kriston's Journal: Using Amazon WorkSpaces from Linux using rdesktop

The Amazon WorkSpaces product is an interesting and affordable desktop-as-a-service from Amazon. For a flat, monthly rate, you get the equivalent performance of an m3.medium EC2 instance for far less cost but also with somewhat less configuration flexibility. The compelling feature of Amazon WorkSpaces is supposed to be close integration with your own Active Directory with Group Policies. For me, the more compelling feature is the high-performance, proprietary Teradici PCoIP protocol used for remote access instead of the traditional Microsoft Remote Desktop Connection protocol. The PCoIP protocol is much more efficient and faster than RDP but, unfortunately, the Amazon WorkSpaces client is not available for Linux or ChromeOS. With some work you can get access to your Amazon WorkSpace using the conventional Microsoft Remote Desktop Connection or even VNC.

Here is how you can use regular "rdesktop" on Linux and Macintosh, or Microsoft Remote Desktop Connection on Windows to connect to Amazon WorkSpaces. It won't be as fast or as nice as the Amazon WorkSpaces client but it works as acceptably as any RDP connection.

First, open your Amazon WorkSpace and ensure that Windows Firewall has opened TCP port 3389.

Then open a cmd prompt and type ipconfig. Essentially, you are finding out what private IP your WorkSpace is using. Write it down.

In the EC2 Console, poke around to find the public interface associated with that private IP address you wrote down and write down its public IP address.

Again, in your EC2 Console, find the Security Group associated with the public interface you found in the previous step.

Edit the Security Group associated with the public interface. Create a rule that allows TCP port 3389.

Now you can log in using "rdesktop" on Linux or Remote Desktop Connection on Windows. Just use the IP address for your WorkSpace that you found in your EC2 console. If you want to be more elegant, register your WorkSpace's public IP in DNS using Amazon Route 53 or dyndns.org.

You're going to quickly find that Remote Desktop Connection isn't as fast or nearly as responsive as the official Amazon WorkSpaces client. This is because Amazon WorkSpaces uses Teradici PCoIP, a proprietary product specifically designed for high-performance remote desktops. This protocol is much more efficient and faster than Microsoft Remote Desktop "RDP" protocol, but with these steps you can still enjoy access to your Amazon WorkSpaces without being limited to using machines that can run the proprietary WorkSpaces client.