I sometimes need to provide access to virtual machines for training. The VM's allow people to get hands-on training to augment the classroom work we do. Problem is, our customers have IT departments with varying degrees of draconian policies, so I'm looking for the lightest possible solution, which seems to be browser-based remote access with no client to install.
I'm previewing Deskroll, which seems OK. Any other experiences / suggestions?
Thanks!
Well, I don't have solutions, I'm looking for one myself. I had a look at Deskroll. What I understood was that it is "remote desktop software", VNC in the old terminology. There are many other browser-based solutions, but they need respective add-ons. This one claims to be built-in to the standard browser. Must be HTML5 in that case. Whatever, there must be a host, the server-side, somewhere.
For the server-side it has to be either (heavy-weight) virtualization like KVM, Bochs (or ESX, Hyper-V if you have the money) or the more modern (light-weight) containers, Docker & Co. Unless you have a stove of public IP addresses, giving remote access will be a problem. A cheaper solution would be to use private IP addresses and give the participants VPN access to that (private) network. That is what comes to my mind. More ideas are welcome!
For the server-side it has to be either (heavy-weight) virtualization like KVM, Bochs (or ESX, Hyper-V if you have the money) or the more modern (light-weight) containers, Docker & Co. Unless you have a stove of public IP addresses, giving remote access will be a problem. A cheaper solution would be to use private IP addresses and give the participants VPN access to that (private) network. That is what comes to my mind. More ideas are welcome!
In reply to Visvanath Ratnaweera
Re: Platforms for Virtual Machine access?
by Visvanath Ratnaweera -
Just to report that my need was satisfied with a plain and simple VPS.
- 25 people started installing Moodle manually, basically going through the full tutorial https://docs.moodle.org/en/Installing_Moodle.
- I gave each of them a shell account 'userXYZ', a database 'dbXYZ', a 'dbuserXYZ', a code directory '/var/www/moodleXYZ', a moodle data directory '/var/www/moodleXYZdata', an Apache virtual host 'siteXYZ.example.com'.
Now they can install and reinstall their Moodle sites as they wish. Only a terminal emulator (PuTTY for the Windows people) is needed, in addition to the browser to open the Moodle GUI. No VNC. No JavaScript simulations, ... So far working more than satisfactorily.
- I gave each of them a shell account 'userXYZ', a database 'dbXYZ', a 'dbuserXYZ', a code directory '/var/www/moodleXYZ', a moodle data directory '/var/www/moodleXYZdata', an Apache virtual host 'siteXYZ.example.com'.
Now they can install and reinstall their Moodle sites as they wish. Only a terminal emulator (PuTTY for the Windows people) is needed, in addition to the browser to open the Moodle GUI. No VNC. No JavaScript simulations, ... So far working more than satisfactorily.
Well, the problems are not in the technology, but those who are overwhelmed by the shell command language. If they decide to invest on the CLI, they already have a shell access, in a common computer. So I can see what is happening without screen-sharing (video meetings) or RDP (VNC) or TeamViewer etc.
Dear Visvanath,
Just found out that Windows can ssh via its own client, so don't need PuTTY -> https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-server/administration/openssh/openssh_overview - as a third party app.
G
Just found out that Windows can ssh via its own client, so don't need PuTTY -> https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-server/administration/openssh/openssh_overview - as a third party app.
G
That is good news. Hope that'll make the future Windows generations less terminal shy.
Hi Visvanath,
this is a good solution!
Where is the VPS hosted? What are the specifications for this VPS?
A few weeks ago I tested a similar setting in AWS. It was first successfull but failed after a view days. This is probably related to the specifications of the VPS.
I also run a virtual machine with Moodle 4.0 on my local machine. I notice no problems. But this is not the best solution for training purposes.
Regards, Horst
Hallo Horst
The VPS hosted at a medium sized (for Swiss, small for world standards) hosting company, conventional (KVM, QEMU) technology. No fancy cloud nor "pay for what you use" sales arguments. Instead real people answer my support mails, can have a rapid discussion, if urgent. So much humane and FOSS friendly (and understand the software and hardware they use). Not going to mention the name in the public. You (or anybody) can send me a PM, if you wish to know. Generally I don't think you want to host in Switzerland, it is an "expensive island", generally and for the Amazon, Microsoft crowd from US specifically.
The specs are 2 vCPU, 4 GB RAM, 100 GB disk in SSD RAID. I prepared it for 1000 shell accounts, 1000 databases, 1000 document roots for 1000 sub-domains, 1000 moodledata. 24 participants took part in the course, the server haven't even noticed anything. All the load I saw came from what I did. Unsurprising, since this for a course, people do what they were asked to do (course requirements) and vanish.
I don't know how AWS behaves, not interested. Same thing with Moodle 4.0. Asked the people to install Moodle 3.9 and then successively upgrade to whatever they want.
To do the same in my local machine, I don't need virtualization. My desktop is Linux native, MX Linux https://distrowatch.com/table.php?distribution=mx, which is basically Debian 11. But I don't want to give shell access to others! If you are talking of a classroom setup, I would plug a Raspberry Pi to the LAN or take a MoodleBox https://moodlebox.net and let them connect to its Wi-Fi.
The VPS hosted at a medium sized (for Swiss, small for world standards) hosting company, conventional (KVM, QEMU) technology. No fancy cloud nor "pay for what you use" sales arguments. Instead real people answer my support mails, can have a rapid discussion, if urgent. So much humane and FOSS friendly (and understand the software and hardware they use). Not going to mention the name in the public. You (or anybody) can send me a PM, if you wish to know. Generally I don't think you want to host in Switzerland, it is an "expensive island", generally and for the Amazon, Microsoft crowd from US specifically.
The specs are 2 vCPU, 4 GB RAM, 100 GB disk in SSD RAID. I prepared it for 1000 shell accounts, 1000 databases, 1000 document roots for 1000 sub-domains, 1000 moodledata. 24 participants took part in the course, the server haven't even noticed anything. All the load I saw came from what I did. Unsurprising, since this for a course, people do what they were asked to do (course requirements) and vanish.
I don't know how AWS behaves, not interested. Same thing with Moodle 4.0. Asked the people to install Moodle 3.9 and then successively upgrade to whatever they want.
To do the same in my local machine, I don't need virtualization. My desktop is Linux native, MX Linux https://distrowatch.com/table.php?distribution=mx, which is basically Debian 11. But I don't want to give shell access to others! If you are talking of a classroom setup, I would plug a Raspberry Pi to the LAN or take a MoodleBox https://moodlebox.net and let them connect to its Wi-Fi.
Hi Visvanath,
thanks for the informations!
Regards, Horst
thanks for the informations!
Regards, Horst
Hi Horst
You are in Germany? Then you can get the same things as in Switzerland and more priceworthy! In fact a long ago I hosted in Germany, at a well-known hosting operation in Bavaria. In between the users have become aware of the value of their data and want to have sovereignty over there data, meaning the data center needs to be in their country. I expect the Germans to think the same. You talk about AWS as if it is the village grocery! The big names ring alarm in my circles.
You are in Germany? Then you can get the same things as in Switzerland and more priceworthy! In fact a long ago I hosted in Germany, at a well-known hosting operation in Bavaria. In between the users have become aware of the value of their data and want to have sovereignty over there data, meaning the data center needs to be in their country. I expect the Germans to think the same. You talk about AWS as if it is the village grocery! The big names ring alarm in my circles.