Proxmox with Igel (Spice)

[Ralph]

I just received a testing device from IGEL that I want to use as a thin-client for a virtualized Windows7 PC.

The virtualized WIN7-PC runs under Proxmox and is accesible via the Proxmox Web-GUI and SPICE - no problem there. (I use firefox on my admin PC with virt-viewer installed locally and I am able to access the proxmox-virtual PC from there without any problems.)

But: Do I have a chance to use the IGEL hardware thin client to access the virtual WIN7-PC?

I can use the IGEL-setup to point it to a "SPICE-broker". This results in starting firefox on the IGEL-hardware upon startup and showing the webpage that I provided as the "SPICE-broker". If I use https:/192.168.0.xxx:8006 as a target for the SPICE-broker in the IGEL set-up, I can see the proxmox web-GUI on the screen connected to the IGEL-device right after the IGEL-device is booting.

But I can not connect to the virtualized WIN7-PC from there.

Is there an URL that I can provide to IGEL-setup (SPICE-Broker) that will access my virtual WIN7-PC - maybe something like https:/192.186.0.20:1234/linktovirtualpc?

THX for any help
Ralph

 

[dietmar]

Why not (what is the problem)? Is there any error message?

Is there an URL that I can provide to IGEL-setup (SPICE-Broker) that will access my virtual WIN7-PC - maybe something like https:/192.186.0.20:1234/linktovirtualpc? THX for any help Ralph

no, you need to use the GUI to connect.

 

[Ralph]

If I click "Spice Console" in the proxmox-GUI, the IGEL client doesn't know what to do - no virt-viewer installed there...

Edit:
The remote-viewer can be found at /services/spice/bin. When firefox asks what to do with the ticket, open it with the remote-viewer...

I really do have to use the proxmox GUI to connect to the virtualized PC??

I would like to have a thin client (doesn't have to be IGEL) that is somehow connected to a virtual PC: The user should't have to pick the correct virtual PC in the proxmox GUI but should be immediately connected to the correct virtual PC that is somehow assigned to this thin client.

Any ideas if and how that could work?

Ralph

 

[tom]

read this whole thread.

http://forum.proxmox.com/threads/16561-Remote-Spice-access-*without*-using-web-manager

 

[Ralph]

I can't figure out how to do that... Sorry! I am completely new to desktop virtualization and thin clients.

Does anybody have a solution for my task to have a thin client directly connected to a VM running Windows7 in Proxmox? Does this work at all? How?

I need to replace about 6 or 7 PCs running Windows XP at the moment and I had the idea of using VMs with Windows7 and thin clients for this task.

The end users should have the feeling of using a "real PC": Turn on the thin client and use Windows7 as if it was on a hardware PC on the desk, but it is actually running within a VM in Proxmox.

Ralph

 

[blackpaw]

If spice viewer is not Installed on the IGEL then it will not be able to connect.

You would be better off using remote desktop (rdp), it should support that.

Sent from my MT27i using Tapatalk

 

[Milkwyrm]

Your really looking at the wrong product for what you want to do. Proxmox is an excelent server infrastructure solution, but it is NOT particularly well designed to move across into the VDI space (Authentication really needs to be able to read from an AD group as a starter).
One of the better qemu-kvm based VDI solutions I have found is FOSS-CLOUD.ORG, but it is really lacking in docmentation around authentication and is designed for larger deployments. Plus the lack of spice (QXL-WDDM) drivers beyond windows 7 is holding all KVM solutions back.

 

[tom]

I just visited foss-cloud pages, last ISO image is more than a year old.

The community forum on http://www.foss-cloud.org/forum/ is more or less empty - seems the forum is not the number one place for sharing foss-cloud experiences.?

Just to note, Proxmox VE can authenticate against ADS, see http://pve.proxmox.com/wiki/User_Management

 

[Milkwyrm]

Tom there is a fairly recent ISO for foss-cloud on the sourceforge site. http://sourceforge.net/projects/foss-cloud/files/1.2.20/ (from April this year) And I'm aware that proxmox authenticates against AD. What i meant was that you cant just set up a OU in Active Directory and just configure users in it to have access. having to add users into the proxmox gui adds a lot more work when you want to configure large numbers of users against some virtual desktops.. + auto startup and shut down of VM's to meet demand as required are common VDI capabilities. This is not to Say Proxmox isnt excellent as a infrastructure virtualisation solution, and maybe for small scale VDI (with deadicated VM's per user) as long as win8.1 isnt your desktop of choice (not proxmox's fault - Spice driver issue).

 

[tom]

thanks for the link to the iso, seems I missed this one. the downlink from http://www.foss-cloud.org/en/wiki/Download points to an old version.

and yes, Proxmox VE is not primarily designed for VDI, but the question is: is foss-cloud ready for large scale VDI deployments? do you use it?
(comparable to the offerings from Microsoft, VMware or Citrix).

 

[Milkwyrm]

I tested it out as an option for us, but decided that we were too small to be it's target market. It is overly complex for a small deployment with it's insistence on multiple Vlans and server hardware recommendations. This and the lack of documentation around authentication ruled it out for us. But the user management (built-in) + the use of gold templates, and vm assignment is very good. I couldnt recommend it unless you have a good Linux skill set and the budget for switches and servers as per their recommended build spec's

 

[Ralph]

What I just found at the Igel-Website about the so called "appliance mode for spice":

"...Red Hat Enterprise Virtualization for Desktops. This optional setting speeds up the log-on process and minimizes user interaction by bypassing the local thin client user interface. Only a few seconds after the IGEL thin client has been switched on, the log-on screen for the virtual desktop is displayed."

You can configure that Igel thin client to automatically connect to a virtual desktop. That of course was designed for and probably just works with Red Hat Enterprise Virtualization for Desktops (RHEV-D), but since this appliance mode is using spice there might be a chance to get this working with proxmox? Unfortunately I didn't have a chance to find any details about this mode and how it could be used in proxmox. I know that proxmox isn't made for desktop virtualisation in the first place - but it would be just great to have this option! And I know I'm not alone ;-) Any ideas? Ralph

 

[Ralph]

It is possible to automatically connect an Igel Thin Client to a virtualized Win7-machine that runs in Proxmox - without using the GUI!

I tested it under Proxmox VE 3.3 and Igel Firmware 5.05.100 with an Igel UD3 LX

I use this script, based on a script provided by Proxmox https://git.proxmox.com/?p=pve-manager.git;a=blob;f=spice-example-sh:

#!/bin/bash

# needs pve-manager >= 3.1-44

USERNAME=youruser
PASSWORD=yourpassword
VMID=123
NODE=yourhost
PROXY=yourhost.domain.com

DATA=$(curl -f -s -S -k -d "username=$USERNAME&password=$PASSWORD"  https://$PROXY:8006/api2/json/access/ticket)

TICKET=${DATA//\"/}
TICKET=${TICKET##*ticket:}
TICKET=${TICKET%%,*}

CSRF=${DATA//\"/}
CSRF=${CSRF##*CSRFPreventionToken:}
CSRF=${CSRF%%,*}

curl -f -s -S -k -b "PVEAuthCookie=$TICKET" -H "CSRFPreventionToken: $CSRF" https://$PROXY:8006/api2/spiceconfig/nodes/$NODE/qemu/$VMID/spiceproxy -d "proxy=$PROXY" > spiceproxy

remote-viewer spiceproxy

# or use kiosk mode:
# remote-viewer -k spiceproxy

Put this script into a custom partition of your Igel (any other parts of the filesystem will be purged at shutdown) and recall it as a desktop command at "Desktop Final" (http://edocs.igel.com/index.htm#2848.htm).

Ralph