VDI Web Publishing - Windows

Publishing a Windows desktop running VNC over HTTPS using noVNC. The VNC UI can be customized by modifying the vnc.html and other files from the noVNC distribution.

Steps

Install VNC on a Windows VM.
Use noVNC to publish the VNC connection over HTTPS.
This setup uses traefik as an ingress controller.

Step 1: Installing VNC in Windows

TightVNC offers an open source VNC server for Windows, download and install the latest version.

TightVNC Config Options

Step 2: Creating a noVNC Docker Container

noVNC does not have an official docker container, so a local container is build using alpine base.

The .env file contains VNC server IP and port details.

The noVNC client

File: Dockerfile

# Filename: Dockerfile
# Build a local novnc docker container using alpine

FROM alpine:latest
WORKDIR /root
RUN apk add --no-cache novnc && \
     ln -s /usr/share/novnc/vnc.html /usr/share/novnc/index.html

EXPOSE 6080/tcp
CMD ["/usr/bin/novnc_server"]

File: docker-compose.yaml

# Filename: docker-compose.yaml
# Docker Compose to build and publish noVNC using Traefik
# Set the Windows VNC server IP in .env

version: "2.4"

name: vdi-example-com
services:
  vdi:
    container_name: vdi.example.com
    build: .
    restart: always

    mem_limit: 1024M

    entrypoint: novnc_server --file-only --vnc ${VNC_SERVER_IP}:${VNC_SERVER_PORT:-5900}

    labels:
      - traefik.enable=true
      - traefik.http.routers.vdi.rule=Host(`vdi.example.com`)
      - traefik.http.routers.vdi.tls=true
      - traefik.http.routers.vdi.tls.certresolver=lets-encrypt
      - traefik.http.routers.vdi.middlewares=basicAuth@file

File: .env

# Filename: .env
VNC_SERVER_IP='10.1.2.222'
VNC_SERVER_PORT='5900'