Multiple simultaneous remote GUI logins to a Mac -- possible?

[chorpler]

Our lab network consists mainly of Windows 7 machines, but we do have a couple of Macs running OSX 10.6 as well. All of the Windows 7 machines have Remote Desktop services running, and the two Windows 2008 servers have Terminal Services running. We can log in to any of the Windows machines with multiple users simultaneously via Remote Desktop Connection or any other RDP client.

However, the Macs seem only to have two remote login options:

• SSH, which can accommodate multiple users simultaneously but is limited to a text console
• VNC, which gives access to the full Mac GUI, but can only take one user at a time (and if someone is on the Mac using it, it takes over their session)

Is there any way to allow multiple remote GUI logins simultaneously on Snow Leopard? With third-party software, perhaps?

[goldmund]

You probably want iRAPP terminal server: http://www.coderebel.com/products/irapp-terminal-server

ETA: It is also possible to do in a majorly hackish way using a combination of a 3rd party VNC server and user switching, with one VNC session per user running on different ports. I never really got it to work, though. iRAPP lets you use their own client which lets you run Mac applications on your windows desktop, similar to Coherence mode in Parallels. You can also connect to iRAPP via plain ol' Remote Desktop client as well.

[alterego]

The standard way to do this is as briefly described by teletype: Enable Fast User Switching and start a VNC server for each user. I recently configured such a setup and it worked just fine.

[goldmund]

Originally Posted by alterego

The standard way to do this is as briefly described by teletype: Enable Fast User Switching and start a VNC server for each user. I recently configured such a setup and it worked just fine.

Which VNC server did you use?

[alterego]

Good question - I tried several and only one worked. I'll let you know when I get home. FYI: OSX Lion has this ability built in - no external software required.

[chorpler]

Thanks teletype, I'll give iRAPP a look. And thanks to you and alterego for mentioning the multi-VNC-server method -- that sounds like how the Fedora Linux box I set up last week worked, starting a VNC server for each user who wanted remote GUI access. It's not ideal, but it works.

alterego, I'll be grateful to hear the name of the VNC server you used. Too bad Lion isn't out yet.

[goldmund]

Originally Posted by chorpler

Thanks teletype, I'll give iRAPP a look. And thanks to you and alterego for mentioning the multi-VNC-server method -- that sounds like how the Fedora Linux box I set up last week worked, starting a VNC server for each user who wanted remote GUI access. It's not ideal, but it works.

alterego, I'll be grateful to hear the name of the VNC server you used. Too bad Lion isn't out yet.

For Linux boxes (or FreeBSD), check out FreeNX: http://freenx.berlios.de/

It's fantastic. All sessions operate over an SSH tunnel. It's super fast, too. WAY higher performance than VNC. The client is Java based, so you can connect to it from most platforms. Each user gets a full login session with their choice of desktop environments, without having to run multiple VNC servers. SSH provides the authentication as well. And to top it off, if you don't want users to have to install the client, there's a java applet to launch it from a web browser as well. It can tunnel RDP and VNC sessions as well. I use it at work for secure remote access and basically just have a web page where users can click links for various servers to connect to. Good stuff!

ETA: It's developed by NoMachine, check out their site for more goodies related to it: http://www.nomachine.com/

[alterego]

FYI, In a home network environment VNC is faster than NX. NX's compression of the X11 protocol has high computational overhead.

[AHunter3]

Possible. Yes.

Originally Posted by chorpler

...the Macs seem only to have two remote login options:[list][*]SSH, which can accommodate multiple users simultaneously but is limited to a text console...

SSH is not limited to a text console. You can run X Window, which is a GUI environment (common on all Unix systems) and when you do you can export the screen to your (remote) screen and hence run GUI apps.

Mind you, they won't/can't be Aqua GUI apps. But they are GUI apps.

[Derleth]

Originally Posted by AHunter3

X Window

It's just called X, in fact. Look at the X Consortium website sometime.

[chorpler]

Originally Posted by AHunter3

Possible. Yes.



SSH is not limited to a text console. You can run X Window, which is a GUI environment (common on all Unix systems) and when you do you can export the screen to your (remote) screen and hence run GUI apps.

Mind you, they won't/can't be Aqua GUI apps. But they are GUI apps.

Good point. In my case, though, I want it to look as though I'm sitting in front of the Mac, not just running X applications over an SSH tunnel.

alterego, any word on which VNC server you used?