SUN’s VirtualBox comes with a very nifty feature called virtual remote desktop protocol. This implementation allows you to connect to your virtual machine’s “screen” using the standard Windows RDP client (Remote Desktop Connection), or any other RDP compatible client. This means that you can easily operate your VirtualBox machines from remote, even accessing the boot-up screen and BIOS, without having to sit physically in front of the machine. This is really a very nice feature that I prefer over VMWare’s proprietary console application. Read on to find out how it works – it’s easy!

Setting up the VirtualBox to offer VRDP

The first thing you have to do is enable the VRDP support for your VirtualBox. Please note that my screenshots are in french, but you’ll manage to find your way looking at the pictures.

Open up your VBox’s preferences and open the VRDP screen:

As you can see, I have enabled the VRDP server and made it listen to the non standard port 3390. The ability to specifiy non standard ports allows you to run many VBoxes on the same host and still connect to each one, or several at a time, by specifying the correct port number.

That’s really all there is to it – confirm your changes by hitting OK.

Connecting to the VBox

Fire up your modified VBox. Then, launch the RDP client that comes with your OS, or any other one for the matter, and connect to the IP address of your host computer (the machine running VirtualBox, NOT the VirtualBox itself!) and don’t forget to specify the port number you defined :

Notice the format of the connection string: IP_ADDRESS:PORT_NUMBER. In my case, my host is using the IP 192.168.178.100 (local network), and my port, as defined above, is 3390. Click connect and voilà !

As you can see, the RDP client shows me the console of the virtual machine, to which I am currently installing a fresh Ubuntu. How nice!

• Also see : Comparison of several RDP clients for Windows

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