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Citrix inside RDP through VPN inside VM
Tobias Dammers
Member #2,604
August 2002
avatar

Just thought some of you guy might appreciate the nerd-appeal of a solution I just came up with.

But first for the problem: To log into the company network from home, I need to install the cisco VPN client. Fair enough, but for some reason, the thing started to misbehave (badly - up to a BSOD on OS startup) on my machine about two weeks ago, and so far, the only reason I can think of is either an XP update, or the firewall. However, there is no way I'm going online without a firewall, and I won't stop installing XP updates either. Removing the VPN client fixed everything, but this means I can't connect to the company network.

Here's the solution: I installed MS Virtual PC, use it to run one of the free XP images, and inside the virtual machine, I installed the VPN client. This works, so from there, I can connect to my workstation at the office through RDP, and inside that RDP session, I connect to a citrix desktop. Amazingly, it's all reasonably fast.

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Me make music: Triofobie
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"We need Tobias and his awesome trombone, too." - Johan Halmén

GullRaDriel
Member #3,861
September 2003
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I have the same issue with orange buisness everywhere solution on our custom XP version. BSOD until installed in a vm.

OT, Funny story ;D

"Code is like shit - it only smells if it is not yours"
Allegro Wiki, full of examples and articles !!

Tobias Dammers
Member #2,604
August 2002
avatar

The funny thing is that the performance is better than what I had before (when the vpn client worked flawlessly).

I just don't get how a vpn client has to be this intrusive.

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Me make music: Triofobie
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"We need Tobias and his awesome trombone, too." - Johan Halmén

GullRaDriel
Member #3,861
September 2003
avatar

Because it installs virtual ethernet cards most of the time.

"Code is like shit - it only smells if it is not yours"
Allegro Wiki, full of examples and articles !!

Crazy Photon
Member #2,588
July 2002
avatar

Been on a similar situation in the past - most likely you need to use a different version for the Cisco VPN Client.

Off topic: Today's my b'day and at the same time switching jobs!

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Resistance is NEVER futile...

Tobias Dammers
Member #2,604
August 2002
avatar

Been on a similar situation in the past - most likely you need to use a different version for the Cisco VPN Client.

I tried three different versions. One crashed while installing, one BSODed about two seconds after establishing a connections, the third one crashed while installing, to the point that I had to do a system restore. The odd thing is, it used to work flawlessly a few weeks ago.

Virtual machines are huge fun though, I just installed debian and freedos, just because I can. Then I used google through lynx which felt really really nerdish. I also set up a script to download the entire collection of windows IE compatibility images tonight (about 5.7 GB) which I will be installing tomorrow.

Almost forgot to post the obligatory xkcd link:
{"name":"network.png","src":"\/\/djungxnpq2nug.cloudfront.net\/image\/cache\/6\/e\/6ee7d1f8b3e7c525ed87e22400a6ff39.png","w":740,"h":414,"tn":"\/\/djungxnpq2nug.cloudfront.net\/image\/cache\/6\/e\/6ee7d1f8b3e7c525ed87e22400a6ff39"}network.png

Quote:

Off topic: Today's my b'day and at the same time switching jobs!

Double congrats! ;D
(Assuming the job switch is of the good kind, not the one where you go from a highly-paid software design job with lots of freedom and a good health plan to mopping floors at minimum wage.)

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Me make music: Triofobie
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"We need Tobias and his awesome trombone, too." - Johan Halmén

Crazy Photon
Member #2,588
July 2002
avatar

Double thanks :)

Virtual machines are huge fun though

Indeed, I have used them as testbeds for testing out distros and playing old games.

Quote:

Assuming the job switch is of the good kind

Assumption is correct ;)

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Resistance is NEVER futile...

ixilom
Member #7,167
April 2006
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You must now from the end machine use VNC to another box, which in turn uses putty to access SSH on another box, to get out on IRC with B1tchX. :P

___________________________________________
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<someone> I think they misunderstood when I said I wanna watch...

Tobias Dammers
Member #2,604
August 2002
avatar

ixilom said:

You must now from the end machine use VNC to another box, which in turn uses putty to access SSH on another box, to get out on IRC with B1tchX

It's fool-proof!

Indeed, I have used them as testbeds for testing out distros and playing old games.

I use them at work, to test web applications and other stuff against various windows setups, browsers, screen resolutions, color depths, network restrictions (the VM computer is not a member of the domain like the physical machines on the LAN), etc.

I'm also setting up a linux server that duplicates the settings of my shared host; I develop in windows, but PHP, mysql and apache appear to have different bugs on each platform, so I want to test in an environment that matches the target system as closely as possible.

ANd of course they're good for high-risk online activities - if something fscks up the VM, you just delete it and create a new one.

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Me make music: Triofobie
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"We need Tobias and his awesome trombone, too." - Johan Halmén

bamccaig
Member #7,536
July 2006
avatar

One of my dreams: to have like a massive mainframe or something running multiple desktop, server, and maybe even game console OSes, probably all in separate VMs; all accessible over the network through dumb terminals.

So you just login to a dumb terminal and select the OS and it's as if you're immediately running it. Preferably free to switch between OSes at the press of a button or command.

I assume a sufficiently powerful mainframe could manage to process all of those OSes and probably even crunch some serious numbers, whether for work or for gaming... I'm sure it would also cost a few tens of millions of dollars to buy one, and a few million more for all of the systems required to keep it running reliably and to maintain it, etc., but still it would be a pretty sweet setup.

</fantasy>

Crazy Photon
Member #2,588
July 2002
avatar

bamccaig said:

One of my dreams: to have like a massive mainframe or something running multiple desktop, server, and maybe even game console OSes, probably all in separate VMs; all accessible over the network through dumb terminals.

Heh, one of the ISPs over here actually work in that way, and it did cost as much as you said :o

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Resistance is NEVER futile...

Tobias Dammers
Member #2,604
August 2002
avatar

bamccaig said:

One of my dreams: to have like a massive mainframe or something running multiple desktop, server, and maybe even game console OSes, probably all in separate VMs; all accessible over the network through dumb terminals.

So you just login to a dumb terminal and select the OS and it's as if you're immediately running it. Preferably free to switch between OSes at the press of a button or command.

I assume a sufficiently powerful mainframe could manage to process all of those OSes and probably even crunch some serious numbers, whether for work or for gaming... I'm sure it would also cost a few tens of millions of dollars to buy one, and a few million more for all of the systems required to keep it running reliably and to maintain it, etc., but still it would be a pretty sweet setup.

That's a nerd's wet dream, but a similar setup can be very useful, and I've heard of at least one company that uses it.
They have a number of powerful physical servers located in datacenters spread throughout Europe, and together they run a bunch of virtual servers. With the virtualization framework they have, those servers can be duplicated and moved across the world without any noticable downtime, which they frequently do to keep the load nicely balanced between them.
Also, since the physical servers exchange incremental backups every few seconds, the whole thing would still remain up and running without any noticable downtime if one or more datacenters were nuked (they'd only use a few seconds worth of data).
Another nice option is to delete an entire server in case it crashes and restore it from a backup copy from, say, a minute before the crash (with a live OS already up and running, so no reboot required). Backups in general; finally, the whole backup problem is solved in a very elegant way - with a virtual machine, you can backup not only your data, but every single byte in the system, including RAM and I/O state. Once you restore a backup, the system is instantly available, without even rebooting.

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Me make music: Triofobie
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"We need Tobias and his awesome trombone, too." - Johan Halmén

Thomas Harte
Member #33
April 2000
avatar

Once you restore a backup, the system is instantly available, without even rebooting.

I vote for a jog dial on top of the terminals to rewind and fast forward through earlier states exactly as I would on any other linear media.

pooh2000mk
Member #475
June 2000

Get a decent size server with a quad and SATA3 raid 0 (striping). Then install the ESXi from VMWare, when done, create several images running whatever you want. Once done, use another PC or a Laptop (Laptop is best) and remote to any of your available images. It works flawlessly and will give you what you need.

http://www.vmware.com/products/esxi/

-mopem bopem

Tobias Dammers
Member #2,604
August 2002
avatar

Get a decent size server with a quad and SATA3 raid 0 (striping).

If I had the money to buy that kind of equipment, I would. I don't, though, and I don't think I can persuade my boss to spend this kind of money on a server that only I will use, so I'll use what I have right now, OK?

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Me make music: Triofobie
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"We need Tobias and his awesome trombone, too." - Johan Halmén

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