How to Install Guacamole on Ubuntu Server

Guacamole is an open-source web application that enables remote access to different servers and hosts via a web browser. In this tutorial, we will discuss how to install Guacamole on Ubuntu Server.

Prerequisites

Step 1: Install Java

Guacamole requires Java 8 or later, so we need to install it on our server. You can install Java by running the following command:

sudo apt update
sudo apt install default-jdk -y

After installing, you can verify the installation by running the following command:

java -version

Step 2: Install and Configure Tomcat

Guacamole requires Tomcat to run web applications. You can install Tomcat by running the following command:

sudo apt-get install tomcat8 -y

Once Tomcat is installed, you need to configure it using the following command:

sudo systemctl enable tomcat8
sudo systemctl start tomcat8

Step 3: Install Guacamole

You can download the latest version of Guacamole from the official website, or you can use the following command to download it:

wget https://downloads.apache.org/guacamole/1.3.0/source/guacamole-server-1.3.0.tar.gz

Once the download is complete, you need to extract the tarball using the following command:

tar -xzf guacamole-server-1.3.0.tar.gz

After extracting the tarball, you can navigate to the extracted directory and install Guacamole using the following commands:

cd guacamole-server-1.3.0
./configure --with-init-dir=/etc/init.d
make
sudo make install

Step 4: Configure Guacamole

You need to create a Guacamole configuration file in the /etc/guacamole/ directory by running the following command:

sudo nano /etc/guacamole/guacamole.properties

Then, you need to add the following lines to the file:

guacd-hostname: localhost
guacd-port: 4822

Press ctrl+o to save file and ctrl + x to exit.

Step 5: Configure Tomcat

You need to configure Tomcat to run Guacamole by creating a new file in the /etc/tomcat8/Catalina/localhost/ directory by running the following command:

sudo nano /etc/tomcat8/Catalina/localhost/guacamole.xml

Then, you need to add the following lines to the file:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<Context path="/guacamole" docBase="/usr/local/lib/guacamole.war">
    <Valve className="org.apache.catalina.valves.RemoteIpValve" />
</Context>

Save and exit the file.

Step 6: Start Guacamole

To start Guacamole, you need to restart Tomcat by running the following commands:

sudo systemctl restart tomcat8

Step 7: Access Guacamole Web Interface

Finally, you can access Guacamole by opening a web browser and navigating to http://[server-ip-address]:8080/guacamole.

Conclusion

In this tutorial, we have covered how to install Guacamole on an Ubuntu Server. You can now use Guacamole to access different servers and hosts via a web browser from any device.

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