Remote Desktop or VNC can be invaluable in an IT environment. It allows you to view and interact with the desktop of a machine from anywhere. While DRAC's do provide this functionality, not all Dell Servers have DRAC's, and if your DRAC's are on a separate network, this can sometimes be a hassle if you only have access to your production network. Use this article to learn how to set up your scripted OS installs to enable these remote access features as part of the install allowing you instant access without any extra work.

Linux even has a feature to view and interact with the install process over VNC, which may be useful if want to hand-tweak some installation settings without having to leave your desk.

Below are instructions for each operating system supported by scripted OS installs in Deployment Solution for Dell Servers:

Windows Server 2008 (32 and 64-bit):

Click on Tools->Dell Tools->Configuration Utility->OS Deployment and click on your Windows Server 2008 Configuration. Then click on "Answer File."

Click to view.

Edit the answer file to add the section to the <settings pass="specialize"> section:

<component name="Microsoft-Windows-TerminalServices-LocalSessionManager" processorArchitecture="x86" publicKeyToken="31bf3856ad364e35" language="neutral" versionScope="nonSxS" xmlns:wcm="http://schemas.microsoft.com/WMIConfig/2002/State" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance">
      <fDenyTSConnections>false</fDenyTSConnections>
</component>

Save the answer file and deploy your machines. Once the scripted os install is complete, connect to them using the Remote Desktop Client which is available in the Windows Start Menu, under Programs->Accessories->Remote Desktop Connection.

Windows Server 2003 (32 and 64-bit):

Click on Tools->Dell Tools->Configuration Utility->OS Deployment and click on your Windows Server 2003 Configuration. Then click on "Answer File."

Edit the answer file and add a [TerminalServices] section if it doesn't already exist. Then add "AllowConnections=1" as follows:

[TerminalServices]
AllowConnections=1

Save the answer file and deploy your machines. Once the scripted os install is complete, connect to them using the Remote Desktop Client which is available in the Windows Start Menu, under Programs->Accessories->Remote Desktop Connection.

Redhat Enterprise Linux (32 and 64-bit):

Redhat Linux offers remote desktop capabilities through VNC which utilizes an open-source protocol. VNC can be enabled for use after the install similar to Windows, but in addition also supports VNC connections during the installation process. This is handy if you want to customize the install without having to leave your desk. Below I will explain how to do both.

First get the VNC client:

In order to view VNC connections on windows you need to download a VNC client. I recommend "TightVNC" available from http://www.tightvnc.com/HYPERLINK "http://www.tightvnc.com/". Download the client on your Deployment Server and install it wherever you'd like.

How to set up VNC installation connectivity:

First launch the TightVNC viewer, and click "Listening Mode."

Click to view.

The application will then minimize itself to the system tray and listen on port 5500 (changeable in the options) for VNC connections. You may want to check your Firewall to make sure it isn't blocking incoming requests from that port.

Next open your Redhat installation kickstart file by clicking on Tools->Dell Tools->Configuration Utility->OS Deployment and click your Redhat OS Configuration. Next click "Answer File" to open the kickstart file. Add the following entry to the "Command Sections" section:

vnc --password=altiris --host=192.168.0.20 --port=5500

Replace the host name above with the hostname or IP address of the machine your TightVNC app is listening on.

You're done with setting up VNC remote connectivity for the installer. If you don't want to set up VNC connectivity for the production environment you can run the job now. If you do want to set up VNC connection for use after the installation is complete, proceed to the next section.

How to set up VNC connectivity after the install has completed:

Having a VNC server enabled is akin to having "Remote Desktop" enabled for you Windows folks. To enable the VNC server in Linux after the installation has completed and have it running all the time you need to set the service to start at boot up, and set a password. Follow these steps:

Step 1) Download the attached job bin file (vnc_enable.bin) and password file (passwd) and save it on your desktop.

Step 2) Import the job, by right-clicking the job folder and clicking "Import" then browsing to the file.

Click to view.

Step 3) Click on the job, and view it's two tasks.

Click to view.

As you can see the first task copies the password file, and the second task is a script that enables VNC.

A word about the password file:

VNC requires a password (and rightly so). The password is stored in an encrypted password file produced by a Linux program called vncpasswd. The password file supplied by this article is for convenience and is for the password "altiris". Feel free to use it to get up in running, but in a production environment I recommend you create your own collection of password files.

To create a password file, type "vncpasswd" on a Linux machine that has vnc installed and enter a new password. This will create a password file at this location: ~/.vnc/passwd. Copy this file to a folder anywhere on the DS server. Next, make sure that the copy file task in the SetupVNC job knows where to find it.

By default this job will enable VNC support for the root users. If you want VNC access enabled for a different user, change the destination path for the password file to the home directory of the user you want to enable. Then change the VNCUSER=root variable in the script to match that user. With a few script modifications, you can even set up access for several users. Google is an excellent resource for instructions on how to add multiple users to the /etc/sysconfig/vncserver configuration file.

With the password file in the right place and the Copy file task updated, you're ready to run the job. If the job completed successfully, you should have VNC enabled on your Linux box. All that's left is to connect to it using a VNC viewer such as TightVNC or realVNC.

Click to view.

Feel free to copy these two tasks and paste them into your Scripted OS install job, enabling VNC by default whenever you install Redhat Enterprise Linux.

Additional hints:

VNC can be a powerful tool for outside parties to access their systems. For instance, if you're an IT shop who maintains servers for several different entities and wish to give them direct access to their hardware, VNC is an excellent way to do this. Always keep security in mind, and take advantage of VNC's security features such as SSH tunneling. Giving users direct access can in some cases greatly reduce the burden on IT by allowing users to manage certain aspects of their systems.

Suse Linux Enterprise Server:

The steps to enable VNC support for Suse are similar to Redhat, but the commands are different. The first major difference is configuration is done with yast, and the second is that Suse has the firewall enabled by default so you'll have to do some firewall configuration.

Here are some sample commands to help you get started:

#This enables the VNC service
yast2 remote allow set=yes

#This adds the "Remote administration" which is the VNC service to the firewall exception list under the "External" zone.
yast2 firewall services add service=vnc zone=EXT

After the VNC service has been turned on, and any firewall issues have been resolved you should be able to connect to Display #1 without a password. Not to worry, once your connection is established you will be presented with an X logon screen.

Click to view.