Introduction to Remote Device Access

You can access a device remotely from Device Cloud through applications on the LaunchPad.

Device Cloud supports the following options to access a device through a remote login session:

  • The Device Console link on the LaunchPad opens a Telnet session in a new browser tab.

    Note:

    The Device Console link on the Launchpad enables you to connect remotely to a terminal on a device running the C agent, for example, VxWorks IoT.

  • The Remote Access link on the LaunchPad enables you to create a secure tunnel to connect to a device through Telnet, SSH, VNC (virtual network computing), and RDP (remote desktop protocol) using third-party client applications.

    Note:

    By default, you are entitled with access to Telnet and SSH services. Additional services like VNC, and RDP along with Telnet and SSH are offered at an extra cost. For more information, contact your customer support representative.

Host Requirements for Device Console

Remote access to devices through the Device Console is supported on any operating system. For optimal results, use the Chrome and Firefox web browsers.

Note:
If you are using Internet Explorer 11 or later, and you are prompted to reinstall the plugin application, do the following:

  1. On your Internet Explorer browser, select Internet options. The Internet Options window opens.

  2. Click Settings. The Website Data Settings window opens.

  3. Select the Everytime I visit the webpage check box.

  4. Click Ok.

  5. Reinstall the plugin. For more information, see Creating a Secure Tunnel for an SSH Connection.

  6. Click Connect on the Download Plugin window in Launchpad to connect to the device.

Host Requirements for Remote Access

Remote access to devices through secure tunnel access is supported only through client applications running on:

  • a 32-bit or 64-bit version of Windows that is automatically detected by LaunchPad, that enables the user download the plugin application dra-release-win-OSVersion.msi, based on the configuration in the Windows operating system, for example, dra-2.0.0-win-64.msi. For any other operating system that is not supported, an error is displayed.

  • Mac OS X 10.10 or later, the plugin application is dra-release-osx-OSVersion.dmg, for example, dra-2.0.0-osx-64.dmg.

  • a 64-bit version of Linux (Debian or RPM (Red Hat Package Manager)). The plugin application is dra-release-linux-OSVersion.deb or dra-release-linux-OSVersion.rpm

LaunchPad automatically detects the operating system and enables the user download the plugin application.

To create a remote session through a secure tunnel, you need to run a third-party client that supports the protocol you want to use to connect to the device. For example, you can run Putty for SSH and Telnet. You can run WinSCP for file transfer over SSH. For VNC, you can run a VNC client such as TightVNC. VNC clients must conform to version 3.8 of the remote framebuffer protocol (RFB). For RDP, you can run an RDP client.

You need the Device Remote Access service running on your system. You download the plugin application that installs the service the first time you open a secure tunnel through the Remote Access link. For more information on how to install a plugin, see Installing the Plugin on Windows.

Web Proxy Settings for Browsers

If you have web proxy settings enabled in any of your browsers, you will need to enter the following exception, for example, on a Firefox browser in the field "No Proxy for" type, localhost, 127.0.0.1, wsproxy.devicecloud.ca
Web Proxy Settings New

Target Requirements

To use any remote access option, you need the following on the device:

  • the server application for the protocol you want to use running on the device (Telnet server, SSH server, VNC server that conforms to RFB 3.8, RDP server software)

  • the required port open on the device and specified in the server configuration file or on the command line when you start the server

  • the Python device manager running on the device and configured to support remote access

    Note:

    To connect to a device through a secure tunnel you need release 18.28.0382, and release 18.06.19 or later of the Python agent. For details about migrating from an earlier release, see Device Cloud Release Notes, April 6, 2018.

    Note:

    For Yocto-based Linux distributions with the meta-device-cloud layer built into your image, the device manager starts automatically when you boot the device.

    For other operating systems, you must either start the device manager manually or set up the device manager to run as a service.

    If you start the device manager as a service, for example using systemd, you must configure the service start order to start the device manager service after the server service. For example, if you use SSH on Linux, you need to start the sshd service before the device manager service.

Device Cloud Platform Requirements

The device manager thing definition in Device Cloud must include the remote_access_support attribute or must have Auto def attributes selected. For information about updating an existing thing definition to include the attribute, see Device Cloud Release Notes, April 6, 2018.

Mutli-Channel Support for Web Servers

Remote access service supports multi-channel architecture using multiple local TCP socket connections to the device with one websocket. For example, you can connect multiple SSH sessions to the device using one websocket. It also supports reconnection when the connection drops from Device Cloud to the device using multiple local TCP sockets. For more information, see Creating a Secure Tunnel for an SSH Connection.