Guides - Deploy Apache Guacamole through the Linode Marketplace

Apache Guacamole is an open source HTML5-based web application used as a remote desktop gateway. With the Guacamole Marketplace App, you can access your Compute Instance with a graphical VNC session using the Xfce desktop environment from any device. This Marketplace App installs and configures Guacamole on a Compute Instance, complete with an SSL certificate generated by Certbot for your domain.

Deploying a Marketplace App

The Linode Marketplace allows you to easily deploy software on a Compute Instance using the Cloud Manager. See Get Started with Marketplace Apps for complete steps.

1. Log in to the Cloud Manager and select the Marketplace link from the left navigation menu. This displays the Linode Create page with the Marketplace tab pre-selected.

2. Under the Select App section, select the app you would like to deploy.

3. Complete the form by following the steps and advice within the Creating a Compute Instance guide. Depending on the Marketplace App you selected, there may be additional configuration options available. See the Configuration Options section below for compatible distributions, recommended plans, and any additional configuration options available for this Marketplace App.

4. Click the Create Linode button. Once the Compute Instance has been provisioned and has fully powered on, wait for the software installation to complete. If the instance is powered off or restarted before this time, the software installation will likely fail.

To verify that the app has been fully installed, see Get Started with Marketplace Apps > Verify Installation. Once installed, follow the instructions within the Getting Started After Deployment section to access the application and start using it.

Configuration Options

• Supported distributions: Ubuntu 22.04 LTS
• Recommended plan: We recommend a 4GB Dedicated CPU or Shared CPU Compute Instance.

Guacamole Options

• The limited sudo/VNC user to be created for the Linode (required): The VNC username created for this Compute Instance with sudo permissions. This is used for your VNC session.
• The password for the limited sudo/VNC user (required): Password for your sudo/VNC user. This is used for your VNC session.
• The username to be used with Guacamole (required): Your Guacamole Username. This is used to log in to Guacamole.
• The password to be used with Guacamole (required): Your Guacamole Password. This is used to log in to Guacamole.

Limited User SSH Options (Optional)

• SSH public key for the limited user: If you wish to login as the limited user through public key authentication (without entering a password), enter your public key here. See Creating an SSH Key Pair and Configuring Public Key Authentication on a Server for instructions on generating a key pair.
• Disable root access over SSH: To block the root user from logging in over SSH, select Yes (recommended). You can still switch to the root user once logged in and you can also log in as root through Lish.

Custom Domain (Optional)

If you wish to automatically configure a custom domain, you first need to configure your domain to use Linode’s name servers. This is typically accomplished directly through your registrar. See Use Linode’s Name Servers with Your Domain. Once that is finished, you can fill out the following fields for the Marketplace App:

• Linode API Token: If you wish to use the Linode’s DNS Manager to manage DNS records for your custom domain, create a Linode API Personal Access Token on your account with Read/Write access to Domains. If this is provided along with the subdomain and domain fields (outlined below), the installation attempts to create DNS records via the Linode API. See Get an API Access Token. If you do not provide this field, you need to manually configure your DNS records through your DNS provider and point them to the IP address of the new instance.

• Subdomain: The subdomain you wish to use, such as www for www.example.com.

• Domain: The domain name you wish to use, such as example.com.

• Admin Email: The email address to register with Certbot when generating an SSL certificate for your absolute domain. This field is required along with your API Token and Domain for HTTPS access to your Guacamole remote desktop.

Getting Started after Deployment

Access your Guacamole App

After Guacamole has finished installing, the Compute Instance will reboot. Once the instance fully boots back up, you can access the dashboard by following the instructions below.

1. Open your web browser and navigate to the custom domain you entered during deployment or your Compute Instance’s rDNS domain (such as 192-0-2-1.ip.linodeusercontent.com). The site uses the secure HTTPS protocol.

2. In the Apache Guacamole login window that appears, enter the username and password you specified for Guacamole during deployment.

   Note

   The Guacamole login page may take several minutes to become available while the Application completes the creation process.

3. Once you have logged in, the Xfce graphical desktop environment for your Compute Instance will appear. This provides you with full access to your internal system through the VNC user you created.

4. Additional tasks can be performed remotely through your web browser. For example, you can install the Firefox web browser for use with your Guacamole remote desktop by entering the following command in its Terminal Emulator:

   sudo apt install firefox-esr

   When prompted, enter the password you chose for the limited sudo/VNC user. You can now browse the web on your Guacamole browser from within your local browser.

More Information

You may wish to consult the following resources for additional information on this topic. While these are provided in the hope that they will be useful, please note that we cannot vouch for the accuracy or timeliness of externally hosted materials.

• Guacamole Documentation