by Brian Mullan (bmullan.mail@gmail.com)
Installation time is approx 13-15 minutes.
I am happy to introduce CIAB v6 of the CIAB Remote Desktop System.
CIAB ("Cloud-In-A-Box") Remote Desktop System is a server application that integrates and extends the Apache Guacamole clientless remote desktop gateway on a Ubuntu 20.04 LTS host with all applications running in LXD System Containers.
Using only a web browser that supports HTML5, users can connect to a CIAB System installed either locally or remotely on Cloud, VM or Physical Server.
During installation the Admin can choose from many different Desktop Environments including:
- Lubuntu (re LXDE)
- Ubuntu Budgie
- Ubuntu Gnome
- Ubuntu MATE
- Xubuntu (re XFCE)
- Kubuntu (re KDE) - NOTE: The KDE desktop is not implemented at this time but hopefully soon.
The file "ciab.zip" includes all of the installation Bash Scripts and associated files required to create an LXD container based CIAB Remote Desktop System.
CIAB installation will create two LXD containers:
-
ciab-cn1 - which will have an installer's choice of Desktop Envrionment installed in it
-
ciab-guac - will have Guacamole, Tomcat9, PostgreSQL, and NGINX installed via Docker in ciab-guac.
We create the LXD "ciab-guac" container with the command option to "enable container "nesting". This is why we are able to install Docker "inside" the LXD "ciab-guac" container.
Once installation is complete you can access both Guacamole & the ciab-cn1 based Desktop using any HTML5 Web Browser.
We configure Guacamole/NGINX etc with a "self-signed" certificate to allow support for using HTTPS.
This means the connection from a User to the Remote Desktop is encrypted.
NOTE With CIAB-Guacamole for user "Connections" you can configure CIAB-Guacamole to also connect to Windows Servers !
Installation of CIAB is predominately automated and requires minimal input by the Admin/Installer!
Execute the following 2 Bash scripts extracted from the CIAB.ZIP file
- ciab-pre-install.sh
- ciab-install.sh
Steps to Install CIAB:
Follow the Installation Diagrams & Information in the CIAB Remote Desktop System Installation Guide.PDF