On Thu, Mar 7, 2024 at 11:04 AM Mansour Al Akeel
wrote:
> Hello all,
>
> We have a legacy Java application (thick client). Currently, users connect
> to MS terminal server, to access the application, where some driver's must
> be installed. The platform is windows. We are hoping to replace TS with an
> open source alternative to avoid licensing costs. I believe this should be
> a simple process.
>
>
I'll answer your other questions below; however, for a Java-based thick
client, if it will run on platforms other than Windows (that's kind of one
of the points of Java, right?), you might be able to get rid of Windows and
run on Linux + xrdp or something like that. If drivers have to be
installed, and there aren't any available for Linux, then, well, you might
be out-of-luck.
> My questions:
> - Can guacamole replace MS terminal server, or is it just an HTML5 adapter
> ?
>
No, Guacamole is not a replacement for the actual terminal server, it is a
Remote Desktop gateway/client that runs in a browser (with a couple of
back-end components).
> - If it is a replacement, can it be installed on windows ?
>
Not really, at least, not fully. You can definitely install the client-side
bits on Windows (Tomcat 9.x). However, at the moment, guacd only runs on
Linux. You could run it in WSL, though, if you absolutely must run Windows.
But, why not just run Linux ;-)?
>
> - Looking at this page
> https://guacamole.apache.org/doc/gug/guacamole-architecture.html I can
> see that a user connects to guacd which in truns connects to the RDP
> server. Does it open a session for each user ? In other words, do we need a
> license for each user or does it require multiple connections ?
>
Kind of - not quite. Depending on how you leverage it, there are several
components:
* Guacamole Client, which is the web application, manages access control,
etc. If you use this (rather than writing your own web application), the
user will log in to the Guacamole Client web page, which is hosted by a
Tomcat server (or other JavaEE-compatible application server), and then
they can open connections from that client interface.
* Part of the stock Guacamole Client is the HTTP(S)+WS(S) tunneling
functionality, which provides the link between the user's web browser and
guacd, allowing for data (images, keystrokes, mouse movement, sound, etc.)
to be transferred between the client and guacd.
* guacd takes care of the translation between the Guacamole protocol and
the remote server protocols (RDP, SSH, Telnet, Kubernetes, and VNC).
> Does it open a session for each user
Your question, here, is a bit vague. Does what open a session for each
user? What users are you talking about? What sessions?
> In other words, do we need a license for each user or does it require
multiple connections ?
Again, I'm not entirely sure what you're referring to, here, when you ask
about licensing. Guacamole is freely-available, licensed under the Apache
2.0 license. There's nothing you have to license or buy for that.
For Windows, all of your normal Microsoft EULA licensing applies. I won't
go into detailed examples, but using Guacamole is not going to let you have
the same number of users accessing the application on the Terminal Server
and somehow reduce your Terminal Server/RDS licensing numbers/costs.
Microsoft has very, very good legal folks writing their EULAs, and they've
already dealt with the use of gateways end between actual end users/devices
and terminal servers in the terms of those EULAs. If your only reason for
trying to use Guacamole is to reduce the number of terminal server licenses
you're purchasing, IMHO, you might as well quit, now.
>
> - For docker installation, all I need is the server ( guacamole/guacd ),
> but my guess is Linux image, and not for windows. Is this correct ?
>
>
No, you need both guacamole/guacamole (the client side) and
guacamole/guacd. And, yes, those are Linux-based images, not Windows.
-Nick
>
