Merge pull request #234 from giuliadei/main

Adding RDP tunnelling over SSH doc

Author: giuliadei

docs/services/virtualmachines/rdp-tunnelling.md

@@ -0,0 +1,58 @@
+# RDP tunnelling over SSH
+
+RDP tunneling is a technique that relies on SSH to create a secure channel that forwards local traffic to a remote server's RDP port. The content of the local traffic in RDP tunneling includes:
+
+- User Input: Keyboard and mouse actions.
+- Display Data: Screen updates and graphical interface data.
+- Clipboard Contents: Text or files copied and pasted between the local and remote systems.
+- File Transfers: Transferred files if drive redirection is enabled.
+
+By setting up an SSH tunnel, a local port is forwarded to the remote server's RDP port (3389). The RDP client is then connected to `localhost:<local_port>`, ensuring that the RDP session is encrypted.
+
+## SSH Commands
+
+### Steps
+
+1. Jump host (-J): connect first to the eidf_gateway as an intermediary before reaching the target VM. Authentication is achieved using the identity file provided by the host (-i).
+
+2. Local Port Forwarding (-L): Forwards local port 12345 to localhost:3389 on the remote machine, allowing RDP access via localhost:12345.
+
+3. Configure a RDP client (for example 'Windows App') to connect to `localhost:<local_forwarded_port>` instead of directly accessing the remote machine's IP. Then connect on the remote server as 'username'.
+
+### Example
+
+Connect to eidf666 (IP address 10.24.2.224) as user u666
+
+```sh
+ssh -J u666@eidf-gateway.epcc.ed.ac.uk -i ~/.ssh/eidf666-vm -o ServerAliveInterval=900 -L 39001:localhost:3389 u666@10.24.2.224
+```
+
+Defaults like PubkeyAuthentication=yes, PasswordAuthentication=yes, ForwardAgent=yes, ForwardX11=yes, and ForwardX11Trusted=yes are omitted.
+
+Once the connection is established, on Windows App or similar use pc name: `localhost:39001`. When prompted, the username will be 'u666' with corresponding password.
+
+### SSH Configuration
+
+All of the above can also be achieved adding the following to the SSH `.config` file:
+
+```sh
+host eidf666_gateway
+    Hostname eidf-gateway.epcc.ed.ac.uk
+    User u666
+    IdentityFile ~/.ssh/eidf666-vm
+
+host eidf666_rdp
+    Hostname 10.24.2.224
+    User u666
+    PubKeyAuthentication yes
+    PasswordAuthentication yes
+    IdentityFile ~/.ssh/eidf666-vm
+    ProxyJump eidf666_gateway
+    ServerAliveInterval 900
+    ForwardAgent yes
+    ForwardX11 yes
+    ForwardX11Trusted yes
+    LocalForward 39001 localhost:3389
+```
+
+Can then use the command 'ssh eidf666_rdp' to create the connection.

mkdocs.yml

@@ -51,6 +51,7 @@ nav:
       - "SSH Access to VMs": access/ssh.md
       - "VM Flavours": services/virtualmachines/flavours.md
       - "Policies": services/virtualmachines/policies.md
+      - "RDP tunnelling over SSH": services/virtualmachines/rdp-tunnelling.md
     - "Ultra2":
       - "Overview": services/ultra2/access.md
       - "Connect": services/ultra2/connect.md