Name

vncserver-virtuald - VNC® Server in Virtual Mode daemon

Synopsis

vncserver-virtuald [OPTION...] [COMMAND]

Description

vncserver-virtuald is a daemon that starts VNC Server in Virtual Mode for each VNC Viewer that connects, to create virtual desktops on demand. The daemon can be started manually, but is designed to be started automatically at system boot time; see Starting the daemon. Note that a suitable offline license is required; see vnclicense.

By default, the daemon listens for connections on port 5999; specify the DaemonPort parameter to choose a different port. Also by default, a VNC Viewer can connect by supplying the credentials of any user able to log on to the computer (the daemon mandates system authentication); specify the Permissions parameter to restrict access to particular users or groups.

For each successfully-authenticating VNC Viewer, the daemon runs vncserver-virtual; see vncserver-virtual. The daemon then transfers the connection to the newly-created virtual desktop and consumes one computer 'desktop' from your subscription, as that user. The daemon itself does not consume a desktop.

By default, when a VNC Viewer disconnects, their virtual desktop is destroyed and your subscription is incremented by one desktop. If a VNC Viewer reconnects using the same credentials, a new virtual desktop is created; a session does not persist. To change this and persist sessions, apply the ConnectToExisting parameter.

Commands

Applying a command to vncserver-virtuald performs an auxiliary operation instead of starting the daemon.

To see a list of valid commands, run vncserver-virtuald -help.

Options

Options are parameters, used to configure the daemon, and also the following:

-fg

Runs in the foreground (not as a daemon), which may be useful for troubleshooting.

To see a list of valid parameters, run vncserver-virtuald -help. To specify a parameter as a command line option, apply it to the command executing the binary in the appropriate init script; see Starting the daemon.

VNC configuration files

Parameters can be specified as command line OPTIONS, but preferably in VNC configuration files. VNC configuration files are available for:

• All programs, or just the daemon
• All users of the computer, or just the root user
• Policy, in order to lock down the daemon

When the daemon starts, parameters are applied in the following order:

1. System-wide VNC configuration files
2. Per-user VNC configuration files
3. Command line OPTIONS
4. Policy VNC configuration files

This means that a particular parameter specified at the command line overrides the same parameter specified in a per-user or in a system-wide VNC configuration file, but is itself overridden by the same parameter specified in a policy VNC configuration file. Policy cannot be changed by users.

Note there is a disadvantage to specifying parameters at the command line: parameters cannot be reloaded while the daemon is running. VNC configuration files can be reloaded, however, which means that the daemon can be reconfigured without downtime.

For a list of the VNC configuration files available for the daemon, and for detailed explanations of individual parameters, start with Configuring VNC Connect Using Parameters.

Note that an equivalent set of VNC configuration files is available for each instance of vncserver-virtual started by the daemon. To configure activities related to a particular session, edit VNC configuration files for Xvnc owned by the appropriate user; see vncserver-virtual.

Starting the daemon

A suitable init script should have been installed with VNC Server; see vncinitconfig. To start the daemon manually:

• For a Linux distribution using systemd, run systemctl start vncserver-virtuald.service
• For a Linux distribution using init.d, run /etc/init.d/vncserver-virtuald start
• For a Debian-compatible Linux distribution using init.d, (alternatively) run service vncserver-virtuald start

To start the daemon automatically at system boot time, use the appropriate configuration tool for your system:

• For a Linux distribution using systemd, run systemctl enable vncserver-virtuald.service
• For a Debian-compatible Linux distribution using init.d, run update-rc.d vncserver-virtuald defaults
• For a Red Hat-compatible Linux distribution using init.d, run chkconfig --add vncserver-virtuald

Logging

By default, vncserver-virtuald logs basic activity to the syslog DAEMON facility.

To change the log quality, quantity, or destination, specify the Log, LogDir, and LogFile parameters.

See also

vncserver-virtual, vnclicense, vncinitconfig, vncpasswd, vncviewer