Remote Desktop (VNC) with SSH Tunnel

Starting a VNC session with an SSH tunnel

On Mac, you will need the TurboVNC Viewer client (https://sourceforge.net/projects/turbovnc/)

On Windows, you will need the TurboVNC Viewer client (https://sourceforge.net/projects/turbovnc/) and PuTTY (https://www.chiark.greenend.org.uk/~sgtatham/putty/latest.html)

Detailed Instructions:

Starting the VNC server

Connect to SSRDE using SSH and then start your VNC server with a specific session ID, for example using ID# 15:

vncserver :15

The resolution of the VNC desktop could also be specified in the 'vncserver' command. For example:

vncserver -geometry 1600x1200 :15

On the first time that you run the vncserver command, you will be prompted to enter a VNC password to secure your VNC session. This password can be set to any strong password as desired.

The output of the vncserver command is important: this is where to point your client to access your desktop in format ssrde.ucsd.edu:displayNumber

Desktop 'TurboVNC: ssrde.ucsd.edu:15 (sscf-silas)' started on display ssrde.ucsd.edu:15

Creating an SSH tunnel

The VNC <port> is 5900 + the virtual display number. In my example, 5900 + 15 = 5915.

On Mac, use Terminal to create the SSH tunnel by following this format:

ssh -L <port>:localhost:<port> <username>@<server name>.ucsd.edu

Using the above example, the command would be:

ssh -L 5915:localhost:5915 sscf-silas@ssrde.ucsd.edu

On Windows, open PuTTY. For hostname, enter: ssrde.ucsd.edu

Navigate to Connection->SSH->Tunnels

Source port: <port>

Destination: localhost:<port>

Using the above example, the source port would be 5915 and the destination would be localhost:5915

Connecting to VNC desktop session

Open the TurboVNC Viewer client, and connect to localhost:<displayNumber>. The TurboVNC viewer client will prompt you for your VNC password.

To end your VNC session, you can kill the desktop by using this command with the session ID:

vncserver -kill :15

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