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wiki:advanced:x2gobroker:start

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X2Go Session Broker for Newbies

Provided by Oleksandr Shneyder, edited by Mike Gabriel

What is an X2Go Session Broker

Most of you have already used X2Go Client in standalone mode. X2Go Client in standalone mode allows to be configured by the user himself. Normally, the user creates a set of session profiles that allows the user to work remotely on one or more X2Go Servers. See the documentation that explains the usage of X2Go Client.

When X2Go Client is run in broker mode, then it does not allow the local definition of session profiles. The list of session profiles gets provided by the X2Go Session Broker. A session broker is either a HTTP(s) server or an SSH server.

In large-scale deployments an X2Go Session Broker can be used to centrally provide X2Go session profiles to X2Go Client. The list of provided X2Go session profiles can be user or client-address specific.

An X2Go Session Broker is the piece of software (X2Go component) that you need to deploy X2Go where load-balancing setup scenarios are requested.

The implementation of X2Go Session Brokers can be manifold as long as a well-defined communication protocol (X2Go Client ↔ X2Go Session Broker) is used.

One possible impementation is provided in our package archives:

$ sudo apt-get install x2gobroker-daemon

How do I use an X2Go Session Broker with X2Go Client

If you have access to an X2Go Session Broker, you can launch X2Go Client in broker mode. There are several command line options to configure X2Go Client's broker mode

  • --broker-name=<name>: Name of broker to display in X2Go client. This parameter is optional.
  • --broker-url=<protocol>://[username@]<host>[:port]/path: URL of session broker. Protocol is either of “http”, “https” or “ssh”. You can specify a username in URL. In this case it will be pasted into authorization dialog of X2Go Client. URL examples are:
    • --broker-url=https://x2gobroker.org/cgi-bin/x2gobroker.cgi
    • --broker-url=ssh://user@x2gobroker.org:22/usr/lib/x2go/x2gobroker.pl
  • --broker-ssh-key=<path to key>: Path to SSH key to use for authorization against SSH broker. This parameter is only valid with SSH brokers.
  • --broker-autologin: Use default SSH key or SSH agent for authorization against session broker. This parameter is only valid with SSH brokers.
  • --broker-noauth: Do not ask for user credentials during broker authorization. This can be useful if you are using an HTTP(S) broker without authentication.
    If you run an HTTP(S) server without authentication, but with user-specific profiles, then put the username into the broker URL (see above). The username then will be taken from the broker URL and be sent to the session broker. This option is only valid with HTTP(S) brokers.
wiki/advanced/x2gobroker/start.1364465480.txt.gz · Last modified: 2013/03/28 10:11 by sunweaver