Lab Implementation

[Jerry Westrick]

On Friday 25 February 2005 22:44, Gary Sieker wrote:
> timjgallo wrote:
> >SO, I'm attempting to setup remote access to one of my labs...and I have a
> > need to make all the machines accessible.
> >
> >What I was planning on doing was establishing a Launchpad server using SSH
> > or something and then tunnelling VNC through SSH...what >I'd like to do
> > is run each VNC server on a different port.  This i know works...my
> > problem is...
> >
> >I'd like to be able to automate installation so that If I reimage a
> > mchine, I can autmatically configure it to go back to that >non-standard
> > VNC port...
> >
> >I'm going to be doing this on both WIndows 2k,2k3,XP and Solaris 8,9...
> >
> >Does anyone here have a method or script that can be written so that post
> > OS/application installation it can automatically >configure the VNC
> > listnening port?  Or possibly tell me what files/reg entries need to be
> > changed and i can then write my own reg >hack/shell script to run post
> > install?
> >
> >Thanks
> >--Tim
>
> Hey, Tim.
>
> This proably isn't what your looking for, but it sounds like the easier
> thing to do would be to forward the different connections to the *standard*
> vnc port of each machine. This would allow you to have the exact same vnc
> config on each of your target machines and let the server machine handle
> the port fowarding from 5901,5902,5903,etc to the correct ip address:5900. 
> I've done this with a linksys router and also with zebedee tunneling
> software (sorta like ssh) and it has worked great for me.  I know ssh is
> capable of doing this too, I just don't know ssh syntax.
>
> hth
> -Gary

Tim is right that is the way i do also...

the syntax is ssh -L 5901:<labmachine1>:5900 <username>@<ssh-host>
or if your are using tightvnc:  
vncviewer -via <username>@<sshhost>  <labmachine1>:0 
which calls ssh with the correct parameters for you...

Note that this method does not leave you lab machine vulnerable to direct 
attacks from the internet!


Jerry