The ability to VNC to a guest running on AWS is an important feature that we have had from the early days of launching the Ravello SaaS. It furthers our objective of making AWS look & feel like your internal data center - ie same VMs, same networking using nested virtualization. Since then, we have made several enhancements to the way VNC works with Ravello to provide a better user experience.
VNC enables you to access your VM even without a network connection. Its like plugging a keyboard, mouse and monitor into your server - and is useful in several scenarios:
- It allows you to isolate the server (no network connection) and troubleshoot issues. For example, if your firewall/router is misconfigured and there is no network into or out of the application environment, then you can use the console to troubleshoot and debug network issues.
- You can also use VNC to install software from CDs and boot from ISOs.
- Some organizations block outgoing RDP from their networks, so in that case users can use VNC to connect to their VMs.
Changes to our architecture
The diagram above indicates Ravello’s new VNC infrastructure for AWS EC2, Google Compute or any of the other clouds we support. We operate a number of VNC proxies as a part of our service. The html5 browser (you do not need a client) connects to the proxy over web sockets/http. The proxy routes the connection to the appropriate HVX which has an in-built VNC server. This allows you to connect to the guest VM running on top of HVX.
Multi-region support
With our new enhancements, we now operate multiple VNC proxies distributed geographically. Earlier, we had one proxy in AWS Virginia, so if you connected via VNC to a VM running in Oregon, you would go through Virginia which due to the added latency would provide a sub-optimal user experience. Now with our multi-region VNC support, you would be routed via the closest Ravello VNC proxy (in this case, Oregon).
Improved keyboard and VM data for easier operations
For users that use VNC frequently, and often have multiple Windows open to debug and configure networking in a complex environment, we have added additional information about the VM (VM name, application name, internal IP address etc.) in the VNC window.
The console/ VNC infrastructure also includes custom/ international language keyboard support.
As always, you can get started with Ravello's 2 week free trial to use this functionality. If you have any questions, or need additional information, please reach out to our support or product management mailing list.
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