Thinclient and Remote Desktop Virtualisation Server

[proxbox]

I would like to run virtual machines on a server and access these virtual machines from a thin client. After some research I discovered Proxmox.

I am a software developer and I am looking for a solution that allows me to experiment with different operating systems and containers at home. I would like to create a server for virtualization. This server should be able to run multiple virtual machines simultaneously. These virtual machines should be accessible by a thin-client or laptop on my local network.

What I would like to achieve is that I can run multiple VM's, such as:

• A VM with my default development environment on a Linux installation (if something goes terribly wrong I can simply recover the VM with a backup)
• A VM for experimentation (a sandboxed VM that can not harm my regular work)
• A VM with a Linux desktop for personal use (email, browsing the web, etc.)
• A VM with Windows for my wife (don't ask)
• A VM for home automation software
• A VM that runs simple services (database, webserver, nextcloud, etc.)

After some research I discovered proxmox. I like what I have read about proxmox so far but I have a few remaining questions.

I would like to be able to connect to the VMs from a thin-client and have the experience as if the remote desktop ran on the thin-client. The experience should be fluent without hickups.

Questions:

1. How can I work on the remote virtualized desktops on the server from an other machine? I have seen people use citrix receiver with xen which appeared to work good. What would be the proxmox equivalent for the citrix receiver?
2. Can I achieve a fluent experience on simple consumer grade hardware if two users would be using the above mentioned Linux and Windows desktop VMs simultaneously? (When I am developping and my wife is working on her Windows machine I would hate to see freezes or hickups)

 

[Dark26]

Windows : rdp
Linux : xdmcp / Spice

 

[proxmox-fan]

1a. For Linux workloads, I'm using x2go. Consider also leveraging LXC instead of full KVM: https://forum.proxmox.com/threads/xorg-support-for-containers.52515/

See also: https://blog.simos.info/how-to-use-the-x2go-remote-desktop-with-lxd-containers/

1b. For Windows, RDP is ideal, however you'll need a license better than WIndows Home (no RDP hosting capability).
Spice also works for Windows: https://pve.proxmox.com/wiki/SPICE#Windows

2. Yes, if you leverage an SSD, and keep your CPU / RAM provisioning dedicated to each resource, things should run quite well.
E.g.: If the host has 8 logical cores (4c/4t) and 32 GB RAM, you'll have the best experience if the running VMs/Containers cores do not exceed 8 and memory does not exceed 32 GB RAM. Overprovisioning is a common configuration, however your mileage will vary depending on your workloads.

Be sure to read the docs to ensure everything is optimized (install guest additions for Windows, use VirtIO devices, LXC vs KVM, etc)

 

[proxbox]

Judging by the suggested options and recommended reading material I concluded the following:

Proxmox comes with a SPICE server. Once properly configured I could install a SPICE client on a thin-client and connect to a virtualized remote desktop on the proxmox server.
SPICE would give me the closest 'local desktop' experience, because it should give me good graphical quality and advances features such as sound and usb-redirecting.
Compared to the Citrix receiver I think SPICE comes the closest to that experience.

Although I mainly use Linux OS'es I do need at least one Windows OS for my wife. Spice should work for a virtualized Windows OS as well.

SPICE is however only suitable on a gigabit LAN. For access over the internet trough VPN connections x2go is probably a better candidate.

Did I summarize this correctly?

 

[proxbox]

Be sure to read the docs to ensure everything is optimized (install guest additions for Windows, use VirtIO devices, LXC vs KVM, etc)

What are you implying with LXC vs KVM?

I understand that some applications could be deployed in an LXC container which is more lightweight than a fully virtualized OS, but when my goal is to have a complete virtualized Linux or Windows OS then I should opt for KVM right?

 

[sshaikh]

It's worth noting that any kind of GPU passthrough will disable the proxmox SPICE setup.

I've gone the other way and set up "bespoke" remoting per VM. That's essentially RDP for Windows (although sometimes VNC for GPU/game streaming) and still tossing up between NoMachine and xRDP for Linux desktops.