Connecting to an instance

There are two different protocols that can be used to accessing a machine instances graphical interface, SPICE and VNC.

SPICE

SPICE is the preferred connection method as it provides some key advantages over VNC such as improved performance, clipboard support and USB pass-through.

Linux

We recommenced using Remmina to connect to virtual machine instances from a Linux machine, this is installed by default on all University Ubuntu machines and can be opened from the applications menu. (Remote Viewer is also available).

• Once open you can create a new connection by clicking the icon in the top left:

Remmina connections menu

• This will bring up the “add new connection” window, where you can give your connection a descriptive name and optionally add it to a group. You will need to select the SPICE protocol from the drop-down list.

• For the server address you will need to copy the KVM host address and SPICE port your VM is running on, you can do this by choosing your VM in the OpenNebula web interface:

• The host address is displayed under the Info tab

The instance “Info” screen

• You will also need the SPICE port which can be found under the Conf tab:

The instance “Conf” screen

• These are then combined to form nebulakvm08:6126 for the server field in the new connection preferences.

The “add new connection” window

• We also recommended that you enable the “Resize guest to match window size” option under the Advanced tab.

• You can now choose Save and Connect, to create the profile and connect to the specified VM ?

Windows

You will need to install virt-viewer (LINK HERE) for Windows and USBDk (LINK HERE) if you wish to redirect USB devices to your virtual machine. Virt-viewer has a much simpler interface than Remmina and only requires the KVM host and SPICE port which can be obtained with the above method.