password.

I specify to create a new cloud service and I keep the default name. I then pick the Windows Azure subscription I want to use and pick a data centre to deploy to–in this case I use Nort H Europe which is located in Dublin, Ireland, because that's the closest Data Centre to me. You can see I pick one of my existing storage accounts. If you don ' t already has one want to use, just get the portal to automatically generate a storage account fo R you. I don ' t worry about an availability Set.

I Make sure the SSH endpoint are connected to the load balancer. It ' s set by default on port 22.

It takes a few minutes for the machine to provision.

I can get the DNS name of the server from the Dashboard. I just copy it in to the paste buffer.

If you already has an SSH client installed, you can paste the name in to it. I ' ve got PuTTY installed. If you need to install a client on this stage, you could go to Http://aka.ms/putty and download the Putty client. Once installed, enter the DNS address and click Connect.

A security message pops up to warn you there be a chance that the server all connecting to is not the the On E You think it is. For example if a hacker managed to modify the DNS settings in your computer. The message hints there is ways around these problems. The message is a rather similar to the ones your get from the Remote Desktop client.

If You is happy you is not being misled, then go to ahead, as I do in this case. I now logs in as the root user I specified if I created the VM in the Windows Azure portal.

All the commands is about-to-run need to being done at an elevated privilege. There is a rough approximation to the Windows "Run as Administrator", known as "Sudoo" or "SuDO". This means "super-user does". You specify this keyword and the following command are run at the elevated privilege level. That was, as long as the account you were logged in to was a Superuser–which this one is.

Linux uses the notion of "packages". The packaging system uses a special database to keep track of which packages is installed, which is not installed and WH Ich is available for installation. apt-get is a command this uses the database to find out what to install packages and find out which additional PAC Kages is needed for a selected the package to work properly.

To update the This list, I-type sudo (that's, run in superuser context) get-apt update

You now need patience as a slew of information are dumped to the screens, and continues to doing so for some minutes.

I now install a GUI dektop in to the Ubuntu server. In this case I use the Gnome desktop and the command is:

sudo apt-get install Ubuntu-desktop

There is a warning about the amount of disk space this would take, but I ' m happy with it and select "Yes".

... again you need some patience.

Once the desktop is installed, I need the RDP server so I can expose the desktop over a network connection. It ' s a similar command:

sudo apt-get install XRDP

... and even though the console says the RDP server is started, experience shows me it hasn ' t so I type

SUDO/ETC/INIT.D/XRDP start

Next I add a user that I want to is able to use the Remote Desktop with

sudo adduser primech. The "Primech" bit is the username. You get prompted for some and other user-type data.

... now, probably the first thing the user would want to do, because it's probably going to being you, are to install packages and Configure the system. So they need to being added to the sudo group with

sudo adduser primech sudo

great! So now the internals of the Ubuntu Linux server is all set up. I now need to get it communicating over the Internet on the RDP port. By default, on a Linux server, the This port was not set to up, like it was on a Windows server.

In the portal I go to the Endpoints tab and Add a new endpoint.

I Specify a Standalone Endpoint and then on the next page select Remote Desktop with this case leave B Oth the public and private ports at 3389.

That's the default port for RDP connections. The portal connects port 3389 from the Linux Server to the load balancer. It then connects port 3389 from the load balancer to the Internet and maps the external port to the internal one. So anybody now coming in to this service on port 3389 would be taken straight to the Linux Server on port 3389 and the RDP Server running in the Linux server would respond.

Flipping back to the virtual machines page in the portal, now the Remote Desktop Protocol is configured, the "CONNECT" ico N at the bottom of the available.

Clicking this now gives a very similar experience to connecting to a Windows Server only the logon page was coming from the Linux Server. Enter the username and password of the user just created and you'll be logged in to the Gnome desktop.

As a general rule, you'll find the desktop and RDP server is not as optimised for network usage as the Windows desktop, b UT it ' s still a very usable system.

Here are a screenshot of the Linux desktop where I use Firefox to connect to the Windows Azure portal. I can see the portal which is managing the server I ' m connected to.

Now, as the captain of a 747 says, then he needs a coffee– "you have control".

If you want-to-try any of the this stuff-out in Windows Azure, get a free Windows Azure subscription at http://aka.ms /azure_trial.

You can try up to a different labs on Azure using the free Training kit, downloadable from HTTP://AKA/MS/WATK.

You can watch the video of this with step-by-step and click-by-click commentary on the Channel 9 Website.

Running a remote Desktop on a Windows Azure Linux VM (Remote Desktop to Windows Azure Linux)-Excerpt from the network