ECE Guacamole

Guacamole -- A Web Browser Interface to the ECE Linux Machines

Guacamole provides a way of using the Linux machines without having to install any software, you just use your web browser.

• Works from anywhere, on campus or off.
  No needing to use VT's VPN.
• Connections don't die when you close your web browser.
• You can connect to several different computers at the same time and switch between them.
• You can leave long running processes running.
  For example you can start "matlab" then start run a long running script. Close your web browser/laptop. Come back tomorrow, reconnect and pick up where you left off.
• Simple file transfer.
• Connections are secure.
• The full documentation for using Guacamole is here.

What you need to know:

• To login you will use your ECE computer account. If you don't have one, go here and create one.
• When you are connected to a computer you can bring up the "Guacamole Menu" with <CTRL><SHIFT><ALT> key combination. This will allow you to do several things.
  • Disconnect from the current session and connect to a different computer.
  • Transfer files to/from the remote machine.

Problems and Bugs:

If you find something not working, please let me know: john.ghra (at) vt.edu. If you don't let me know of problems, I can't fix them!

Known problems and work arounds:

Login Problem

If you are having trouble login into the Guacamole page, it is possible that your password has expired. Passwords are set to expire once a year. The guacamole login does not tell you that your password has expired, it just does not allow you to login!

To fix this, go here and login with your VT PID/password. Then Edit your account to change your password. There is an oddity with the "Edit" account where you must select your (one and only) account from the drop down list.

Connection fails with strange messages.

This seems to happen when several people try to connect at the same time. For now, just try to reconnect, it almost always works the second (or third) time.

Text is a little fuzzy / blurry to read.

Click the <CTRL><SHIFT><ALT> key combination. Scroll all the way to the bottom. Uncheck Automatically fit to browser window.

The initial connection to a machine takes a while.

Just be patient. When you reconnect to a machine, its pretty quick.

There is a copy&paste clipboard between your computer and the remote computer. This does not work for all combinations of (local computer, browser, remote computer).

I will try to post updates about this.

This type of connection is slow and laggy.

Yes. There is probably nothing I can do about that. If you want a more responsive interface, you will probably need to do a native X windows connection.

Pick machine:

• Pick a machine that is not too busy (Load Average).
• If you are trying to reconnect to a machine you used before but you've forgotten which one, look for your login (Logged In).

Machine Name	Load Average (lower is better)	Logged In
Compute Machine 01	0.05	crjones4 jkh karthikms91 vikaskrishnan
Compute Machine 02	0.05	jkh karthikms91 zhenghh
Compute Machine 03	0.05	jkh
Compute Machine 04	0.05	jkh
Compute Machine 05	0.05	jkh
Compute Machine 06	0.05	jkh
Compute Machine 07	0.07	jkh
Compute Machine 08	0.05	jkh
Compute Machine 09	0.05	jkh
Compute Machine 10	0.05	jkh
Compute Machine 11	0.05	jkh jswalling
Compute Machine 12	0.05	jkh
Compute Machine 13	0.05	jkh nap64
Compute Machine 14	0.33	jkh julietanderson
Compute Machine 15	0.14	divyanshbabel evanc42 jkh satyajeet
Large Memory Machine	2.22	aakashc anaya jkh mabtin murata nap64 rdehart Ruiqi rutvik rutwikj satyajeet xingye15 zhenghh
MPI Head Node (48 node cluster)	1.05	jkh mmeghasyam prajwalc vikaskrishnan wenjiex

Great! Let's get going!

• Remember to use your ECE computer account to login, just click here.