Remote Access to Laboratory Equipment

Overview

Research computing maintains several remote access gateways to facilitate access physical desktop computers remotely. Typically these are lab instrument computers or other similar shared machines.

Details

Connect to the Gateway Server

The remote access gateway can be accessed at https://rdp-gw1.server.rpi.edu.  This system requires your RCSID and password, along with 2 factor validation via Duo.   

Once logged in, you will see the Laboratory Remote Access screen.

[Laboratory Remote Access screen after logging in with the four most recent connections, highlighting School of Engineering]

1. Click the "+" plus to the left of the folder to expand the system connections you want to access and then click once on a  connection.

2. Enter your appropriate credentials for the system on the next screen.

[Login prompt asking for username and password for the computer you selected]

3. When you are done, follow the lab managers instruction to end your session. 

Sharing your session

If your account has permission to do so, you can share your session via the following means:

1.) Press Ctrl + Alt + Shift to bring up the left navigation bar.

[Left navigation area screen after pressing Ctrl + Alt + Shift]

2.) Click Share from the top center of the left navigation bar.
[The screen after selecting share from the menu]

3.) Based on your permissions, you may see Read Only and/or Full Access.  Select the level of access you wish to share.  Read only lets someone see what you are doing; Full Access lets them control the session. A link will then be generated.

[The menu showing the unique, 1 time sharing URL after completing the steps]

4.) You can then send this link to whomever you would like to share your session with.  This link is valid until you disconnect from the session, at which point the link will expire and terminate all people watching on the link.

Notes

The connection to the remote computer uses the Remote Desktop Protocol (RDP).  All the standard limitations of RDP apply.  Those typically include

1. One user (local or remote) at a time.
2. Connecting to a machine remotely will switch to your existing desktop session if you are logged in locally.
3. Remote users with administrator permissions on the local system can remotely lock, or logoff a local user.  Special care needs to be taken to not disrupt local users.

Requesting Access

To request access for a person to an existing computer or have a new computer added to the available options please open a support ticket in ITSSC.

References

Apache Guacamole User Manual:  http://guacamole.apache.org/doc/gug/using-guacamole.html

Last Reviewed:   12-Oct-2021