Hi, I have an IBM x3650, 48Gb ram, ATI ES1000 16Mb on board graphics adapter.
I originally had this set up with Windows Server 2012 R2 eval.
I am trying to use this server to host both virtual machines and GNS3 for self training purposes.
With Win Server 2012 eval and Hyper-V installed along with GNS3, I was able to remote desktop into this server with very good performance. I was able to add, remove applications, update and so on without any problems at all.
I read online somewhere that GNS3 performs extremely well under Linux.
I made the foolhardy mistake of blowing up my Server 2012 installation in order to replace it with a flavor of Linux with the expectation of increased performance and stability. I have tried to install Ubuntu server with a minimal GUI as in Xubuntu and Lubuntu. Although I have managed to get everything installed and set up XRDP I find that I can no longer manipulate the server as I could with Server 2012.
If I try to install software remotely with Remote Desktop it won't allow me to do it. I get some sort of not having the permission to do so error. If I open an application at the server terminal, I see the app open but not on the remote desktop. In other words I have 2 different views of what is meant to be the same machine. Oddly enough, if I use the application NoMachine or Teamviewer that doesn't happen. The problem with using those apps is that I cannot adjust the resolution as I can with Remote Desktop for Windows.
The performance is also incredibly sluggish using the Linux distros.
So my questions are why can't I sudo correctly from Remote Desktop and install and remove apps. And why is the performance so slow using Linux as opposed to Windows. I really would prefer to use Linux either Xubuntu or Lubuntu as an inter face to Ubuntu server 14.04.

Thank you for any help with this matter.

I did this same project in class this semester, It took some work, But you have to edit the host-allow file, You have to manually add each ip address so it will allow each host, Also, you have to edit the conf file so samba will help control your connections.

I can give better instructions when I get back to lab on Tuesday, but I have included some links that should give you a better idea of how Lnux has to be configured.

http://www.liberiangeek.net/2012/03/...-with-windows/

http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.p...t=file+sharing

http://askubuntu.com/questions/74789...share-with-nau

http://askubuntu.com/questions/28754...tory-while-try

as for /etc/host/allow you should be able to wild card it or use the range of IPs in your lab.

you might even be better off using /etc/host/deny and setting the wildcard range of IPs that are outside of your lab unless the lab is large (more then 20 workstations without concentric IP numbers.)

Sorry, I answered the wrong thread. Disregard the above post unless you find the info in it useful for something else. I'm sorry about posting that post above.

That's not a problem.
I was getting a little confused though!!

are you unable to factory reset the machine?
in my experience these are more minimal than the default desktop environment, but hardly minimal in their usage... i'd suggest dropping the desktop environment completely and only using a window manager

Openbox is my wm of choice
that is because you can have multiple X servers running on a single machine... remotely you may be on another instance of X and locally you would see the other,
instead of thinking of what you are being presented as what the computer is doing think of it as a drawing of lines of pixels
if you are watching a video in a video player, and browsing the internet... when you make the browser full screen the computer is still playing the video but the display is only drawing what is on the uppermost layer of the viewer
that is because NoMachine, and i assume Teamviewer use ssh... so you are logging into the server using your user which probably has appropriate permissions
my guess is Remote Desktop works differently than NX, probably using some other protocol other than ssh,
you should think about doing this sort of work through the command line over ssh manually
could be a number of reasons: how you have your hardware and software configured, free software is worked on on a voluntary basis, and the software you are using is seriously out of date... xdrb was last updated in 2009...

look into Remmina, last updated late 2013, and runs on top of freeRDP which was last updated 6 days ago
https://github.com/FreeRDP/Remmina



hope it helps

Thanks cin_.

Let me rephrase exactly what I am trying to do.
I would like to install Ubuntu server along with a minimalist graphical user interface so that I can install both GNS3 and VirtualBox.
I don't need any of the usual desktop apps at all.
I would then like to be able to access the server remotely (even though it's in the same room) from a Windows 7/2008 environment on another machine as this is what I am used to.
I want the power and stability of Linux to run my server (IBM x3650,48Gb ram, 2xQC).
The reason that I chose Lubuntu and Xubuntu I had information on how to install either of those distros without all the non required software.
I couldn't find any information how to install Ubuntu desktop without all the apps.
The IBM carries a 16Mb onboard ATI ES100 graphics card I believe this is only good for 1024x768.
However, I am using 2 x 27" monitors running at 1920x1080 on the machine that I want to access the server from.
When I use Windows Remote Desktop, this allows me to get full screen at 1920x1080.
When I use NoMachine or TeamViewer I can only get 1024x768.
So I am assuming that if I want to get a higher resolution using those solutions I would need to replace the graphics card on the IBM server??
If that is all it takes, then I am quite happy to do that, but as you can see I am a Linux newbie and I have no idea.
So if I use OpenBox, this will allow me to install VirtualBox and GNS3?
I am under the understanding that I will need some sort of window manager.

To answer your questions, getting my server back to Server 2012 is no problem at all; I probably shouldn't have used the term 'blowing up' sorry.
I have heard so much about Linux that after reading the article that said GNS3 runs best under Linux I am convinced and would really like to try.

I hope that all made some sort of sense?

Thanks again.

What article are you referring?

I don't know the exact url but it did state that GNS3 runs best under Linux.
Are you suggesting otherwise?
I am new to Linux and I am just tinkering to see what the performance difference might be between Linux and Windows.
I was quite satisfied with the performance under Server 2012 R2 eval just curious.
Really finding Linux to be a challenge at the moment but I'm going to keep going until I get this up and running.

I'm not currently suggesting anything. I wanted to read the article to get a better understanding of where you're coming from. In general the advice that has already been given in this thread is mostly sound (about sticking to SSH and just running a headless system) most of the time when running server side applications.

However, after reading about GNS3 from their website it appears to depend heavily on GUI oriented apps. If you have to use a GUI remotely and you're in a relatively isolated LAN then I'd recommend using VNC in place of remote desktop. You'll get the effects of remote desktop but it won't actually be RDP (because RDP is mostly a Windows protocol).

Why do you need an RDP-style interface to begin with? I've been using and administering Linux for many years, and have never had any need for a VNC/RDP style interface to any Linux machine. You don't need a remote desktop interface in order to open GUI applications on the server, in fact all it's going to do is slow things down.

I believe it is because the application he wishes to use, GNS3, only has a graphical interface. I've been looking through the documentation and haven't found how to run the application headlessly so not sure if that can easily be done. There are some references to people wanting to run GNS3 headlessly but most configurations of GNS3 apparently don't do that.

*EDIT
Some people are using dynagen/dynamips to do GNS3 headlessly. Perhaps that is the way to go.

Generally I agree that remote servers should mostly be headless.

sag47,
I think you understand where I am trying to go with this.
I would like to build a base Ubuntu server 0-apps installed.
I don't need web browsers, office utilities etc.
The sole 3 applications I intend to install are GNS3, VirtualBox and SecureCRT nothing else.
I simply would like to access this machine remotely and use those 3 applications.
I'm curious as to how these would run on a headless server as suicidaleggroll may be suggesting?

SecureCRT is an SSH/terminal emulator... you don't need that because you can access your server remotely over SSH instead.

Rather than use GNS3 there are suggestions to use dynagen/dynamips (see my previous links).

Rather than using virtualbox use a hypervisor with headless virtualization such as KVM.

Your system would not need a GUI (runlevel 3) and you can access everything from the terminal only.

SecureCRT is to replace having to use Putty that comes with GNS3.
I was intending on using VirtualBox as it has some sort of integration with GNS3.
At this current stage and with my zero Linux knowledge, I think that KVM would be somewhat over my head.