New to VMs question

I just started playing with XCP-ng, threw some OSes on there. Is there a difference between access the VMs via the XCP Center console tab and remoting in directly to the OS when it comes to security or any other kind of best practices?

Thank you.

The XCP Center console would be the equivalent of the VM having a monitor directly attached to it.

Using XCP Center console will generally be bit slower for drawing the screen, you’ll likely see some mouse lag, etc. Using a remoting protocol say like RDP will yield better visual performance, allow for passing printers into the session, etc, than using the console.

Security wise, you can apply the same guiding principles as you would a physical desktop regarding remote protocols, vs if you would be physically sitting at the screen controlling it locally. You could almost equate locking down XCP Center as locking the door to your office.

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Accessing the VM through the console app is extremely useful in some cases – I only wish Xen Orchestra had such a feature. In most situations however I connect to the VM through ssh. I usually use keys for ssh login in leui of passwords and keys are needed anyway if you’re using an additional tool like ansible for example to automate some of the functions within the vm. SSH is for console login. I’ve never installed a GUI on any of my vms so I can’t speak to another prototcol (all my vms are either linux or bsd variants). If your using a Windows vm I believe you can use ssh, however perhaps a graphical desktop solution would be appropriate as well.

Thanks guys,

I went ahead and setup putty and RDP because I need to learn it anyways. It was well worth it because ssh server wasnt installed so learned quit a bit just figuring that out. It’s fun stuff.