About Scyld Cloud Workstation¶
Scyld Cloud Workstation 10.0.0, commit 1a1dd6246ab9e6ac053905c7982a268862b5b0a0.
Introduction¶
Scyld Cloud Workstation is a web server that provides secure, easy remote access to teams working on Windows and Linux workstations through standard web browsers, eliminating the need for client-side installations and changes to firewall policies.
This document describes system requirements, installation, configuration, and usage.
Server Requirements¶
This section describes the hardware and software requirements for the workstation hosting the Scyld Cloud Workstation server.
Server OS¶
Scyld Cloud Workstation is supported and tested on the following 64-bit operating systems:
- Windows 7, 8, 10
- CentOS 6, 7
Beta support is available for:
- Ubuntu 16, 18
Attention
There is a known graphics issue with older GNOME 3 Shell based systems (GNOME 3 and GDM) on machines that don’t have an attached monitor. We recommend upgrading to GNOME 3.28+ or using the MATE desktop environment and LightDM as a workaround.
If you require other versions of Windows, RedHat, and Debian based flavors of Linux, please contact Penguin Computing for additional support.
Server Hardware¶
Scyld Cloud Workstation is supported on the following server hardware configurations:
Server-Side | Recommended | Minimum |
---|---|---|
CPU | Intel Core i5, Dual-Core | Intel Core i5, Dual-Core |
Memory | 2 GB | 2 GB |
GPU | Any | Any |
Server NVIDIA NVFBC Support (Optional)¶
Scyld Cloud Workstation can autodetect and utilize the NVFBC feature available on servers with GRID, Tesla, and Quadro 2000+ NVIDIA GPUs.
For older GRID GPUs, we recommend NVIDIA driver version 369.49 on Windows and 361.42 in Linux.
For Tesla and Quadro 2000+ GPUs, we recommend NVIDIA driver version 391.3 or later for Windows and 410.66 or later for Linux.
Server Screen Resolutions¶
The performance of the remote access is partly dependent on the server’s screen resolution and the client’s ability to process that resolution quickly.
Scyld Cloud Workstation allows system administrators to pick a maximum screen resolution width and height in the config file (by default 1920x1080). If the user attempts to change the screen resolution above this setting, then the video scales down automatically. This can alleviate situations where users set the screen resolution so high that their client machine becomes unusuable.
For most users, we recommend our default values. If you’d like to test higher screen resolutions, we recommend doing so with gradual increases.
Warning
Changing screen resolutions has two known issues:
- Multiple rapid resolution changes may lead to service instability. Changing the screen resolution more than 5 times over a few seconds may cause the service to restart or quit.
For more information about changing screen resolutions, see Change Screen Resolution.
Server Audio¶
Scyld Cloud Workstation will stream audio from a remote server if it has a functional audio device and proper drivers. In Linux, pulseaudio is required and is already installed by default in CentOS 7+ and Ubuntu 16+. CentOS 6 remote audio is not supported.
Windows VM users may need to install an additional driver. Screen Capture Recorder has been tested in Windows 10 and can be downloaded from the URL below:
OpenSSL¶
OpenSSL is an open source implementation of the SSL and TLS protocols and must be installed on the server host. Most Linux distributions have this installed by default, but in Windows this is installed by the Scyld Cloud Workstation server-side installer.
SSL Certificate¶
An SSL certificate signed by a trusted certificate authority is used to provide encryption and authentication for a client’s HTTPS connection to the Scyld Cloud Workstation web server. By default, Scyld Cloud Workstation comes with a self-signed SSL certificate and private key that should not be used in secure production environments.
For more information on generating SSL certificates, see Setup.
Client Requirements¶
You can connect to the server using either an HTML5 browser or our native client (Scyld Cloud Workstation Client).
Client Hardware and Network¶
We recommend using clients with the following minimum specs.
Client-Side | Recommended |
---|---|
CPU | Intel Core i5, Dual-Core |
Memory | 2 GB |
Network Bandwidth | 5.5 Mbps |
Network Latency | < 80 ms |
Note
Acceptable network latency is application dependent. For certain applications, users may find 150 ms to be acceptable. Performance may degrade if the client is running background applications that consume significant amounts of CPU time, memory, or network bandwidth.
Web Browser¶
The following web browsers are supported and listed in order of performance:
- Chrome 30+
- FireFox 27-37, 39+
- Internet Explorer 11+, Edge 44.17763.1.0
- Safari 7+
Note
Chrome 30+ provides the best performance and is recommended.
Note
FireFox 52.4.0 in CentOS 7 is known to have screen flickering issues. Please update to 60.8 and above.
These browsers by default enable TLS 1.2, WebGL and WebSocket features that are necessary for security and optimal Scyld Cloud Workstation performance. While WebSocket support is a hard requirement, Scyld Cloud Workstation is capable of running without WebGL support at reduced performance levels.
The following links can be used to determine if your browser supports necessary features for an optimal Scyld Cloud Workstation experience:
Browser Feature | Test for Browser Support |
---|---|
Security Protocol TLS 1.2 | https://www.ssllabs.com/ssltest/viewMyClient.html |
WebGL | https://get.webgl.org/ |
WebSockets | http://websocketstest.com/ |
Note
TLS 1.2 is the current standard used to secure HTTPS connections as of the writing of this document.
Scyld Cloud Workstation Client¶
Scyld Cloud Workstation Client is a native client that requires a separate application installation on local machines. It is nearly identical to the web browser, but it includes some additional benefits:
- faster frame rates at higher screen resolutions
- lossless and visually lossless video support
- audio support
- support for keyboard shortcuts reserved by web browsers (for
example:
Ctrl + T
,Ctrl + N
,Ctrl + W
)
Scyld Cloud Workstation Client is supported and tested on the following 64-bit operating systems:
- Windows 7, 8, 10
- CentOS 7
Beta support is available for:
- Ubuntu 16, 18
Note
OpenGL 2.1 support is required.