Permanent VNC Server for KVM machines ?

[holgerb]

Hi there,

a quick search on the topic "Using external VNC viewer" revealed the following thread:
http://www.proxmox.com/forum/showthread.php?p=2721#poststop

Starting up a VNC server as described in this posting works fine:
http://www.proxmox.com/forum/showpost.php?p=2723&postcount=2

I would like to know if there is a way to enable a VNC server to access certain VMs per default (similar to Xen) ?

The Java VNC Viewer launched from the Proxmox WebGUI itself behaves very flakey for me and often looses connection.

TIA,
Holger

 

[mikhmv]

for have resumable session after loosing connection in command line you can install screen
apt-get install screen
and later use it:
screen -R

or for complete GUI you can use:
http://www.proxmox.com/forum/showthread.php?t=1738

 

[holgerb]

Hi mikhmv,

1st thanks for posting. I am aware of using screen to send processes to the "background". My idea was more to have a permanent VNC server running at the proxmox host providing permanent access to VMs (we currently mainly use KVM guest since we run multiple WinXP machines).

In Xen you can permanently enable a VNC "display" connected to the guest itself. Starting multiple VNC sessions on the proxmox host for each VM is an option of course but I wanted to know if there are other options.

Also I´m unsure how your guide for an OpenVZ container with X11 / VNC server kicks in here since I want VNC connections to KVM machines with not only one-time password.

Best regards,
Holger

 

[alphadog]

I would love a more permanent solution myself. I find that my Windows virtual machines, when accessed via the java applet through the website suffer from an occasional stutter on my Vista x64 (now Windows 7) workstation. If I kick off a one-time VNC session, and access via RealVNC, I don't get that same stutter/pausing.

However, having to SSH into the host to kick off the VNC sessions is annoying...

 

[dietmar]

Why dont you use RDP for you windows machines? The VNC console is just to configure the VM initially.

- Dietmar

 

[holgerb]

Hi there,

@Dietmar:
No shure who you are refering to with RDP on Windows machines but I agree.
Using VNC as terminal solution to a Windows machine doesn´t make much sense. But using the integrated VNC console for initial setup and configuration is a real PITA if the java VNC client uses connection every time a window is redrawn. At least that is happening on my Notebook (WINXP SP3 OS / Fireforx 3.5 / Proxmox VE1.3 server).

So once again: Have an integrated permanent VNC server for dedicated VMs would be a nice option

Thanks for giving away such a nice solution for free.

@alphadog:
For Windows I would always use RDP. For Linux guest you can use NXServer as remote desktop. It´s much faster than VNC.

Best regards,
Holger

 

[chrismog]

This worked for me. Edit your /etc/inetd.conf and add the following line. One line represents one VNC server for a single KVM guest.

5901 stream tcp nowait root /usr/sbin/qm qm vncproxy 101 SecretPassword

So basically, if you opened up a VNC Viewer and connected to port 5901 you would be able to see the virtual console of KVM #101, after authenticating by typing in the password specified where 'SecretPassword' goes. Make sure to restart openbsd-inetd after making changes to the inetd.conf file. This solution was originally created/posted by Clipcarl in this thread.

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